Bioresorbable silicon electronics for transient spatiotemporal mapping of electrical activity from the cerebral cortex.

Bioresorbable silicon electronics technology offers unprecedented opportunities to deploy advanced implantable monitoring systems that eliminate risks, cost and discomfort associated with surgical extraction. Applications include postoperative monitoring and transient physiologic recording after percutaneous or minimally invasive placement of vascular, cardiac, orthopaedic, neural or other devices. We present an embodiment of these materials in both passive and actively addressed arrays of bioresorbable silicon electrodes with multiplexing capabilities, which record in vivo electrophysiological signals from the cortical surface and the subgaleal space. The devices detect normal physiologic and epileptiform activity, both in acute and chronic recordings. Comparative studies show sensor performance comparable to standard clinical systems and reduced tissue reactivity relative to conventional clinical electrocorticography (ECoG) electrodes. This technology offers general applicability in neural interfaces, with additional potential utility in treatment of disorders where transient monitoring and modulation of physiologic function, implant integrity and tissue recovery or regeneration are required

Parameterized thermal macromodeling for fast and effective design of electronic components and systems

We present a parameterized macromodeling approach to perform fast and effective dynamic thermal simulations of electronic components and systems where key design parameters vary. A decomposition of the frequency-domain data samples of the thermal impedance matrix is proposed to improve the accuracy of the model and reduce the number of the computationally costly thermal simulations needed to build the macromodel. The methodology is successfully applied to analyze the impact of layout variations on the dynamic thermal behavior of a state-of-the-art 8-finger AlGaN/GaN HEMT grown on a SiC substrate

IC immunity modeling process validation using on-chip measurements

International audienceDeveloping integrated circuit (IC) immunity models and simulation flow has become one of the major concerns of ICs suppliers to predict whether a chip will pass susceptibility tests before fabrication and avoid redesign cost. This paper presents an IC immunity modeling process including the standard immunity test applied to a dedicated test chip. An on-chip voltage sensor is used to characterize the radio frequency interference propagation inside the chip and thus validate the immunity modeling process

Effective electrothermal analysis of electronic devices and systems with parameterized macromodeling

We propose a parameterized macromodeling methodology to effectively and accurately carry out dynamic electrothermal (ET) simulations of electronic components and systems, while taking into account the influence of key design parameters on the system behavior. In order to improve the accuracy and to reduce the number of computationally expensive thermal simulations needed for the macromodel generation, a decomposition of the frequency-domain data samples of the thermal impedance matrix is proposed. The approach is applied to study the impact of layout variations on the dynamic ET behavior of a state-of-the-art 8-finger AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor grown on a SiC substrate. The simulation results confirm the high accuracy and computational gain obtained using parameterized macromodels instead of a standard method based on iterative complete numerical analysis

Analysis of crosstalk and field coupling to lossy MTL's in a SPICE environment

This paper proposes a circuit model for lossy multiconductor transmission lines (MTLs) suitable for implementation in modern SPICE simulators, as well as in any simulator supporting differential operators. The model includes the effects of a uniform or nonuniform disturbing field illuminating the line and is especially devised for the transient simulation of electrically long wideband interconnects with frequency dependent per-unit-length parameters. The MTL is characterized by its transient matched scattering responses, which are computed including both dc and skin losses by means of a specific algorithm for the inversion of the Laplace transform. The line characteristics are then represented in terms of differential operators and ideal delays to improve the numerical efficiency and to simplify the coding of the model in existing simulators. The model can be successfully applied to many kinds of interconnects ranging from micrometric high-resistivity metallizations to low-loss PCBs and cables, and can be considered a practical extension of the widely appreciated lossless MTL SPICE model, which maintains the simplicity and efficienc

Carbon Nanotube Interconnect Modeling for Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits

In this research, we have studied and analyzed the physical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes. Based on the reported models for current transport behavior in non-ballistic CNT-FETs, we have built a dynamic model for non-ballistic CNT-FETs. We have also extended the surface potential model of a non-ballistic CNT-FET to a ballistic CNT-FET and developed a current transport model for ballistic CNT-FETs. We have studied the current transport in metallic carbon nanotubes. By considering the electron-electron interactions, we have modified two-dimensional fluid model for electron transport to build a semi-classical one-dimensional fluid model to describe the electron transport in carbon nanotubes, which is regarded as one-dimensional system. Besides its accuracy compared with two-dimensional fluid model and Lüttinger liquid theory, one-dimensional fluid model is simple in mathematical modeling and easier to extend for electronic transport modeling of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and single-walled carbon nanotube bundles as interconnections. Based on our reported one-dimensional fluid model, we have calculated the parameters of the transmission line model for the interconnection wires made of single-walled carbon nanotube, multi-walled carbon nanotube and single-walled carbon nanotube bundle. The parameters calculated from these models show close agreements with experiments and other proposed models. We have also implemented these models to study carbon nanotube for on-chip wire inductors and it application in design of LC voltage-controlled oscillators. By using these CNT-FET models and CNT interconnects models, we have studied the behavior of CNT based integrated circuits, such as the inverter, ring oscillator, energy recovery logic; and faults in CNT based circuits