Atia Shafique

Low-power area-efficient wide-range robust CMOS temperature sensors

This paper proposes six different CMOS-based temperature sensor topologies by exploiting temperature dependence of MOSFETs threshold voltage VT, the carriers mobility µ and the resistivity of n-well resistors. The proposed temperature sensors are designed for a wide temperature range of -100?C to +120?C and exhibit resolutions in the range of 0.04-0.448?C along with readout sensitivities in the range of 0.37-1.83mV/?C. For accuracy enhancement, automated single-point calibration is implemented for all topologies in conjunction with an off-chip reference temperature sensor. These calibrated temperature sensors exhibit measured inaccuracies between 0.2?C and 1?C for the proposed temperature range. These temperature sensors are designed in 0.25µm TSMC 1P/5M process and are embedded in a 5mmi?5mm imaging array readout IC to develop the thermal profile of the IC. The presented temperature sensors exhibit comparable performance metrics to state-of-the-art topologies in the literature with added advantage of a buffered output, which could be useful in case of a fast load drive and settling to implement faster control systems.

Design of monocrystalline Si/SiGe multi-quantum well microbolometer detector for infrared imaging systems

This paper presents the design, modelling and simulation results of silicon/silicon-germanium (Si/SiGe) multi-quantum well based bolometer detector for uncooled infrared imaging system. The microbolometer is designed to detect light in the long wave length infrared (LWIR) range from 8 to 14 μm with pixel size of 25 x 25 μm. The design optimization strategy leads to achieve the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) 4.5%/K with maximum germanium (Ge) concentration of 50%. The design of microbolometer entirely relies on standard CMOS and MEMS processes which makes it suitable candidate for commercial infrared imaging systems.

Implementation of pixel level digital TDI for scanning type LWIR FPAs

Implementation of a CMOS digital readout integrated circuit (DROIC) based on pixel level digital time delay integration (TDI) for scanning type LWIR focal plane arrays (FPAs) is presented. TDI is implemented on 8 pixels with over sampling rate of 3. Analog signal integrated on integration capacitor is converted to digital domain in pixel, and digital data is transferred to TDI summation counters, where contributions of 8 pixels are added. Output data is 16 bit, where 8 bits are allocated for most significant bits and 8 bits for least significant bits. Control block of the ROIC, which is responsible of generating timing diagram for switches controlling the pixels and summation counters, is realized with VerilogHDL. Summation counters and parallel-to-serial converter to convert 16 bit parallel output data to single bit output are also realized with Verilog HDL. Synthesized verilog netlists are placed&routed and combined with analog under-pixel part of the design. Quantization noise of analog-to-digital conversion is less than 500e-. Since analog signal is converted to digital domain in-pixel, inaccuracies due to analog signal routing over large chip area is eliminated. ROIC is fabricated with 0.18μm CMOS process and chip area is 10mm2. Post-layout simulation results of the implemented design are presented. ROIC is programmable through serial or parallel interface. Input referred noise of ROIC is less than 750 rms electron, while power consumption is less than 30mW. ROIC is designed to perform in cryogenic temperatures.

Device characteristics of antenna-coupled metal-insulator-metal diodes (rectenna) using Al2O3, TiO2, and Cr2O3 as insulator layer for energy harvesting applications

Antenna-coupled metal-insulator-metal devices are most potent candidate for future energy harvesting devices. The reason for that they are ultra-high speed devices that can rectify the electromagnetic radiation at high frequencies. In addition to their speed, they are also small devices that can have more number of devices in unit area. In this work, it is aimed design and develop a device which can harvest and detect IR radiation.

Model, design, and fabrication of antenna coupled metal-insulator-metal diodes for IR sensing

There is increasing demand for devices operating at room temperature for IR sensing and imaging. Antenna coupled metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes are potential candidates in this field. The reasons are miniaturizing features and femtosecond operation of these devices: smaller sizes lead to more pixels in limited areas and quantum tunneling phenomenon leads to faster operation. In this work, it is aimed to design and develop a device that can act as IR detector at room temperature.

Physical device modeling of Si/Si1-xGex multi-quantum well detector to optimize Ge content for higher thermal sensitivity

This paper presents the physical device modeling of a Si/Si1-xGex multi-quantum well (MQW) detector to optimize the Ge content in the Si/Si1-xGex well required to enhance thermal sensitivity for a potential microbolometer application. The modeling approach comprises a self-consistent coupled Poisson-Schroedinger solution in series with the thermionic emission theory at the Si/Si1-xGex heterointerface and quantum confinement within the Si/Si1-xGex MQW. The integrated simulation environment developed in Sentauruas WorkBench (SWB) TCAD is employed to investigate the transfer characteristics of the device consisting three stacks of Si/Si1-xGex wells with an active area of 17μm x 17μm were investigated and compared with experiment data.

Pixel resistance optimization of a Si0.5Ge0.5/Si MQWs thermistor based on in-situ B doping for microbolometer applications

The state-of-the-art microbolometers are mainly based on polycrystalline or amorphous materials, typically Vanadium oxide (VOx) or amorphous-Silicon (a-Si), which only have modest temperature sensitivities and noise characteristics. The properties of single crystalline SiGe/Si multi quantum wells (MQWs) have been proposed as a promising material1. Particularly, SiGe/Si MQWs structure with high Ge concentration is expected to provide very high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) values between 6 to 8% 2. Although SiGe/Si MQWs structure as a thermistor material is extremely promising, difficulty of defect free deposition and high sheet resistance of high Ge concentrated SiGe layers are the two main bottlenecks of this approach. In this work, a very high TCR of -5.5 %/K is achieved for SiGe/Si MQWs including 50% Ge with an acceptable noise value of 2.7 x 10-13 V2/Hz at 10 Hz. The initial pixel resistance of 3 period of SiGe/Si MQWs with 50% Ge concentration is measured as 21 MΩ, which might not be compatible with the ROIC design. By the optimization of insitu Boron (B) doping level in SiGe layers of the MQW stack, 210 kΩ for 25 x 25 μm2 pixel size is achieved. The optimized B doping density of ~1 x 1018 cm-3 in SiGe wells did not cause any significant change in the TCR value whereas the 1/f noise performance is even enhanced due to the in-situ doping process and measured as 2.9 x 10-14 V2/Hz at 10 Hz.

A low-power CMOS readout IC with on-chip column-parallel SAR ADCs for microbolometer applications

A readout IC (ROIC) designed for high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) SiGe microbolometers is presented. The ROIC is designed for higher Ge content SiGe microbolometers which have higher detector resistance (~1M Ω) and higher TCR values (~%5.5/K). The ROIC includes column SAR ADCs for on-chip column-parallel analog to digital conversion. SAR ADC architecture is chosen to reduce the overall power consumption. The problem of resistance variation across the bolometers which introduce fixed pattern noise is addressed by setting a tunable reference resistor shared for each column which can be calibrated offline to set the common-mode level. Moreover, column non-uniformity has been reduced through comparator offset compensation in the SAR ADC. The columnwise architecture in this work reduces the number of integrators needed in the architecture and enables 17x17 μm2 pixel sizes. The prototype has been designed and fabricated in 0.25-μm CMOS process.

Array size and area impact on nanorectenna performance properties

The metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes have high speed and compatibility with integrated circuits (IC’s) making MIM diodes very attractive to detect and harvest energy for infrared (IR) regime of the electromagnetic spectrum. Due to the fact that small size of the MIM diodes, it is possible to obtain large volume of devices in same unit area. Hence, MIM diodes offer a feasible solution for nanorectennas (nano rectifiying antenna) in IR regime. The aim of this study is to design and develop MIM diodes as array format coupled with antennas for energy harvesting and IR detection. Moreover, varying number of elements which are 4x4, and 40x30 has been fabricated in parallel having 0.040, 0.065 and 0.080 μm2 diode area. For this work we have studied given type of material; Ti-HfO2-Ni, is used for fabricating MIM diodes as a part of rectenna. The effect of the diode array size is investigated. Furthermore, the effect of the array size is also investigated for larger arrays by applying given type of material set; Cr-HfO2-Ni. The fabrication processes in physical vapor deposition (PVD) systems for the MIM diodes resulted in the devices having high non-linearity and responsivity. Also, to achieve uniform and very thin insulator layer atomic layer deposition (ALD) was used. The nonlinearity 1.5 mA/V2 and responsivity 3 A/W are achieved for Ti-HfO2-Ni MIM diodes under low applied bias of 400 mV. The responsivity and nonlinearity of Cr-HfO2-Ni are found to be 5 A/W and 65 μA/V2, respectively. The current level of Cr-HfO2-Ni and Ti-HfO2-Ni is around μA range therefore corresponding resistance values are in 1-10 kΩ range. The comparison of single and 4x4 elements revealed that 4x4 elements have higher current level hence lower resistance value is obtained for 4x4 elements. The array size is 40x30 elements for Cr-HfO2-Ni type of MIM diodes with 40, 65 nm2 diode areas. By increasing the diode area, the current level increases for same size of array. The current level is increased from10 μA to100 μA with increasing the diode area. Therefore resistance decreased in the range of 10 kΩ and nonlinearity is increased from 58 μA/V2 to 65 μA/V2.

A low-power CMOS readout IC design for bolometer applications

A prototype of a readout IC (ROIC) designed for use in high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) SiGe microbolometers is presented. The prototype ROIC architecture implemented is based on a bridge with active and blind bolometer pixels with a capacitive transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) input stage and column parallel integration with serial readout. The ROIC is designed for use in high (≥ 4 %/K) TCR and high detector resistance Si/SiGe microbolometers with 17x17 μm2 pixel sizes in development. The prototype has been designed and fabricated in 0.25- μm SiGe:C BiCMOS process.