mm-Wave Silicon ICs: Challenges and Opportunities

Millimeter-waves offer promising opportunities and interesting challenges to silicon integrated circuit and system designers. These challenges go beyond standard circuit design questions and span a broader range of topics including wave propagation, antenna design, and communication channel capacity limits. It is only meaningful to evaluate the benefits and shortcoming of silicon-based mm-wave integrated circuits in this broader context. This paper reviews some of these issues and presents several solutions to them

Use of electronic medical records and biomarkers to manage risk and resource efficiencies

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Photonic integration enabling new multiplexing concepts in optical board-to-board and rack-to-rack interconnects

New broadband applications are causing the datacenters to proliferate, raising the bar for higher interconnection speeds. So far, optical board-to-board and rack-to-rack interconnects relied primarily on low-cost commodity optical components assembled in a single package. Although this concept proved successful in the first generations of optical-interconnect modules, scalability is a daunting issue as signaling rates extend beyond 25 Gb/s. In this paper we present our work towards the development of two technology platforms for migration beyond Infiniband enhanced data rate (EDR), introducing new concepts in board-to-board and rack-to-rack interconnects. The first platform is developed in the framework of MIRAGE European project and relies on proven VCSEL technology, exploiting the inherent cost, yield, reliability and power consumption advantages of VCSELs. Wavelength multiplexing, PAM-4 modulation and multi-core fiber (MCF) multiplexing are introduced by combining VCSELs with integrated Si and glass photonics as well as BiCMOS electronics. An in-plane MCF-to-SOI interface is demonstrated, allowing coupling from the MCF cores to 340x400 nm Si waveguides. Development of a low-power VCSEL driver with integrated feed-forward equalizer is reported, allowing PAM-4 modulation of a bandwidth-limited VCSEL beyond 25 Gbaud. The second platform, developed within the frames of the European project PHOXTROT, considers the use of modulation formats of increased complexity in the context of optical interconnects. Powered by the evolution of DSP technology and towards an integration path between inter and intra datacenter traffic, this platform investigates optical interconnection system concepts capable to support 16QAM 40GBd data traffic, exploiting the advancements of silicon and polymer technologies

A 5G mm-wave compact voltage-controlled oscillator in 0.25 µm pHEMT technology

A 5G mm-wave monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented in this paper. It is designed on GaAs substrate and with 0.25 µm-pHEMT technology from UMS foundry and it is based on pHEMT varactors in order to achieve a very small chip size. A 0dBm-output power over the entire tuning range from 27.67 GHz to 28.91 GHz, a phase noise of -96.274 dBc/Hz and -116.24 dBc/Hz at 1 and 10 MHz offset frequency from the carrier respectively are obtained on simulation. A power consumption of 111 mW is obtained for a chip size of 0.268 mm2. According to our knowledge, this circuit occupies the smallest surface area compared to pHEMTs oscillators published in the literature

Germanium-doped silicon (SIGE) as a material for the manufacture of power semiconductor devices resistant to secondary cosmic radiation

Проблема непредсказуемого выхода из строя силовых полупроводниковых приборов может быть решена при использовании технологий, обеспечивающих повышение их радиационной стойкости. Использование монокристаллов кремния, легированных германием, замедляет деградацию характеристик приборов при воздействии ионизирующих излучений, что является альтернативой дефицитным и дорогостоящим GaAs, GaN, SiC, применяемым для этих целей. Воздействие вторичного космического излучения может быть ответственным за деградацию электрофизических параметров монокристаллов кремния при их длительном хранении, а также за снижение эффективности работы полупроводниковых преобразователей солнечной энергии.The problem of unpredictable failure of power semiconductor devices can be solved by using technologies that increase their radiation resistance. The use of single crystals of germanium doped silicon slows down the degradation of the characteristics of devices when exposed to ionizing radiation, which is an alternative to scarce and expensive GaAs, GaN, SiC, used for these purposes. The impact of secondary cosmic radiation maybe responsible for the degradation of the electrophysical parameters of silicon single crystals during their long-term storage, as well as for the decrease in the operating efficiency of semiconductor solar energy converters