A Fully Integrated, Low Noise and Low Power BiCMOS Front-end Readout System for Capacitive Detectors

Bipolar transistors are interesting for low noise front-end readout systems when high speed and low power consumption are required. This paper presents a fully integrated, low noise front-end design for the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments using the radiation hard SOI BiCMOS process. In the present prototype, the input-referred Equivalent Noise Charge (ENC) of 990 electrons (rms) for 12 pF detector capacitance with a shaping time of 25 ns and power consumption of 1.4 mW/channel has been measured. The gain of this front-end is 90 mV/MIP (Minimum Ionisation Particle: 1 fC) with non-linearity of less than 3% and linear input dynamic range is MIP. These results are obtained at room temperature and before irradiation. The measurements after irradiations by high intensity pion beam with an integrated flux of pions/cm² are also presented in this paper.     

Creep behavior of eutectic Sn-Cu lead-free solder alloy

Tensile creep behavior of precipitation-strengthened, tin-based eutectic Sn-0.7Cu alloy was investigated at three temperatures ranging from 303–393 K. The steady-state creep rates cover six orders of magnitude (10⁻³−10⁻⁸ s⁻¹) under the stress range of σ/E=10⁻⁴−10⁻³. The initial microstructure reveals that the intermetallic compound Cu₆Sn₅ is finely dispersed in the matrix of β-Sn. By incorporating a threshold stress, σ _th, into the analysis, the creep data of eutectic Sn-Cu at all temperatures can be fitted by a single straight line with a slope of 7 after normalizing the steady-state creep rate and the effective stress, indicating that the creep rates are controlled by the dislocation-pipe diffusion in the tin matrix. So the steady-state creep rate, , can be expressed as exp , where Q_c is the activation energy for creep, G is the temperature-dependent shear modulus, b is the Burgers vector, R is the universal gas constant, T is the temperature, σ is the applied stress, A is a material-dependent constant, and , in which σ _OB is the Orowan bowing stress, and k_R is the relaxation factor. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Transport properties of magnetoexcitons in coupled quantum wells

The transport times τ(P) and the mean free paths of magnetoexcitons in a quantum well and of spatially direct and indirect magnetoexcitons in coupled quantum wells in a random potential produced by thickness fluctuations of the quantum wells or a random distribution of impurity centers in quantum wells (P is the magnetic momentum of an exciton) are calculated. The function τ(P) is nonmonotonic, but as the distance D between the quantum wells increases, the maximum τ _max(P) gradually vanishes in the presence of scattering by surface terraces. As the magnetic field (H) increases, τ(0) decreases as for is the magnetic length) and as 1/H ² for D≫l. The behavior of the computed values of τ for large H agrees qualitatively with the experimental data. The mean free path length of a magnetoexciton exhibits at P≠0 a maximum whose magnitude decreases as the parameter D/l increases. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 596–601 (May 1998)     

CORDIC-Based Computation of ArcCos

CORDIC-based algorithms to compute cos and are proposed. The implementation requires a standard CORDIC module plus a module to compute the direction of rotation, this being the same hardware required for the extended CORDIC vectoring, recently proposed by the authors [T. Lang and E. Antelo, IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 47, no. 7, 1998, pp. 736–749.]. Although these functions can be obtained as a special case of this extended vectoring, the specific algorithm we propose here presents two significant improvements: (1) it uses the same datapath width as the standard CORDIC, even when t has 2n bits (to achieve a granularity of 2^–n for the whole range). In contrast, the extended vectoring unit requires about 2n bits. (2) no repetitions of iterations are needed (the extended vectoring needs some repetitions). The proposed algorithm is compatible with the extended vectoring and, in contrast with previous implementations, the number of iterations and the delay of each iteration are the same as for the conventional CORDIC algorithm.     

Planar defects and double-domain epitaxy in epitaxial YSi<Subscript>2−x</Subscript> and ErSi<Subscript>2−x</Subscript> thin films on Si substrates

Interfacial reactions of Y and Er thin films on both (111)Si and (001)Si have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Epitaxial rare-earth (RE) silicide films were grown on (111)Si. Planar defects, identified to be stacking faults on planes with 1/6 displacement vectors, were formed as a result of the coalescence of epitaxial silicide islands. Double-domain epitaxy was found to form in RE silicides on (001)Si samples resulting from a large lattice mismatch along one direction and symmetry conditions at the silicide/(001)Si interfaces. The orientation relationships are [0001]RESi_2−x// Si, RESi_2−x//(001)Si and [0001]RESi_2−x/ Si, RESi_2−x//(001)Si. The density of staking faults in (111) samples and the domain size in (001) samples were found to decrease and increase with annealing temperature, respectively.     

Can One Control the Vibrations of a Drum?

This paper considers the problem of constructing feedback stabilizing controllers for the wave operator on ⁿ (more generally AR systems determined by a hyperbolic operator). In order to accomplish this, it must first clarify the notion of an input-output structure on a distributed system, as well as what it means to interconnect two such systems. Both these notions are shown to be consequences of a structure which generalizes the standard causal structure of lumped systems determined by the flow of time. Given this apparatus, the paper then constructs feedback controllers which stabilize the wave equation along directions given by a proper cone in ⁿ.     

A kinetic study of structured surface relief patterning of GaP (\bar 1\bar 1\bar 1)

Orientation dependent etching of photolithographically patterned GaP was investigated using solutions of HCl:CH₃COOH:H₂O₂. The pattern was prepared using standard ultraviolet lithography and was a two-dimensional grid with an 18 μm repeat, consisting of 15 μm squares separated by 3 μm spaces. The mask sides were aligned along the and directions. Under appropriate etching conditions, high quality arrays of pyramids were prepared. These pyramids were defined by , and facets. It was shown that the etching process depended on the degree of solution aging after initial mixing. For a freshly prepared solution, the etching rate showed an inverse dependence on time. For short etching times (below 5 min), an intermediate etching profile was followed, while for long times (greater than 5 min) etching was kinetically controlled. We demonstrated that controlled etching at extremely low rates (0.1–0.5 μm/min) is feasible with this new approach.     

On the Scalability of 2-D Discrete Wavelet Transform Algorithms

The ability of a parallel algorithm to make efficient use of increasing computational resources is known as its scalability. In this paper, we develop four parallel algorithms for the 2-dimensional Discrete Wavelet Transform algorithm (2-D DWT), and derive their scalability properties on Mesh and Hypercube interconnection networks. We consider two versions of the 2-D DWT algorithm, known as the Standard (S) and Non-standard (NS) forms, mapped onto P processors under two data partitioning schemes, namely checkerboard (CP) and stripped (SP) partitioning. The two checkerboard partitioned algorithms (Non-standard form, NS-CP), and as (Standard form, S-CP); while on the store-and-forward-routed (SF-routed) Mesh and Hypercube they are scalable as (NS-CP), and as (S-CP), respectively, where M ² is the number of elements in the input matrix, and (0,1) is a parameter relating M to the number of desired octaves J as . On the CT-routed Hypercube, scalability of the NS-form algorithms shows similar behavior as on the CT-routed Mesh. The Standard form algorithm with stripped partitioning (S-SP) is scalable on the CT-routed Hypercube as M ² = (P ²), and it is unscalable on the CT-routed Mesh. Although asymptotically the stripped partitioned algorithm S-SP on the CT-routed Hypercube would appear to be inferior to its checkerboard counterpart S-CP, detailed analysis based on the proportionality constants of the isoefficiency function shows that S-SP is actually more efficient than S-CP over a realistic range of machine and problem sizes. A milder form of this result holds on the CT- and SF-routed Mesh, where S-SP would, asymptotically, appear to be altogether unscalable.     

The Design of a 2-V 900-MHz CMOS Bandpass Amplifier

A 900 MHz low-power CMOS bandpassamplifier suitable for the applications of RFfront-end in wireless communication receiversis proposed and analyzed. In this design, thetemperature compensation circuit is used tostabilize the amplifier gain so that theoverall amplifier has a good temperaturestability. Moreover, the compact tunablepositive-feedback circuit is connected to theintegrated spiral inductor to generate thenegative resistance and enhance its value. The simple diode varactor circuit isadopted for center-frequency tuning. These twoimproved circuits can reduce the powerdissipation of the amplifier. An experimentalchip fabricated by 0.5 mdouble-poly-double-metal CMOS technologyoccupies a chip area of ; chip area. The measuredresults have verified the performance of thefabricated CMOS bandpass amplifier. Under a2-V supply voltage, the measured quality factoris tunable between 4.5 and 50 and the tunablefrequency range is between 845 MHz and 915 MHz. At , the measured is 20 dB whereas thenoise figure is 5.2 dB in the passband. Thegain variation is less than 4 dB in the rangeof 0–80^°C. The dc powerdissipation is 35 mW. Suitable amplifier gain,low power dissipation, and good temperaturestability make the proposed bandpass amplifierquite feasible in RF front-endapplications.     

A Small Area Charge Sensitive Readout Chain with a Dual Mode of Operation

A charge sensitive readout chain has been designed and fabricated in acommercially available 0.8 m CMOS technology. The readout chain is optimizedfor pixel detectors measuring soft X-ray energies up to 20 KeV. In the first modean analog signal proportional to input charge is generated and processed in realtime. In the second mode a peak-and-hold operation is enabled and therelevant signal is processed in later time. This dual mode of operation iscontrolled by an external digital signal. The readout chain consists of a chargeamplifier, a shaper, an operational amplifier which can either operate as avoltage amplifier or a peak detector and an output buffer. Its area is . The gain at the shaper output is 378 mv/fC, theENC is 16 rms at 160 nsec shaping time. The overall gainis 557 mV/fC, the ENC is rms with 240 nsec peaking timeand 1.4 sec recovery time. The overall power dissipation is 1.5 mWatt with aload capacitance of 25 pF.     

Effect of off-orientation of seed crystal on silicon carbide (SiC) single-crystal growth on the (11 $$\bar 2$$ 0) surface0) surface

The effect of off-orientation growth has been investigated in terms of stacking fault formation during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals on the (11 0) seed crystal surface. Occurrence of stacking fault formation is largely dependent on the direction of off-orientation, and basal plane stacking fault density is significantly reduced by growing the crystals on a (11 0) seed crystal off-oriented toward 〈0001〉. The density of the basal plane stacking faults rapidly decreases from 100–150 cm⁻¹ to ∼10 cm⁻¹ as the degree of off-orientation is increased from 0 to 10 deg. The results are interpreted in the framework of microscopic facet formation during PVT growth, and the introduction of off-orientation of seed crystal is assumed to prevent (01 0) and (10 0) microfacet formation on the (11 0) growing surface through modification of the surface growth kinetics and to suppress the stacking fault formation. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Identification of prismatic slip bands in 4H SiC boules grown by physical vapor transport

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and KOH etching have been used to study the dislocation structure of 4H SiC wafers grown by physical vapor transport. A new type of threading dislocation arrays was observed. Rows of etch pits corresponding to dislocation arrays were observed in vicinity of micropipes, misoriented grains and polytypic inclusions at the periphery of the boules and extended along the directions. Plan view conventional and high resolution TEM showed that the arrays consisted of dislocations threading along the c-axis with Burgers vectors having edge components of the a/3 type. The Burgers vectors were parallel to the corresponding arrays. The dislocation arrays were interpreted as slip bands formed by dislocation glide in the prismatic slip system of hexagonal SiC during post-growth cooling.     

2D grid architectures for the DFT and the 2D DFT

New algorithms for the DFT and the 2-dimensional DFT are presented. The DFT and the 2-dimensional DFT matrices can be expressed as the Kronecker product of DFT matrices of smaller dimension. These algorithms are synthesized by combining the efficient factorization of the Kronecker product of matrices with the highly hardware efficient recursive implementation of the smaller DFT matrices, to yield these algorithms. The architectures of the processors implementing these algorithms consist of 2-dimensional grid of processing elements, have temporal and spatial locality of connections. For computing the DFT of sizeN or for the 2D DFT of sizeN=N ₁ byN ₁, these algorithms require 2N multipliers and adders, take approximately computational steps for computing a transform vector, and take approximately computation steps between the computation of two successive transform vectors.     

The shape of self-assembled InAs islands grown by molecular beam epitaxy

We have determined the shape of InAs quantum dots using reflection high energy electron diffraction. Our results indicate that self-assembled InAs islands possess a pyramidal shape with {136} bounding facets. This shape is characterized by C_2v symmetry and a parallelogram base, which is elongated along the direction. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images taken along the [110] and directions as well as atomic force microscopy images strongly support the {136} shape. Furthermore, polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectra show strong in-plane anisotropy, with emission predominantly polarized along the direction, consistent with the proposed quantum dot shape.     

Orthogonal cycle transforms of stochastic matrices

In this paper we investigate new Fourier series with respect to orthonormal families of directed cycles , which occur in the graph of a recurrent stochastic matrixP. Specifically, it is proved thatP may be approximated in a suitable Hilbert space by the Fourier series . This approach provides a proof in terms of Hilbert space of the cycle decomposition formula for finite stochastic matricesP.     

Microstructure of GaN grown by lateral confined epitaxy 2. GaN on patterned sapphire

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were used in order to study the microstructure and optical properties of GaN films grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on c-plane sapphire by lateral confined epitaxy (LCE). In this method, the substrate is etched prior to growth to form uniform mesas separated by trenches for laterally restricting growth area. As previously observed for LCE GaN on Si(111), the density of threading dislocations was significantly reduced in the areas close to the edge of mesas due to the lateral propagation of the dislocations. Hence, the overall material quality improves with decreasing mesa size, which is consistent with the observed increase in photoluminescence band edge peak intensity. Electron diffraction indicated ∼1° rotation about the [ ] axis between the mesa and trench material, which was also observed in the image contrast of these two regions with g= . Additionally, LCE samples prepared in [ ] and [ ] cross sections were used for comparing the growth rates in these two perpendicular directions. As theoretically expected, growth in the [ ] direction appears to proceed considerably faster than that in the [% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9qqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaaGymaiaaig% daceaIYaGbaebacaaIWaaaaa!38D1!\[11\bar 20\]] direction.     

Effects of substrate orientation and surface reconstruction on patterned substrate OMVPE of GaAs

Organometallic vapor phase epitaxial growth of GaAs on 320 nm high mesas was used to study the dependence of lateral growth upon the substrate misorientation from (100) and the mesa wall orientation on the substrate. GaAs (100) substrates were misoriented by 3° toward eight major crystallographic directions, consisting of the four nearest [111] and [110] directions. The mesa sidewalls were oriented either parallel to the 〈011〉 and 〈01 〉 directions or rotated by 45° to be parallel to the 〈001〉 and 〈010〉 directions. GaAs films were grown with TMGa and TBA at T=575°C. The lateral growth rates were up to 25 times higher than the vertical growth rate of 1.3 μm/hour. Optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that under the given growth conditions lateral growth off mesa sidewalls is most rapid in the 〈011〉 and/or 〈0 〉 directions and less in the perpendicular 〈01 〉 and 〈0 1〉 directions (lateral growth anisotropy). By raising the temperature to 625°C lateral growth in the 〈01 〉 -〈0 1〉 directions increased while it remained almost constant in the 〈011〉 -〈0 〉 directions. Published results show that the partial pressure of As also affects lateral growth. Differences in the lateral growth rates in the 〈011〉 and its opposite 〈0 〉 directions result from substrate misorientation but not from the orientation of the mesa walls on the substrate. Anisotropic lateral growth rates in different crystallographic directions appear to be caused by both, (1) 1-dimensional Ga diffusion defined by surface reconstruction, and (2) a relatively low energy barrier to atoms flowing over high-to-low terrace steps. A lateral growth model is proposed that describes anisotropic lateral growth at mesa sidewalls in terms of growth conditions and substrate misorientations. The model also explains the difference in the preferential lateral growth directions between MBE and OMVPE.     

CdZnTe graded buffer layers for HgCdTe/Si integration

To investigate the potential benefits of compositional grading for dislocation control in CdTe/Si growth, Cd_1−xZn_xTe buffer layers with x graded smoothly from 1 to 0 have been deposited on Si (211) surfaces. Growth has been characterized using reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and etch pit density measurements. XRD showed an increase in rocking curve full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) and global lattice tilt with decreasing x values. Tilt was also observed to increase as buffer growth temperature was increased. Final surface dislocation densities did not decrease below 7×10⁶ cm⁻². EPD surface dislocation measurements showed reduced dislocation densities and dislocation clustering along the and lines for CdTe cap layers grown on partially graded Cd_1−xZn_xTe buffer layers with slow compositional grading rates. Samples grown with faster grading rates showed higher final EPD values, with dislocations clustering along the and lines.     

Growth of oriented diamond film on single crystalline 6H-SiC substrates

The bias-enhanced nucleation (BEN) technique in hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HF-CVD) has been applied to single crystalline 6H-SiC substrates for the deposition of oriented diamond. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that on (000 ) face not only oriented diamond with relationship (111) Dia.//(000 )6H-SiC and 〈110〉Dia.//(11 0)6H-SiC, but also high nucleation density (>10⁹ cm⁻²) have been achieved. In the case of deposition on (0001) face of 6H-SiC under the same experimental conditions, although the nucleation density of diamond was enhanced, however, oriented diamond was not found. Diamond nucleation density is higher on (0001) face than that on (000 ) face. The differences in diamond oriented nucleation and nucleation density on these two faces are attributed to the difference of their specific free surface energy. The experimental results have shown that the 6H-SiC substrate surfaces are etched by the accelerated H-ions during BEN process, and many micro-triangular crystals with the faces of the kind {01 4} are formed on the substrate surface. Diamonds nucleate on the top of the micro-triangular crystals. Micro-Raman spectrum shows a strong feature of diamond crystals at 1334 cm⁻¹.     

Maskless pendeo-epitaxial growth of GaN films

High-resolution x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) of pendeo-epitaxial (PE) GaN films confirmed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results regarding the reduction in dislocations in the wings. Wing tilt ≤0.15° was due to tensile stresses in the stripes induced by thermal expansion mismatch between the GaN and the SiC substrate. A strong D°X peak at ≈3.466 eV (full-width half-maximum (FWHM) ≤300 μeV) was measured in the wing material. Films grown at 1020°C exhibited similar vertical [0001] and lateral [11 0] growth rates. Increasing the temperature increased the latter due to the higher thermal stability of the GaN(11 0). The (11 0) surface was atomically smooth under all growth conditions with a root mean square (RMS)=0.17 nm.