Find our technical papers, webinars, articles
The ResourceXplorer enables you to access technical papers, webinars and articles related to analog/mixed-signal semiconductor technologies.
93 entries found
Published: Sep 2012
Reliability tests assessment are used to evaluate the quality of different process schemes of MIM capacitors. Typically, VRAMP tests can be used to check for extrinsics; which are common and popular method used for evaluating yield issues and early life failures (in which the product failures in ppm level); while TDDB tests are used to determine the intrinsic quality of the capacitor dielectrics; thus the lifetime will be extrapolated accordingly from its dependency from accelerated tests at different higher stress conditions down to the corresponding use condition.
Published: Jun 2012
Sensors are everywhere, serving as an interface between our analog world and the digital world of data processing in electronic systems. Is your design challenge – making sensor output signals available to complex digital systems – further complicated by the need for low noise, temperature-dependent behavior and non-linear effects? If you are looking for solutions for low noise amplification and temperature drift, non-linearity or signal offset compensation, don’t miss this free webinar. It helps designers select the right technology for low-noise and high-precision sensor interfaces. You’ll get tips for achieving excellent matching for robust circuits, and see how X-FAB’s sophisticated modelling enables first-time-right analog and mixed-signal designs.
Published: Jun 2012
This paper demonstrates and discusses novel “three dimensional” silicon based junction isolation/termination solutions suitable for high density ultra-low-resistance Lateral Super-Junction structures.
Published: Mar 2012
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a serious threat to integrated circuits (ICs) that can cause irreversible damage. This webinar on ESD protection will show you solutions on how to eliminate ESD threats in complex analog/mixed-signal and high-voltage designs. It covers an overview of various ESD protection concepts, and explains the structures and schemes available to protect against electrostatic discharge in X-FAB’s enhanced 0.35 and 0.18 micrometer XH035 and XH018 high-voltage foundry processes. The webinar presentation also highlights similarities and differences among ESD protection concepts, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each in circuit designs.
Published: Mar 2012
X-FAB, a pure play foundry, has already extensive experience in volume production of monolithic integrated MEMS devices. The idea of combining CMOS and MEMS processes to obtain monolithic integrated sensor solutions is a logical, consequent step following the “More than Moore” strategy.
Published: Sep 2011
For the Synchronous DC-DC converter switching performance of low-voltage power MOSFETs, the gate-drain charge density (Qgd) is an important parameter. The so-called figure-of-merit, which is defined as the product of the specific on-resistance (Ron.sp) and Qgd is commonly used to quantify the switching performance for a specified off-state breakdown voltage (BVds).
Published: Sep 2011
Wire Bond Shear (WBS) test is a method for evaluating the strength of a ball bond, to complement wire pull test. In foundry, wafer-level (WLR) WBS provides a quick way to demonstrate the integrity of metal bond pad, backend scheme as well as bond or via design. This is a big challenge for WLR WBS outsourcing as many of the factors affecting shear strength lying on the wire bonding parameters and shear test setup. This paper presents the outsourcing experiences of WBS tests and good shear strength was achieved from the outsource laboratory.
Published: Sep 2011
A study on the effect of process fabrication for MIM capacitors analog matching performance was carried out, impacts from the MIM dielectrics, capacitor top and bottom metal materials, capacitor metal etch, wet cleaning, annealing process will be revealed by comparing the Pelgrom coefficients, i.e. the dependence of difference in capacitance of the matching pairs with respect to their corresponding square root of capacitor areas, the smaller the difference the better the matching.
Published: Sep 2011
Diodes inherent in a CMOS process are light sensitive and could be exploited as photodetectors. To detect light the photo generated carriers need to be separated by the electrical field of an internal pn junction. They are either generated inside the depletion region or can get there by diffusion. The depth where these carriers are generated depends strongly on the wavelength. The generation profile, the pn junction depth and the diffusion length all impact the spectral sensitivity.
Published: Sep 2011
IC content in cars has been growing exponentially, adding significant complexity to automotive chip design and manufacturing. Today’s cars feature many semiconductor applications such as tire pressure monitoring sensors and accelerometers for airbag systems. Add electronic components to improve engine performance, increase fuel efficiency, control modern entertainment and communications devices, provide Internet capability and handle new comfort functions... Now add the challenge of making the associated ICs survive for many years in extreme heat and cold, rain and snow, salt, g-forces, humidity, dry and dusty conditions...and you’ve got your hands full designing for one of the most harsh IC operating environments.