Highly sensitive Hall magnetic sensor microsystem in CMOStechnology

A highly sensitive magnetic sensor microsystem based on a Hall device is presented. This microsystem consists of a Hall device improved by an integrated magnetic concentrator and new circuit architecture for the signal processing. It provides an amplification of the sensor signal with a resolution better than 30 μV and a periodic offset cancellation while the output of the microsystem is available in continuous time. This microsystem features an overall magnetic gain of 420 V/T     

Wireless magnetoresistive microsystem for magnetic field measurements

The design and technology of magnetic semiconductor elements of wireless magnetoresistive microsystems for magnetic field measurements are proposed and the results of the investigations of a highly sensitivity magnetoresistive converter with magnetic field concentrators are presented. The characteristics of the developed measuring amplifier for operation with a signal from a low-resistance magnetoresistive bridge with a certain unbalance value are reported. The technology for fabricating magnetic semiconductor ICs based on thin-film magnetoresistive structures is described.     

巨磁阻生物传感器阵列及专用锁相放大器设计

EW_GⅠ是基于GMR(巨磁阻)传感器,用于检测血样中特种病毒的正在研发的生物芯片系统。叙述了其巨磁阻传感器阵列以及后端锁相放大IC电路的设计及实现。该阵列包含32个GMR传感器单元和2个传感器参考单元,形成多路的半桥式惠斯通电桥,用于感应绑定磁球的附加磁场。每个单元(100μm×100μm)由长1mm、宽7μm的巨磁电阻蜿蜒而成,该电阻采用[Ag(2nm)/NiFe(6nm)/Cu(2.2nm)/CoFe(4nm)]20结构,采用Ag作为镜面层,其饱和磁场小于等于30mT,GMR值约6%,单个传感器电阻约为780Ω。配套的锁相放大芯片包括了信号通道、参考通道、前置低噪声放大器、带通滤波器、可控增益放大器、相敏检测电路、正交移相电路、差分直流放大电路八个部分,整个设计功耗小于50mW@Vcc=3V。     

A fully integrated 4-channel GMR biochip for biomedical detection applications

This paper proposed a fully integrated 4-channel GMR biochip for biomedical detection assays, including the acquisition analog frontend for small signal extraction, 180° phase shifter, resistor ladder and control circuits for carrier cancellation, and amplifiers. Besides, the overall system was evaluated comprehensively by experiment, and the output noise is as low as \(321.7\mathrm {nV/\sqrt{Hz}},\) which is lower than the signal produced by one single 500nm magnetic particle during the detection.     

Disposable smart lab on a chip for point-of-care clinical diagnostics

This paper presents the development of a disposable plastic biochip incorporating smart passive microfluidics with embedded on-chip power sources and integrated biosensor array for applications in clinical diagnostics and point-of-care testing. The fully integrated disposable biochip is capable of precise volume control with smart microfluidic manipulation without costly on-chip microfluidic components. The biochip has a unique power source using on-chip pressurized air reservoirs, for microfluidic manipulation, avoiding the need for complex microfluidic pumps. In addition, the disposable plastic biochip has successfully been tested for the measurements of partial oxygen concentration, glucose, and lactate level in human blood using an integrated biosensor array. This paper presents details of the smart passive microfluidic system, the on-chip power source, and the biosensor array together with a detailed discussion of the plastic micromachining techniques used for chip fabrication. A handheld analyzer capable of multiparameter detection of clinically relevant parameters has also been developed to detect the signals from the cartridge type disposable biochip. The handheld analyzer developed in this work is currently the smallest analyzer capable of multiparameter detection for point-of-care testing.     

An inductively powered implantable blood flow sensor microsystem for vascular grafts

Monitoring blood flow rate inside prosthetic vascular grafts enables an early detection of the graft degradation, followed by the timely intervention and prevention of the graft failure. This paper presents an inductively powered implantable blood flow sensor microsystem with bidirectional telemetry. The microsystem integrates silicon nanowire (SiNW) sensors with tunable piezoresistivity, an ultralow-power application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and two miniature coils that are coupled with a larger coil in an external monitoring unit to form a passive wireless link. Operating at 13.56-MHz carrier frequency, the implantable microsystem receives power and command from the external unit and backscatters digitized sensor readout through the coupling coils. The ASIC fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS process occupies an active area of 1.5 × 1.78?mm (2) and consumes 21.6 μW only. The sensors based on the SiNW and diaphragm structure provide a gauge factor higher than 300 when a small negative tuning voltage (-0.5-0?V) is applied. The measured performance of the pressure sensor and ASIC has demonstrated 0.176 mmHg/√Hz sensing resolution.     

一种集成PCR与CE的生物芯片的设计研究

阐述了一种集成PCR反应室与CE管道的生物芯片的研究和设计工作,实现了样品扩增、电泳分离和紫外光检测3个生物分析检测过程的单片集成。为这种DNA生物芯片设计了PCR反应池及其加热控制系统、毛细管电泳管道和配备即时测温功能的辅助电路系统(PCB板),并且完成了芯片的版图设计以及工艺方案及具体工艺参数设计。整个系统可以基本实现一个小型DNA检测实验室的功能。     

A programmable microsystem using system-on-chip for real-time biotelemetry

A telemetry microsystem, including multiple sensors, integrated instrumentation and a wireless interface has been implemented. We have employed a methodology akin to that for System-on-Chip microelectronics to design an integrated circuit instrument containing several "intellectual property" blocks that will enable convenient reuse of modules in future projects. The present system was optimized for low-power and included mixed-signal sensor circuits, a programmable digital system, a feedback clock control loop and RF circuits integrated on a 5 mm x 5 mm silicon chip using a 0.6 microm, 3.3 V CMOS process. Undesirable signal coupling between circuit components has been investigated and current injection into sensitive instrumentation nodes was minimized by careful floor-planning. The chip, the sensors, a magnetic induction-based transmitter and two silver oxide cells were packaged into a 36 mm x 12 mm capsule format. A base station was built in order to retrieve the data from the microsystem in real-time. The base station was designed to be adaptive and timing tolerant since the microsystem design was simplified to reduce power consumption and size. The telemetry system was found to have a packet error rate of 10(-3) using an asynchronous simplex link. Trials in animal carcasses were carried out to show that the transmitter was as effective as a conventional RF device whilst consuming less power.     

FD SOI Hall sensor electronics interfaces for energy measurement

This paper presents a SOI Hall sensor based microsystem for energy measurement. The mixed-mode signal circuitry has been entirely designed and integrated in the experimental 0.5 μm fully depleted SOI 3 V technology. It consists of an integrated Hall element, chopper stabilized sensor bias system, analog front end and digital back end. Aiming at performing accurate measurements, we have implemented a high linearity analog front end, as well as a high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion technique. Two versions of the microsystem have been realized. The first test chip contains a classical instrumentation amplifier as sensor amplifier, whereas the second one contains a linearized differential-difference amplifier as sensor amplifier. Both microsystems are fully functional and permits one to perform the measurements with an overall system error that is less than ±1.5%.     

W波段64通道相控阵微系统设计与实现

相控阵微系统的主要特征是电路与天线的高度融合集成,将三维微纳集成技术和微电子技术紧密地结合在一起,切合相控阵高频化、小型化和低成本的发展需求。本文设计了一款W波段的封装天线相控阵微系统,该相控阵采用硅基三维集成的方式将T/R多功能芯片、天线阵列集成在一个微系统模块中,并详细介绍了基于硅工艺的多功能收发芯片设计和相控阵封装天线设计。给出了相控阵微系统的测试结果。该微系统具有高集成度、高性能、低成本的特点,可以为高速无线通信、高精度探测和成像等应用提供一个较优的技术路径。     

Development of magnetic semiconductor microsystems technology

The results of the development of technologies of magnetic semiconductor chips based on thinfilm magnetoresistive multilayer structures are presented. A brief overview of the main achievements in the field of magnetometric devices based on anisotropic and giant magnetoresistive effects is made.     

Compact 90° Releasable Multifiber Optical Connectivity Solution

A compact releasable 90deg optical connectivity solution is proposed, realized, and characterized. It can be used for angled interconnection between two small form factor multifiber connectors, or between one connector and surface mounted multichannel active optical elements such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and photodetector arrays. This 90deg connectivity system is based on V-groove substrates and an integrated optical microsystem combining two lens arrays and a 45deg mirror. Realized modules feature average fiber-to-fiber optical losses of 1.4 dB (best below 1 dB) for multimode operation over the whole wavelength range from 850 up to 1550 nm. This interconnect solution provides advantages when limited space is available (e.g., in optical distribution frames, splice closures, high-performance computers)     

Chip-Scale Integration of Data-Gathering Microsystems

Integrated microsystems merging embedded computing with sensing and actuation are poised to dramatically expand our ability to gather information from the nonelectronic world. Examples include a microassembled multichip electronic interface to the brain, an integrated electrofluidic gas chromatography system for environmental monitoring, and a wireless intra-arterial microsystem for pressure and flow measurements. In general, such microsystems will consist of a few chips, integrated in generic platforms that are customized for a given application by the sensors selected and by software. This paper illustrates this approach with a 0.15-cm/sup 3/ multisensor microsystem for autonomously sensing and storing environmental and biological data. The microsystem is formed using on-board pressure/temperature/humidity sensors, off-board strain gauges and neural/EMG electrodes, a custom sensor-interface chip, a mixed-signal microcontroller, and a nonvolatile memory. These components allow the acquisition and storage of multidomain data at low power levels (< 50 /spl mu/W reading capacitive sensors at 1 Hz). The system is programmable in gain (0.4-3.2 mV/fF), offset (10b), accuracy (14b), and sampling rate (0.1 Hz-10 kHz) and is integrated in a micromachined silicon platform that implements through-wafer interconnects, solder-based microconnectors, and recessed cavities for chip-stacking. The microsystem is realized in 9.5 mm/spl times/7.6 mm/spl times/2.0 mm (0.15 cm/sup 3/) (< 0.5 cm/sup 3/ with a lithium battery).     

CMOS magnetic-field sensor system

A magnetic-field sensor system integrated in CMOS technology with additional processing steps necessary for sensor fabrication is presented. The system contains a magnetoresistive permalloy microbridge acting as a sensor, temperature compensation circuitry, programmable readout electronics, reference voltage bias, and clock generation. It features maximum magnetic flux sensitivity of 70 mV/μT (corresponds to the magnetic-field sensitivity of 88.2 mV/(A/m) at μ_r=1) and its temperature gain is below 260 ppm/°C in the range between -50°C and +100°C     

微系统热管理技术的新发展

多功能高度集成的微系统技术对信息系统的通信、传感、处理和执行等方面产生了很大的影响,而热管理问题却一直制约着微系统技术的发展。该文介绍了美国在微系统热管理技术方面的项目研究计划及基于热传导与液冷技术的微系统热管理技术的新进展,提出了一种基于压电驱动的主动微系统高效热管理方法,并通过搭建试验样机完成原理性测试验证。该技术主要针对如微波毫米波大功率“瓦片式”T/R（收发）组件等射频微系统热管理应用。     

一种新的自旋量子效应——电流感应磁化翻转

电流感应的磁化翻转效应是近年来继巨磁阻效应(GMR)和隧道磁阻效应(TMR)之后提出的一种nm尺度下新的自旋相关效应,在无外加磁场的情况下,垂直于铁磁层平面的自旋极化电流就能引起铁磁层的磁化翻转。该效应有望被用于制作新型的电流操纵磁存储器件。报道了该效应的理论和实验的研究进展。     

A 1-Mbit MRAM based on 1T1MTJ bit cell integrated with copper interconnects

A low-power 1-Mb magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) based on a one-transistor and one-magnetic tunnel junction (1T1MTJ) bit cell is demonstrated. This is the largest MRAM memory demonstration to date. In this circuit, the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) elements are integrated with CMOS using copper interconnect technology. The copper interconnects are cladded with a high-permeability layer which is used to focus magnetic flux generated by current flowing through the lines toward the MTJ devices and reduce the power needed for programming. The 25-mm/sup 2/ 1-Mb MRAM circuit operates with address access times of less than 50 ns, consuming 24 mW at 3.0 V and 20 MHz. The 1-Mb MRAM circuit is fabricated in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process utilizing five layers of metal and two layers of poly.     

A 90-MHz 16-Mb system integrated memory with direct interface toCPU

This paper describes a system integrated memory with direct interface to CPU which integrates an SRAM, a DRAM, and control circuitry, including a tag memory (TAG). This memory realizes a computer system without glue chips, and thus enables a computer system which is low cost, low power, and compact size, but still with sufficient performance. Also fast clock cycle time and access time is realized using a newly proposed clock driver and internal signal generator. This memory is fabricated with a quad-polysilicon double-metal 0.55-μm CMOS process which is the same as used in a conventional 16-Mb DRAM. The chip size of 145.3 mm² is only a 12% increase over the conventional 16-Mb DRAM. The maximum operating frequency is 90-MHz and the operating current at cache-bit is 156-mA. This memory is suitable for various types of computer systems such as personal digital assistants (PDA's), personal computer systems, and embedded controller applications     

A multitransducer microsystem for insect monitoring and control

This paper reports the development and in-vivo testing of a compact multitransducer microsystem intended for neuroethology experiments, including studies of gait dynamics in free-running insects. The system incorporates a combination of custom and off-the-shelf components. Its suite of measurement devices comprises leg-mounted strain gauges, electromyogram (EMG) and extracellular electrodes for the central nervous system, and a two-axis accelerometer. For signal conditioning and selection, the microsystem implements off-the-shelf electronics in a custom chip-on-board configuration. The microsystem measures 16 mm x 19 mm, supports 40 components and 56 I/O leads, and is assembled on a four-layer printed-circuit board. The entire system occupies only 0.65 cm3 and weighs less than 5 g. It has been successfully used to monitor leg-strain and EMG signals on walking cockroaches and for stimulation in the insect central nervous and muscular systems.     

一种具有片上译码/放大功能的微阵列电路及其与生物纳米系统的集成

提出了一种用SMIC 0.18μm CMOS混合信号工艺实现的全集成CMOS微阵列生物芯片,并成功地实现了其与一种新的生物纳米系统的集成.该电路实现了19μm×19μm电极的4×4(16单元)阵列,反相电极.电流模式放大器,译码电路,以及逻辑控制电路的单片集成,并能够提供-1.6～1.6V的组装电压,8bit的电位分辨率及39.8dB的电流增益,电源电压为1.8V,而失调和噪声电流分别为5.9nA和25.3pArms.在实验中,利用该电路实现了对30nm聚乙烯醇包裹的磁性粒子的片上选择性组装,并对实验结果进行了讨论,从而验证了该电路的正确性和该集成方法的可行性.