Program

Speaker: Gianluca Traversi, University of Bergamo

Abstract

Detectors of future High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments will require advanced pixel readout processors to be operated in environments with unprecedented levels of radiation and particle rates. The 28 nm CMOS process is the major commercial successor of the 65 nm one, widely used for the design of advanced ASICs in the field of instrumentation for radiation detectors in high energy physics experiments in view of the so-called Phase 2 upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The HEP community is now migrating to the 28 nm process for the design of readout electronics for pixel detectors and other mixed-signal circuits. This CMOS node, in addition to having a clear advantage in the integration density of digital blocks and operation speed, has been thoroughly characterized in terms of radiation hardness showing very promising results. But besides these benefits, process tricks introduced in nanoscaled technologies might show some drawbacks affecting the analog parameters of the devices such as noise performance and leakage currents. In this talk, the main device parameters of the 28 nm CMOS node with a particular focus on gain and noise, together with the most recent designs of analog building blocks developed for future mixed-signal front-end ASICs will be presented and discussed.

About the Speaker

Gianluca Traversi is an associate professor of electronics with the University of Bergamo, Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a technology research fellow with the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). His professional expertise is in the fields of the design of front-end circuits for radiation detectors, of the study of noise in electronic devices and circuits, and of the development of instrumentation for solid-state device and circuit characterization. Gianluca Traversi is author or coauthor of more than 200 among papers published in scientific journals and conference proceedings.

Speaker: Michael Waltl, Vienna University of Technology

Abstract

Electronic integrated circuits (ICs) have drastically influenced our society over the past decades and have become an indispensable part of our everyday life. A central aspect for applications is long-term failure-safe and stable operation which depends on the robustness, i.e., the high performance and reliable operation, of the microelectronic components employed in these circuits. The requirements for the electronics are thereby strongly application-dependent. For instance, for analog applications low intrinsic noise of the electronics is critical. For SiC power transistors, as used for instance in photovoltaic cells, and automotive applications, high carrier mobility is key to reducing losses in power conversion applications. However, electronic devices suffer from time-zero and time-dependent variability in their performance, which must be investigated in detail for these effects to be considered at an early stage of the circuit design process. The root cause for the non-ideality effects of integrated transistors lies in imperfections at the atomic level, which can emerge as electrically active sites, so-called defects. These defects can become charged during operation, thereby altering the device's characteristics. It should also be noted that device and circuit variability considerably increases for scaled technology nodes.
This talk addresses the challenges of robust electronic circuits, the most important properties affecting the reliability of FETs, and the variability issues in integrated circuits. The manner in which non-ideality effects alter the behavior of devices and circuits will be discussed, and the means by which they can be considered in circuit models and simulators will be described. Furthermore, various characterization techniques and measurement tools that have been developed and employed for their characterization will be presented. Finally, a brief outlook of future research in the direction of performance optimization of electrical circuits made from Si and SiC devices, but also devices based on novel 2D materials is presented in this talk.

About the Speaker

Dr. Waltl is an Associate Professor at the TU Wien, Vienna, Austria, and an IEEE Senior Member. His overall scientific focus is on the robustness of microelectronic devices and circuits. In this field, he investigates reliability issues – characterization and modeling – in semiconductor devices and circuits. Furthermore, Dr. Waltl has a strong background in measurement technology and is leading the development of novel characterization tools and techniques. He is the co-author or author of over 100 articles in journals and conference proceedings (h-index 26). Dr. Waltl is the director of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for single defect spectroscopy in semiconductor devices and leads the device characterization laboratory at the Institute for Microelectronics at the TU Wien. In addition, he is the principal investigator of several research projects funded by the FFG and has ongoing collaborations with various industrial partners, including ams-OSRAM AG, Infineon, and imec. He is the (co-)recipient of four best paper awards (IIRW2014, DRC2019, IIRW2019, IEDM2019), serves on the technical program and management committee of various international conferences and workshops, and is Associate Editor with the Microelectronics Engineering journal. Based on his expertise, Dr. Waltl is regularly invited as a reviewer of numerous renowned Journals, including IEEE TED, Microelectronics Reliability, Journal of Applied Physics, and many more.