<p>High speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) used in, e.g., read channel and ultra wideband (UWB) applications are often based on a flash topology. The read channel applications is the intended application of this work, where a part of the work covers the design of two different types of 6-bit flash ADCs. Another field of application is UWB receivers.</p><p>To optimize the performance of the whole system and derive the specifications for the sub-blocks of the system it is often desired to use a topdown design methodology. To facilitate the top-down design methodology the ADCs are modeled on behavioral level. The models are simulated in MATLAB®. The results are used to verify the functionality of the proposed circuit topologies and serve as a base to the circuit design phase.</p><p>The first flash ADC has a conventional topology. It has a resistor net connected to a number of latched comparators, but its thermometer-tobinary encoder is based on 2-to-1 multiplexers buffered with inverters. This gives a compact encoder with a regular structure and short critical path. The main disadvantage is the code dependent timing difference between the encoder outputs introduced by this topology. The ADC was simulated on schematic level in Cadence® using the foundry provided transistor models. The design obtained a maximum sampling frequency of 1 GHz, an effective resolution bandwidth of 390 MHz, and a power consumption of 170 mW.</p><p>The purpose of the second ADC is to demonstrate the concept of introducing dynamic element matching (DEM) into the reference net of a flash ADC. This design yields information about the performance improvements the DEM gives, and what the trade-offs are when introducing DEM. Behavioral level simulations indicate that the SFDR is improved by 11 dB when introducing DEM, but the settling time of the reference net with DEM will now limit the conversion speed of the converter. Further, the maximum input frequency is limited by the total resistance in the reference net, which gets increased in this topology. The total resistance is the total switch on-resistance plus the total resistance of the resistors. To increase the conversion speed and the maximum input frequency a new DEM topology is proposed in this work, which reduces the number of switches introduced into the reference net compared with earlier proposed DEM topologies. The transistor level simulations in Cadence® of the flash ADC with DEM indicates that the SFDR improves by 6 dB compared with when not using DEM, and is expected to improve more if more samples are used in the simulation. This was not possible in the current simulations due to the long simulation time. The improved SFDR is however traded for an increased chip area and a reduction of the maximum sampling frequency to 550 MHzfor this converter. The average power consumption is 92 mW.</p><p>A goal of this work is to evaluate a 130 nm partially depleted silicon-oninsulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with respect to analog circuit implementation. The converters are therefore implemented in this technology. When writing this the ADCs are still being manufactured. Since the technology evaluation will be based on the measurement results the final results of the evaluation are not included in this thesis. The conclusions regarding the SOI CMOS technology are therefore based on a literature study of published scientific papers in the SOI area, information extracted during the design phase of the ADCs, and from the transistor level circuit simulations. These inputs indicate that to fully utilize the potential performance advantages of the SOI CMOS technology the partially depleted SOI CMOS technology should be exchanged for a fully depleted SOI CMOS technology. The manufacturing difficulties regarding the control of the thin-film thickness must however first be solved before the exchange can be done.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2005:68.

Accelerometer sensors fabricated with micromachining technologies started to take place of yesterday&rsquo / s bulky sensors in many application areas. The application areas include a wide range from consumer electronics and health systems to military and aerospace applications. Therefore, the performance requirements extend form 1 &mu / g&rsquo / s to 100 thousand g&rsquo / s. However, high performance strategic grade MEMS accelerometer sensors still do not exist in the literature. Smart designs utilizing the MEMS technology is necessary in order to acquire high performance specifications. This thesis reports a high performance accelerometer with a new process by making the use of bulk micromachining technology. The new process includes the utilization of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer and its buried oxide (BOX) layer. The BOX layer helps to realize interdigitated finger structures, which commonly find place in surface micromachined CMOS-MEMS capacitive accelerometers. The multi-metal layered CMOS-MEMS devices inherently incorporate interdigitated finger structures. Interdigitated finger structures are highly sensitive to acceleration in comparison with comb-finger structures, which generally find usage in bulk-micromachined devices, due to absence of anti-gap. The designed sensors based on this fabrication process is sought to form a fully-differential signal interfaced sensor with incorporation of the advantages of high sensitive interdigitated finger electrodes and high aspect ratio SOI wafer&rsquo / s bulk single crystal silicon device. Under the light of the envisaged process, sensor designs were made, and verified using a computing environment, MATLAB, and a finite element analysis simulator, CoventorWARE. The verified two designs were fabricated, and all the tests, except the centrifuge test, were made at METU-MEMS Research Center. Among the fabricated sensors, the one designed for the high performance achieves a capacitance sensitivity of 178 fF with a rest capacitance of 8.1 pF by employing interdigitated finger electrodes, while its comb-finger implementation can only achieve a capacitance sensitivity of 75 fF with a rest capacitance of 10 pF.

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt integrierte Hochvolt-Schaltungen für die Ansteuerung elektrostatisch arbeitender Mikroaktoren und Mikroaktorarrays. Im Besonderen wird auf die Gesichtspunkte der Treiberschaltungen von Torsionsspiegelarrays eingegangen. Es werden verschiedene Verstärkerbetriebsarten und Schaltungsvarianten hinsichtlich der Ansteuerung kleiner kapazitiver Lasten beurteilt. Für die hocheffiziente Signalübertragung zwischen Low-Side und High-Side in geschalteten Hochvolt-Verstärkern wird ein neuer dynamischer Level-Shifter vorgestellt. Anhand eines gebondeten Mikroelektronik-Mikromechanik-Aufbaus für ein Hadamard-Transformations-Spektrometer werden die speziellen Aspekte des Elektronikentwurfs für ein System-in-Package aufgezeigt. Als Entwurfsgrundlage wird ein Überblick über die wesentlichen Isolationstechnologien für integrierte Hochvolt-Schaltungen und über die Bauelementemodellierung in einer SOI-Technologie ausgearbeitet. Außerdem werden die Vor- und Nachteile der wichtigsten Antriebsprinzipien von Mikroaktoren zusammengefasst.

Large on-chip bandwidths required for high performance electronic chips will render optical components essential parts of future on-chip interconnects. Silicon photonics enables highly integrated photonic integrated circuit (PIC) using CMOS compatible process. In order to maximize the bandwidth density and design flexibility of PICs, vertical integration of electronic layers and photonics layers is strongly preferred. Comparing deposited silicon, single crystalline silicon offers low material absorption loss and high carrier mobility, which are ideal for multi-layer silicon PIC. Three different methods to build multi-layer silicon PICs based on single crystalline silicon are demonstrated in this dissertation, including double-bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, transfer printed silicon nanomembranes, and adhesively bonded silicon nanomembranes. 1-to-12 waveguide fanouts using multimode interference (MMI) couplers were designed, fabricated and characterized on both double-bonded SOI and transfer printed silicon nanomembrane, and the results show comparable performance to similar devices fabricated on SOI. However, both of these two methods have their limitations in optical interconnects applications. Large and defect-free silicon nanomembrane fabricated using adhesive bonding is identified as a promising solution to build multi-layer silicon PICs. A double-layer structure constituted of vertically integrated silicon nanomembranes was demonstrated. Subwavelength length based fiber-to-chip grating couplers were used to couple light into this new platform. Three basic building blocks of silicon photonics were designed, fabricated and characterized, including 1) inter-layer grating coupler based on subwavelength nanostructure, which has efficiency of 6.0 dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 41 nm, for light coupling between layers, 2) 1-to-32 H-tree optical distribution, which has excess loss of 2.2 dB, output uniformity of 0.72 dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 880 GHz, 3) waveguide crossing utilizing index-engineered MMI coupler, which has crossing loss of 0.019 dB, cross talk lower than -40 dB and wide transmission spectrum covering C-band and L-band. The demonstrated integration method and silicon photonic devices can be integrated into the CMOS back-end process for clock distribution and global signaling. / text

The objective of this research is to develop an understanding of the trade-offs between performance and reliability in sub 100-nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technologies. Such trade-offs can be used to demonstrate high performance reliable circuits in scaled technologies. Several CMOS reliability concerns such as hot-carrier stress, ionizing irradiation damage, RF stress, temperature effects, and single-event effects are studied. These reliability mechanisms can cause temporary or permanent damage to the semiconductor device and to the circuits using them. Several improvements are made to the device layout and process to achieve optimum performance. Parasitics are shown to play a dominant role in the performance and reliability of sub 100-nm devices. Various techniques are suggested to reduce these parasitics, such as the use of the following: a) optimum device-width, b) optimum gate-finger to gate-finger spacing, c) optimum source/drain metal contact spacing, and d) floating-body/body-contact. The major contributions from this research are summarized as follows: 1) Role of floating-body effects on the performance and reliability of sub 100-nm CMOS-on-SOI technologies is investigated for the first time [1], [2]. It is demonstrated through experimental data and TCAD simulations that floating-body devices have improved RF performance but degraded reliability compared to body-contacted devices. 2) Floating-body effects in a cascode core is studied. Cascode cores are demonstrated to achieve much larger reliability lifetimes than a single device. A variety of cascode topologies are studied to achieve the trade-o s between performance and reliability for high-power applications [2]. 3) The use of body-contact to modulate the performance of devices and single-poledouble- throw (SPDT) switches is studied. The SPDT switch performance is shown to improve with a negative body-bias. 4) The impact of device width on the RF performance and reliability is studied. Larger width devices are shown to have greater degradation, posing challenging questions for RF design in strained-Si technologies [3]. 5) A novel study showing the e ect of source/drain metal contact spacing and gate-finger to gate-finger spacing on the device RF performance is carried out. Further, the impact of above on the hot-carrier, RF stress, and total-dose irradiation tolerance is studied [3], [4]. 6) Latchup phenomenon in CMOS is shown to be possible at cryogenic temperatures (below 50 K), and its consequences are discussed [5]. 7) A time-dependent device degradation model has been developed in technology computer aided design (TCAD) to model reliability in CMOS and SiGe devices. 8) The total-dose irradiation tolerance and hot-carrier reliability of 32-nm CMOSon- SOI technology is reported for the first time. The impact of HfO2 based gate dielectric on the performance and reliability is studied [6]. 9) The impact of technology scaling from 65-nm to 32-nm on the performance and reliability of CMOS technologies is studied [6]. 10) Cryogenic performance and reliability of 45-nm nFETs is investigated. The RF performance improves significantly at 77 K. The hot-carrier device reliability is shown to improve at low temperatures in short-channel CMOS technologies.

Recently, several SiGe HBT devices fabricated on CMOS-compatible silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates (SiGe HBTs-on-SOI) have been demonstrated, combining the well-known SiGe HBT performance with the advantages of SOI substrates. These new devices are especially interesting in the context of extreme environments - highly challenging surroundings that lie outside commercial and even military electronics specifications. However, fabricating HBTs on SOI substrates instead of traditional silicon bulk substrates requires extensive modifications to the structure of the transistors and results in significant trade-offs. The present work investigates, with measurements and TCAD simulations, the performance and reliability of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors fabricated on silicon on insulator substrates with respect to operation in extreme environments such as at extremely low or extremely high temperatures or in the presence of radiation (both in terms of total ionizing dose and single effect upset).

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-76). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-118). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Este trabalho mostra a comparação dos efeitos das falhas provocadas pelos Single-Event Effects em dispositivos 28nm FDSOI, 28nm FDSOI High-K e 32nm Bulk CMOS e células de memória 6T SRAM feitas com estes dispositivos. Para conseguir isso, foram usadas ferramentas TCAD para simular falhas transientes devido a impacto de íons pesados a nível dispositivo e nível circuito. As simulações neste ambiente tem como vantagem a simulação dos fatos e mecanismos que produz as falhas transientes e seus efeitos nos dispositivos, além de também servir para projetar virtualmente estes dispositivos e caraterizar eles para estas simulações. Neste caso, foram projetados três dispositivos para simulação: um transistor NMOS de 32nm Bulk, um transistor NMOS de 28nm FDSOI e um transistor NMOS de 28nm FDSOI High-K para fazer comparações entre eles. Estes dispositivos foram projetados, caraterizados e testados contra o impacto de íons pesados a níveis dispositivo e circuito. Como resultado obtido, transistor Bulk de 32nm teve, no pior caso, uma carga coletada de 7.57 e 7.19 vezes maior que a carga coletada pelo dispositivo FDSOI de 28nm e FDSOI High-K de 28nm respectivamente atingido pelo mesmo íon pesado de 100MeV-cm2/mg. Com estes dados foi possível modelar o comportamento da carga coletada de ambos dispositivos usando este íon pesado, atingindo os terminais de Fonte e Dreno em distintos lugares e ângulos. Usando a mesma ferramenta e os dados obtidos de carga coletada pelos testes anteriores, foram projetadas células de memória SRAM de 6 transistores. Isso foi para testar elas contra os efeitos do impacto de íons pesados nos transistores NMOS de armazenagem da dados. Neste caso, a Transferência Linear de Energia (LET) do íon necessária para fazer que o dado armazenado na SRAM Bulk mude é 12.8 vezes maior que no caso da SRAM FDSOI e 10 maior no caso da SRAM FDSOI High-K, embora a quantidade de carga coletada necessária para que o dado mude em ambas células seja quase a mesma. Com estes dados foi possível modelar os efeitos dos íons pesados em ambos circuitos, descobrir a Carga Crítica destes e qual é o mínimo LET necessário para que o dado armazenado nestas SRAMs mude. / This work shows a comparison of faults due to Single-Event Effects in 28nm Fully Depleted SOI (FDSOI), 28nm FDSOI High-K and 32nm Bulk CMOS devices, and in 6T SRAM memory cells made with these devices. To provide this, was used TCAD tools to simulate transient faults due to heavy ion impacts on device and circuit levels. The simulations in that environment have the advantage to simulate the facts and mechanisms which produce the transient faults and this effects on the electronic devices, it also allow to simulate the virtual device fabrication and to characterize them. In this case, two devices were created for the simulations: a 32nm Bulk NMOS transistor and a 28nm FDSOI NMOS transistor for compare them. These devices were created, characterized and tested against heavy ion impacts at device and circuit levels. The results show that 32nm Bulk transistor has, in the worst case, a collected charge 7.57 and 7.19 times greater than the 28nm FDSOI and 28nm FDSOI High-K respectively collected charge with the same 100MeV-cm2/mg heavy ion. With these data it was possible to model the behavior of the collected charge in both devices with the same heavy-ion, reach the Source and Drain Terminal in different places and angles. Using the same tools and the obtained collected charge data of previous simulations, it was designed 6 transistors SRAM Memory Cells. That is done to test these circuits against the heavy ion effects on the data-storage NMOS transistor. In this case, the necessary Ion Linear Energy Transfer (LET) to flip the Bulk SRAM is 12.8 greater than the FDSOI SRAM and 10 times greater than the FDSOI High- K SRAM case, although the amount of charge to flip the cells is almost the same in both cases. With these data it was possible to model the heavy-ion effects in both circuits, discover the Critical Charge of them and the minimum LET to flips these SRAMs.

Este trabalho mostra a comparação dos efeitos das falhas provocadas pelos Single-Event Effects em dispositivos 28nm FDSOI, 28nm FDSOI High-K e 32nm Bulk CMOS e células de memória 6T SRAM feitas com estes dispositivos. Para conseguir isso, foram usadas ferramentas TCAD para simular falhas transientes devido a impacto de íons pesados a nível dispositivo e nível circuito. As simulações neste ambiente tem como vantagem a simulação dos fatos e mecanismos que produz as falhas transientes e seus efeitos nos dispositivos, além de também servir para projetar virtualmente estes dispositivos e caraterizar eles para estas simulações. Neste caso, foram projetados três dispositivos para simulação: um transistor NMOS de 32nm Bulk, um transistor NMOS de 28nm FDSOI e um transistor NMOS de 28nm FDSOI High-K para fazer comparações entre eles. Estes dispositivos foram projetados, caraterizados e testados contra o impacto de íons pesados a níveis dispositivo e circuito. Como resultado obtido, transistor Bulk de 32nm teve, no pior caso, uma carga coletada de 7.57 e 7.19 vezes maior que a carga coletada pelo dispositivo FDSOI de 28nm e FDSOI High-K de 28nm respectivamente atingido pelo mesmo íon pesado de 100MeV-cm2/mg. Com estes dados foi possível modelar o comportamento da carga coletada de ambos dispositivos usando este íon pesado, atingindo os terminais de Fonte e Dreno em distintos lugares e ângulos. Usando a mesma ferramenta e os dados obtidos de carga coletada pelos testes anteriores, foram projetadas células de memória SRAM de 6 transistores. Isso foi para testar elas contra os efeitos do impacto de íons pesados nos transistores NMOS de armazenagem da dados. Neste caso, a Transferência Linear de Energia (LET) do íon necessária para fazer que o dado armazenado na SRAM Bulk mude é 12.8 vezes maior que no caso da SRAM FDSOI e 10 maior no caso da SRAM FDSOI High-K, embora a quantidade de carga coletada necessária para que o dado mude em ambas células seja quase a mesma. Com estes dados foi possível modelar os efeitos dos íons pesados em ambos circuitos, descobrir a Carga Crítica destes e qual é o mínimo LET necessário para que o dado armazenado nestas SRAMs mude. / This work shows a comparison of faults due to Single-Event Effects in 28nm Fully Depleted SOI (FDSOI), 28nm FDSOI High-K and 32nm Bulk CMOS devices, and in 6T SRAM memory cells made with these devices. To provide this, was used TCAD tools to simulate transient faults due to heavy ion impacts on device and circuit levels. The simulations in that environment have the advantage to simulate the facts and mechanisms which produce the transient faults and this effects on the electronic devices, it also allow to simulate the virtual device fabrication and to characterize them. In this case, two devices were created for the simulations: a 32nm Bulk NMOS transistor and a 28nm FDSOI NMOS transistor for compare them. These devices were created, characterized and tested against heavy ion impacts at device and circuit levels. The results show that 32nm Bulk transistor has, in the worst case, a collected charge 7.57 and 7.19 times greater than the 28nm FDSOI and 28nm FDSOI High-K respectively collected charge with the same 100MeV-cm2/mg heavy ion. With these data it was possible to model the behavior of the collected charge in both devices with the same heavy-ion, reach the Source and Drain Terminal in different places and angles. Using the same tools and the obtained collected charge data of previous simulations, it was designed 6 transistors SRAM Memory Cells. That is done to test these circuits against the heavy ion effects on the data-storage NMOS transistor. In this case, the necessary Ion Linear Energy Transfer (LET) to flip the Bulk SRAM is 12.8 greater than the FDSOI SRAM and 10 times greater than the FDSOI High- K SRAM case, although the amount of charge to flip the cells is almost the same in both cases. With these data it was possible to model the heavy-ion effects in both circuits, discover the Critical Charge of them and the minimum LET to flips these SRAMs.