A new 0.35 μm CMOS electronic interface for wide range floating capacitive and grounded/floating resistive sensor applications

In this paper we propose a novel interface circuit suitable for the read-out of both wide range floating capacitive and grounded/floating resistive sensors. This solution, employing only two Operational Amplifiers (OAs) as active blocks and some passive components, is based on a square-wave oscillating circuit topology which, instead of a voltage integration typically performed by other solutions in the literature, operates a voltage differentiation. Therefore, the proposed circuit, performing an impedance-to-period (Z–T) conversion, results to be suitable as first analog front-end for both wide variation capacitive (e.g., relative humidity) and resistive (e.g., gas) sensors. Its sensitivity and dynamic range can be easily set through external passive components. Preliminary experimental measurements, which have characterized and validated this solution, have been conducted through a suitable prototype PCB fabricated with discrete commercial components. Then, the proposed interface has been also designed at transistor level, in a standard CMOS technology (AMS 0.35 um), developing a single-chip integrated circuit with low-voltage (1.8 V, single supply) low-power (about 350 μW) characteristics in a very small silicon area (lower than 0.6 mm²) which results to be suitable for sensor array configurations and portable applications. Further experimental results, achieved utilizing commercial sample resistors and capacitors to emulate sensor behavior, have shown a linear trend and a satisfactory accuracy in the evaluation of floating capacitive (in the range 10 pF–1 μF), grounded resistive (in the range 150 kΩ–1.5 MΩ) and floating resistive (in the range 10 MΩ–1 GΩ) variations, also when compared to other solutions presented in the literature. The satisfactory interface behavior has been also confirmed by the measurement of both relative humidity through the commercial sensor Honeywell HCH-1000 (capacitive) and carbon monoxide CO through the commercial air quality sensor FIGARO TGS-2600 (resistive).     

Low power resistive switching memory using Cu metallic filament in Ge0.2Se0.8 solid-electrolyte

Bipolar resistive switching memory device using Cu metallic filament in Au/Cu/Ge_0.2Se_0.8/W memory device structure has been investigated. This resistive memory device has the suitable threshold voltage of V_th > 0.18 V, good resistance ratio (R_High/R_Low) of 2.6 × 10³, good endurance of >10⁴ cycles with a programming current of 0.3 mA/0.8 mA, and 5 h of retention time at low compliance current of 10 nA. The low resistance state (R_Low) of the memory device decreases with increasing the compliance current from 1 nA to 500 μA for different device sizes from 0.2 μm to 4 μm. The memory device can work at very low compliance current of 1 nA, which can be applicable for extremely low power-consuming memory devices.     

Electrical and photovoltaic properties of an organic-inorganic heterojunction based on a BODIPY dye

An organic-inorganic heterojunction based on a BODIPY dyes has been produced by forming dye thin film on n-Si. The electrical parameters of the structure have been investigated by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. The ideality factor, the barrier height and the series resistance values of the diode have been calculated as 2.43, 0.84 eV, and about 1.3 kΩ, respectively. The diode behaves as a non-ideal diode because of the series resistance and interface layer. The barrier height value obtained from I-V measurement has been compared with one from C-V measurement. Moreover, it has been seen that the diode is highly sensitive to the light and the reverse bias current increases about 1 × 10⁴ times at −1 V under 100 mW/cm² and AM1.5 illumination condition. The short photocurrent density (J_sc) and the open circuit voltage (V_oc), the fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (η) have been determined as 3.78 mA/cm², 327 mV, 0.28 and 0.48 %, respectively.     

A low-power readout circuit for nanowire based hydrogen sensor

This paper presents a fully integrated lock-in amplifier intended for nanowire gas sensing. The nanowire will change its conductivity according to the concentration of an absorbing gas. To ensure an accurate nanowire impedance measurement, a lock-in technique is implemented to attenuate the low frequency noise and offset by synchronous demodulation or phase-sensitive detection (PSD). The dual-channel lock-in amplifier also provides both resistive and capacitive information of the nanowire in separate channels. Measurement results of test resistors and capacitors show a 2% resolution in the resistance range 10-40 kΩ and a 3% resolution in the capacitance range 0.5-1.8 nF. Moreover, a 28.7-32.1 kΩ impedance variation was measured through the lock-in amplifier for a single palladium nanowire that was exposed to a decreasing hydrogen concentration (10% H₂ in N₂ to air). The chip has been implemented with UMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology and occupies an area of 2 mm². The power consumption of the readout circuit is 2 mW from a 1.8 V supply.     

Resistive switching characteristics of ultra-thin TiOx

We investigated the resistive switching characteristics of Ir/TiO_x/TiN structure with 50 nm active area. We successfully formed ultra-thin (4 nm) TiO_x active layer using oxidation process of TiN BE, which was confirmed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling. Compared to large area device (50 μm), which shows only ohmic behavior, 250 and 50 nm devices show very stable resistive switching characteristics. Due to the formation and rupture of oxygen vacancies induced conductive filament at Ir and TiO_x interface, bipolar resistive switching was occurred. We obtained excellent switching endurance up to 10⁶ times with 100 ns pulse and negligible degradation of each resistance state at 85 °C up to 10⁴ s.     

A cost-effective flexible MEMS technique for temperature sensing

A simplified, cost-effective flexible micro-electronic-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology has been developed for realizing a temperature-sensing array on a flexible polyimide substrate. The fabrication technique utilized liquid polyimide to form flexible film on the rigid silicon wafer using a temporary carrier during the fabrication. The platinum thin film is employed as temperature sensitive material and 8×8 temperature-sensing arrays were micromachined on the polyimide, from which the silicon wafer carrier was removed at the end of fabrication. The platinum thin film temperature sensor exhibits excellent linearity and its temperature coefficient of resistance reaches 0.00291 °C⁻¹. Because of the effective thermal isolation, the flexible temperature sensors show a high sensitivity of 1.12 Ω/°C at 10 mA to the constant drive current. The flexible MEMS technology based on liquid polyimide enables the development of flexible, compliant, robust, and multi-modal sensor skins for many other important applications, such as robotics, biomedicine, and wearable microsystems.     

A novel ultra-high compliance, high output impedance low power very accurate high performance current mirror

In this paper a novel ultra-high compliance, low power, very accurate and high output impedance current mirror/source is proposed. Deliberately composed elements and a good combination (for a mutual auto control action) of negative and positive feedbacks in the proposed circuit made it unique in gathering ultra-high compliances, high output impedance and high accuracy ever demanded merits. The principle of operation of this unique structure is discussed, its most important formulas are derived and its outstanding performance is verified by HSPICE simulation in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS, BSIM3 and Level49 technology. Simulation results with 1 V power supply and 8 μA input current show an input and output minimum voltages of 0.058 and 0.055 V, respectively, which interestingly provide the highest yet reported compliances for current mirrors implemented by regular CMOS technology. Besides an input resistance of 13.3 Ω, an extremely high output resistance of 34.3 GΩ and −3 dB cutoff frequency of 210 MHz are achieved for the proposed circuit while it consumes only 42.5 μW and its current transfer error (at bias point) is the excellent value of 0.02%.     

Quasi-floating gate MOSFET based low voltage current mirror

This paper demonstrates the use of quasi-floating gate MOSFET (QFGMOS) in the design of a low voltage current mirror and highlights its advantages over the floating gate MOSFET (FGMOS). The use of resistive compensation has been shown to enhance the bandwidth of QFGMOS current mirror. The proposed current mirror based on QFGMOS has a current range up to 500 μA with offset of 2.2 nA, input resistance of 235 Ω, output resistance of 117 kΩ, current transfer ratio of 0.98, dissipates 0.83 mW power and exhibits bandwidth of 656 MHz which increases to 1.52 GHz with resistive compensation. The theoretical and simulation results are in good agreement. The workability of the circuits has been verified using PSpice simulation for 0.13 μm technology with a supply voltage of ±0.5 V.     

Effect of polyimide baking on bump resistance in flip-chip solder joints

The effect of polyimide (PI) thermal process on the bump resistance of flip-chip solder joint is investigated for 28 nm technology device with aggressive extreme low-k (ELK) dielectric film scheme and lead-free solder. Kelvin structure is designed in the bump array to measure the resistance of single solder bump. An additional low-temperature pre-baking before standard PI curing increases the bump resistance from 9.3 mΩ to 225 mΩ. The bump resistance increment is well explained by a PI outgassing model established based on the results of Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrophotometer (GC–MS) analysis. The PI outgassing substances re-deposit on the Al bump pad, increasing the resistance of interface between under-bump metallurgy (UBM) and underneath Al pad. The resistance of interface is twenty-times higher than pure solder bump, which dominates the measured value of bump resistance. Low-temperature plasma etching prior to UBM deposition is proposed to retard the PI outgassing, and it effectively reduces the bump resistance from 225 mΩ to 10.8 mΩ.     

RTD characteristics for micro-thermal sensors

The physical and electrical characteristics of MgO (medium layer) and Pt (sensor material) thin films deposited by a reactive RF sputtering method and a magnetron sputtering method, respectively, were analyzed as a function of the annealing temperature and time by using a four-point probe, SEM, and XRD. After being annealed at 1000 °C for 2 h, the MgO layer showed good adhesive properties on both layers (Pt and SiO₂ layers) without any chemical reactions, and the surface resistivity and the resistivity of the Pt thin film were 0.1288 Ω/□ and 12.88 μΩ cm, respectively. Pt resistance patterns were made on MgO/SiO₂/Si substrates by the lift-off method, and Pt resistance thermometer devices (RTDs) for micro-thermal sensor applications were fabricated by using Pt-wire, Pt-paste, and spin-on-glass (SOG). From the Pt RTD samples having a Pt thin film thickness of 1.0 μm, we obtained a temperature coefficient of resistor (TCR) value of 3927 ppm/°C, which is close to the Pt bulk value, and the ratio variation of the resistance value was highly linear in the temperature range of 25-400 °C.     

A fully integrated feedback AGC loop for ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) RF transceiver applications

This work presents an efficient solution for automatic gain control (AGC) loop in ZigBee transceiver compatible to IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The design is based on a RF (Radio Frequency) and linear IF (Intermediate Frequency) chain where the signal amplification is done in the RF front-end blocks and analog VGAs (variable gain amplifiers). The gains of the RF block and VGA are digitally controlled by the DAGC (Digital AGC) block to ensure that the ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) operates inside its dynamic range. Feedback loop architecture is employed for the advantage of high linearity due to its inherent characteristic. The whole AGC loop has been integrated in the ZigBee transceiver which was fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The AGC loop achieves a dynamic range of about 95 dB with the gain error of less than ±0.5 dB. The two-channel VGAs and peak detectors occupy an area of 1.5 mm×0.4 mm and dissipate 1.71 mW from a single 1.8 V power supply. The DAGC has been integrated in the digital baseband processor and occupies an area of about 0.4 mm×0.4 mm. The max gain lock time of the AGC loop is about 1.25 μs.     

High Performance Indium‐Gallium‐Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistor via Interface Engineering

Solution‐processed indium‐gallium‐zinc oxide (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) have become well known in recent decades for their promising commercial potential. However, the unsatisfactory performance of small‐sized IGZO TFTs is limiting their applicability. To address this issue, this work introduces an interface engineering method of bi‐functional acid modification to regulate the interfaces between electrodes and the channels of IGZO TFTs. This method increases the interface oxygen vacancy concentration and reduces the surface roughness, resulting in higher mobility and enhanced contact at the interfaces. The TFT devices thus treated display contact resistance reduction from 9.1 to 2.3 kΩmm, as measured by the gated four‐probe method, as well as field‐effect mobility increase from 1.5 to 4.5 cm² (V s)^?1. Additionally, a 12 × 12 organic light emitting diode display constructed using the acid modified IGZO TFTs as switching and driving elements demonstrate the applicability of these devices.     

横向场压电液相传感器测量方法的研究

研究了横向场压电液相传感器的串联谐振频率、动态电阻、机械品质因数等特性参数的测量方法.采用自动调制电容补偿技术对静态电容进行了有效补偿,保证了串联臂特性的检测;同时结合直接数字式频率合成器(DDS)技术,实现了半功率点法对机械品质因数的测试.实验结果表明,该方法测量的动态电阻范围大(达到5 kΩ),稳定性较高.     

Design and fabrication of 94 GHz MMIC single balanced resistive mixer without IF balun

In this paper, a 94 GHz microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) single balanced resistive mixer affording high LO-to-RF isolation was designed without an IF balun. The single balanced resistive mixer, which does not require an external IF balun, was designed using a 0.1 μm InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). The designed MMIC single balanced resistive mixer was fabricated using the 0.1 μm MHEMT MMIC process. From the measurement, conversion loss of the single balanced resistive mixer was 14.7 dB at an LO power of 10 dBm. The P_1 dB (1 dB compression point) values of the input and output were 10 dBm and −5.3 dBm, respectively. The LO-to-RF isolation of the single balanced resistive mixer was −35.2 dB at 94.03 GHz. The single balanced resistive mixer in this work provided high LO-to-RF isolation without an IF balun.     

Fabrication of micro heaters on polycrystalline 3C-SiC suspended membranes for gas sensors and their characteristics

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and characteristics of micro heaters mad on AlN (0.1 μm)/3C-SiC (1 μm) suspended membranes using surface micromachining technology. 3C-SiC and AlN thin films, which have a large energy band gap and very low lattice mismatch, were used for high-temperature environments. A Pt thin film was used as micro heaters and temperature sensor materials. The resistance of the temperature detector (RTD) and the power consumption of the micro heater were measured and calculated. The heater is designed for an operating temperature up to about 800 °C and can be operated at about 500 °C with a power of 312 mW. The thermal coefficient of the resistance (TCR) of fabricated Pt RTD’s is 3174.64 ppm/°C. The thermal distribution measured by IR thermovision is uniform across the membrane surface.     

Flexible and transparent ReRAM with GZO memory layer and GZO-electrodes on large PEN sheet

Fabrication of flexible transparent resistive random access memory (FT-ReRAM) which consists of Ga doped ZnO (GZO) film not only as a memory layer but also as electrodes on the large Poly Ethylene Naphthalate sheet was attained by introducing RF plasma assist DC magnetron sputtering method. The averaged transmittance in the visible region (400-800 nm) was 66%. The memory effect was studied by using conducting atomic force microscope. It was suggested that the increase of Joule heating and oxygen vacancy density enhances memory effect, which is consistent with the redox model which has been proposed as the switching mechanism for conventional ReRAM. Stable and repeatable bi-polar resistive switching by application of the low voltage less than 2 V and low current less than 100 μA was confirmed in the FT-GZO-ReRAM. Reset switching, which is a switching from the low to the high resistance states, in GZO-ReRAM was confirmed to be smooth and continuous, which will enable a multilevel application. It was suggested that the smooth and continuous reset was brought about by Ga-doping.     

Effect of dimensional parameters on the current of MSM photodetector

In this work, we present the influence of dimensional parameters on dark current and photocurrent of the metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector (MSM). MSM photodetectors of different sizes have been fabricated on GaAs (NID). The active area of MSM samples varies between 1×1 μm² and 10×10 μm² with equal electrodes spacing and finger widths (l=D) varying between 0.2 and 1 μm. The I(V) characterization in inverse and direct polarization in darkness shows good symmetry of curves, which shows the good performance of components and successful fulfillment of the Schottky contacts. The application of laser fiber of incident light power of 16 mW at wavelength of 850 nm for the illumination of the MSM photodetectors showed the evolution of the photocurrent ranging from 0.75 to 1.81 mA, respectively, for 1 to 0.2 μm electrodes spacing at 3 V and active area S=3×3 μm². We showed also that variation ranging from 0.45 to 2.5 mA, respectively, for S=1×1 μm² to S=10×10 μm² at 3 V and 0.3 μm electrodes spacing. The resistance of MSM photodetectors obtained evolved proportionally to the electrodes spacing (0.87 kΩ for D=0.2 μm and 2.27 kΩ for D=1 μm with S=3×3 μm²) and inversely proportional to the surface area (2.02 kΩ for S=1×1 μm², and 0.56 kΩ for S=10×10 μm² with 0.3 μm inter electrodes spacing).     

Degradation of thermal interface materials for high-temperature power electronics applications

The specific thermal resistance values of several thermal interface materials (TIMs) intended to thermally enhance Cu contact pairs and their degradation under isothermal ageing at 170 °C have been investigated using Cu stack samples consisting of 10 Cu discs and 9 layers of the TIMs. The results obtained indicate that the specific thermal resistance values of the as-prepared Cu stack samples, one with conductive Ag thermal grease, one with Sn–3.5Ag solder joints and one with 25 μm thick Sn foil as TIMs are significantly lower than those of the Cu stack sample without any TIM. However, after the isothermal ageing at 170 °C for 90 days, the specific thermal resistance values of the samples with these TIMs are not substantially different from those of the sample without any TIM. Also reported in this paper is an estimation of testing errors for the specific thermal resistance values, microstructure characterization of the aged samples and effect of the degradation of these TIMs on the thermal performance of a high-temperature half bridge power switch module.     

A high precision temperature control system for CMOS integrated wide range resistive gas sensors

In this work we present an integrated interface for wide range resistive gas sensors able to heat the sensor resistance through a constant power heater block at 0°C–350°C operating temperatures. The proposed temperature control system is formed by a sensor heater (which fixes the sensor temperature at about 200°C), a R/f (or R/T) converter, which converts the resistive value into a period (or frequency), and can be able to reveal about 6 decades variation (from 10 KΩ up to 10 GΩ), and a digital subsystem that control the whole systems loop. This interface allows high sensibility and precision and performs good stability in temperature and power supply drift and low power characteristics so it can be used also in portable applications. Test measurements, performed on the fabricated chip, have shown an excellent agreement between theoretical expectations and simulation results. Giuseppe Ferri is an associate professor in Electronics at the Department of Electrical Engineering of L’ Aquila University, Ital. In 1993 he has been a visiting researcher at SGS-Thomson Milano, working in bipolar low-voltage op-amp design. In 1994-95 he has been visiting researcher at KU Leuven working in low-voltage CMOS design in the group of Prof. Sansen. His research activity is actually centred on the analog design of integrated circuits for portable applications (e.g., sensors and biomedicals) and circuit theory. He is co-author of a book entitled “Low Voltage, Low Power CMOS Current Conveyors”, Kluwer ed. (2003) and four text-books in Italian on Analogue Microelectronics (2005, 2006). Moreover, he is author and co-author of 74 papers on international and Italian journals and 123 talks at national and international conferences. Vincenzo Stornelli was born in Avezzano (AQ), Italy, on May 31, 1980. He received the Electronics Engineering degree (cum laude) in July 2004. In October 2004 he joined the Department of Electronic Engineering, University of L’Aquila, where he is actually involved with problems concerning project and design of integrated circuits for RF and sensor applications, CAD modelling, characterization, and design analysis of active microwave components, circuits, and subsystems. He regularly teaches courses of the European Computer patent and has regular collaborations with national corporations such as Thales Italia     

Analysis of electronic parameters and interface states of boron dispersed triethanolamine/p-Si structure by AFM, I-V, C-V-f and G/ω-V-f techniques

The electronic parameters and interface state properties of boron dispersed triethanolamine/p-Si structure have been investigated by atomic force microscopy, I-V, C-V-f and G/ω-V-f techniques. The surface topography and phase image of the TEA-B film deposited onto p-Si substrate were analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The atomic force microscopy results show a homogenous distribution of boron particles in triethanolamine film. The electronic parameters (barrier height, ideality factor and average series resistance) obtained from I-V characteristics of the diode are 0.81 eV, 2.07 and 5.04 kΩ, respectively. The interface state density of the diode was found to be 2.54 × 10¹⁰ eV⁻ cm⁻² under V_g = 0. The obtained D_it values obtained from C-V and G/ω measurements are in agreement with each other. The profile of series resistance dependent on voltage and frequency confirms the presence of interface states in boron dispersed triethanolamine/p-Si structure. It is evaluated that the boron dispersed triethanolamine controls the electronic parameters and interface properties of conventional Al/p-Si diode.