Cryogenic performance of a 3-14 GHz bipolar SiGe low-noise amplifier

The performance of silicon-germanium (SiGe) transistors under cryogenic operation is analysed. The design and characterization of a 3–14 GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA) using SiGe transistors at 300 K and at 13 K are presented. A three stage amplifier is implemented with bipolar transistors model BFU910F from NXP commercially available with a plastic package. The amplifier exhibits 36.8 dB average gain with average noise temperature of 103 K and 42 mW DC power consumption at 300 K ambient temperature. Whereas cooled down to 13 K ambient temperature, it provides 32.4 dB average gain, 11.4 K average noise temperature with a minimum of 7.2 K at 3.5 GHz and a DC power dissipation of 5.8 mW. The presented LNA demonstrates an outstanding performance at cryogenic temperature for a commercial plastic packaged transistor.The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness for the financial support provided under the grant ESP2015-70646-C2-2-R

Wide Bandgap Based Devices: Design, Fabrication and Applications, Volume II

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors are becoming a key enabling technology for several strategic fields, including power electronics, illumination, and sensors. This reprint collects the 23 papers covering the full spectrum of the above applications and providing contributions from the on-going research at different levels, from materials to devices and from circuits to systems

“Enhancement of Sensitivity and Selectivity of Chemical Sensors Through Thin Film Coatings and Surface Modifications

Chemical sensors have become major analytical tools for how we monitorand obtain information about the chemical nature of ourselves and oursurroundings. Two characteristics of chemical sensors that are under constantdevelopment and improvement are their selectivity and their sensitivity.Selectivity is a concern of any chemical sensor, without it the signal obtained bya chemical sensor cannot be related to the target species concentration with anyconfidence. With chemical sensors the selectivity is generally created by theused of a chemical recognition layer such as a permeable membrane, or a thinchemical film. The sensitivity of a chemical sensor is a concern, as with anyquantitative analytical method, so that small differences in analyte concentrationare distinguishable and trace analysis can be performed. In this work theselectivity and sensitivity of two distinctly different devices used as chemicalsensors are investigated. The first device combines a scintillation fiber with aselective polymer coating to create a chemical sensor selective for 137Cs. Boththe selectivity and sensitivity of the scintillation fiber are improved with theaddition of the chemical recognition layer. The second device investigated is amicrocantilever sensor. Microcantilevers have been used to monitor chemicalspresent in both air and liquid environments. However, in moving frommeasurements made in air to measurements made in liquids, a great deal ofsensitivity is lost due to differences in the interfacial energies of thevmicrocantilevers in these two different environments. To overcome this limitationsurface modification of the microcantilevers was investigated to improve thesensitivity of these devices. Surfaces of the microcantilevers were modified byseveral different methods, the binding of gold nanobeads to the surface, creationof a roughened dealloyed surface, and the physical milling and chemical etchingof grooves into the surface of the microcantilevers, each of these surfacemodifications was shown to enhance the sensitivity of microcantilever chemicalsenors over microcantilever chemical sensors with smooth surfaces

Techniques for Aging, Soft Errors and Temperature to Increase the Reliability of Embedded On-Chip Systems

This thesis investigates the challenge of providing an abstracted, yet sufficiently accurate reliability estimation for embedded on-chip systems. In addition, it also proposes new techniques to increase the reliability of register files within processors against aging effects and soft errors. It also introduces a novel thermal measurement setup that perspicuously captures the infrared images of modern multi-core processors

Circuits Techniques for Wireless Sensing Systems in High-Temperature Environments

RÉSUMÉ Dans ce projet, nous proposons de nouvelles techniques d’intégration basées sur la technologie de nitrure de gallium (GaN). Ces techniques permettent de mettre en œuvre un système de transmission de données sans fil entièrement intégré dédié aux capteurs de surveillance pour des applications d'environnement hostile. Le travail nécessite de trouver une technologie capable de résister à l'environnement sévère, principalement à haute température, et de permettre un niveau d'intégration élevé. Le système réalisé serait le premier dispositif de transmission de données basé sur la technologie GaN. En plus de supporter les conditions de haute température (HT) dépassant 600 oC, le système de transmission sans fil attendu devrait fonctionner à travers une barrière métallique séparant le module émetteur du récepteur. Une revue de la littérature sur les applications en environnements hostiles ainsi que sur l'électronique correspondante a été réalisée pour sélectionner la technologie AlGaN/GaN HEMT (transistor à haute mobilité d'électrons) comme une technologie appropriée. Le kit de conception GaN500, fourni par le Conseil national de recherches du Canada (CNRC), a été adopté pour concevoir et mettre en œuvre le système proposé. Cette technologie a été initialement introduite pour desservir les applications radiofréquences (RF) et micro-ondes. Par conséquent, elle n'avait pas été validée pour concevoir et fabriquer des circuits intégrés analogiques et numériques complexes et son utilisation à des températures extrêmes n’était pas validée. Nous avons donc caractérisé à haute température des dispositifs fabriqués en GaN500 et des éléments passifs intégrés correspondants ont été réalisés. Ces composants ont été testés sur la plage de température comprise entre 25 et 600 oC dans cette thèse. Les résultats de caractérisation ont été utilisés pour extraire les modèles HT des HEMT intégrés et des éléments passifs à utiliser dans les simulations. En outre, plusieurs composants intégrés basés sur la technologie GaN500, notamment des NOT, NOR, NAND, XOR, XNOR, registres, éléments de délais et oscillateurs ont été mis en œuvre et testés en HT. Des circuits analogiques à base de GaN500, comprenant un amplificateur de tension, un comparateur, un redresseur simple alternance, un redresseur double alternance, une pompe de charge et une référence de tension ont également été mis en œuvre et testés en HT. Le système de transmission de données mis en œuvre se compose d'un module de modulation situé dans la partie émettrice et d'un module de démodulation situé dans la partie réceptrice.----------ABSTRACT In this project, we propose new integrated-circuit design techniques based on the Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology to implement a fully-integrated data transmission system dedicated to wireless sensing in harsh environment applications. The goal in this thesis is to find a proper technology able to withstand harsh-environments (HEs), mainly characterized by high temperatures, and to allow a high-integration level. The reported design is the first data transmission system based on GaN technology. In addition to high temperature (HT) environment exceeding 600 oC, the expected wireless transmission systems may need to operate through metallic barriers separating the transmitting from the receiving modules. A wide literature review on the HE applications and corresponding electronics has been done to select the AlGaN/GaN HEMT (high-electron-mobility transistor) technology. The GaN500 design kit, provided by National Research Council of Canada (NRC), was adopted to design and implement the proposed system. This technology was initially provided to serve radio frequency (RF) and microwave circuits and applications. Consequently, it was not validated to implement complex integrated systems and to withstand extreme temperatures. Therefore, the high-temperature characterization of fabricated GaN500 devices and corresponding integrated passive elements was performed over the temperature range 25-600 oC in this thesis. The characterization results were used to extract HT models of the integrated HEMTs and passive elements to be used in simulations. Also, several GaN500-based digital circuits including NOT, NOR, NAND, XOR, XNOR, register, Delay and Ring oscillator were implemented and tested at HT. GaN500-based Analog circuits including front-end amplifier, comparator, half-bridge rectifier, full-bridge rectifier, charge pump and voltage reference were implemented and tested at HT as well. The implemented data transmission system consists of a modulation module located in the transmitting part and a demodulation block located in the receiving part. The proposed modulation system is based on the delta-sigma modulation technique and composed of a front-end amplifier, a comparator, a register, a charge pump and a ring oscillator. The output stage of the transmitter is intended to perform the load-shift-keying (LSK) modulation required to accomplish the data transmission through the dedicated inductive link. At the receiver level, three demodulation topologies were proposed to acquire the delivered LSK-modulated signals

COBE's search for structure in the Big Bang

The launch of Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and the definition of Earth Observing System (EOS) are two of the major events at NASA-Goddard. The three experiments contained in COBE (Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR), Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS), and Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE)) are very important in measuring the big bang. DMR measures the isotropy of the cosmic background (direction of the radiation). FIRAS looks at the spectrum over the whole sky, searching for deviations, and DIRBE operates in the infrared part of the spectrum gathering evidence of the earliest galaxy formation. By special techniques, the radiation coming from the solar system will be distinguished from that of extragalactic origin. Unique graphics will be used to represent the temperature of the emitting material. A cosmic event will be modeled of such importance that it will affect cosmological theory for generations to come. EOS will monitor changes in the Earth's geophysics during a whole solar color cycle

Label-free detection of biomolecules with Ta2O5-based field effect devices

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Nanotecnologias e NanociênciasInternational Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects

The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included

CMOS IMAGE SENSORS FOR LAB-ON-A-CHIP MICROSYSTEM DESIGN

The work described herein serves as a foundation for the development of CMOS imaging in lab-on-a-chip microsystems. Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems attempt to emulate the functionality of a cell biology lab by incorporating multiple sensing modalidites into a single microscale system. LOC are applicable to drug development, implantable sensors, cell-based bio-chemical detectors and radiation detectors. The common theme across these systems is achieving performance under severe resource constraints including noise, bandwidth, power and size. The contributions of this work are in the areas of two core lab-on-a-chip imaging functions: object detection and optical measurements

Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering is currently relatively wide scientific area which has been constantly bringing innovations with an objective to support and improve all areas of medicine such as therapy, diagnostics and rehabilitation. It holds a strong position also in natural and biological sciences. In the terms of application, biomedical engineering is present at almost all technical universities where some of them are targeted for the research and development in this area. The presented book brings chosen outputs and results of research and development tasks, often supported by important world or European framework programs or grant agencies. The knowledge and findings from the area of biomaterials, bioelectronics, bioinformatics, biomedical devices and tools or computer support in the processes of diagnostics and therapy are defined in a way that they bring both basic information to a reader and also specific outputs with a possible further use in research and development