74 research outputs found
Restabilizing mechanisms after the onset of thermal instability in bipolar transistors
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Electrothermal Behavior of High-Frequency Silicon-On-Glass Transistors
No full textIn this thesis, research is focused on the investigation of electrothermal effects in high-speed silicon transistors. At high current levels the power dissipation in these devices can lead to heating of both the device itself and the adjacent devices. In advanced transistors these effects are becoming so pronounced that they are threatening to form a showstopper for further improvement of the high-frequency performance. It is therefore of paramount importance that the thermal behavior is correctly understood and brought under control. A special technology developed at DIMES, called back-wafer-contacted silicon-on-glass processing, was applied to experimentally and theoretically study electrothermal effects in bipolar and power MOS transistors. Devices were created that had the world-record high thermal resistance values and at the same time extremely low electrical parasitics. These unique experimental silicon-on-glass devices are particularly well-suited for investigation of 'intrinsic' device behavior under very strong electrothermal feedback. A novel analysis of the thermal breakdown and thermal instability in single-finger and multifinger bipolar devices was developed, on the basis of which methods and general guidelines for making both the devices and simple circuits more thermally stable could be established. For the first time, it was demonstrated that in the near future self-heating will be a crucial limiting factor for the speed of silicon transistors. Moreover, new measurement techniques were developed for extraction of self-heating and mutual thermal coupling resistances and impedances, parameters which are of particular importance for accurate analysis and synthesis of high-frequency integrated circuits. In addition to the bipolar devices, novel radio-frequency power MOS transistors were designed and fabricated in the silicon-on-glass technology and they were found to have an electrical performance that competes well with other advanced power transistors. Moreover these transistors can be readily integrated with high-quality passive components and they can be designed to have very low thermal resistance values. This work demonstrates that these devices are serious candidates for application in advanced wireless communication systems.Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
A back-wafer contacted silicon-on-glass integrated bipolar process. Part II. A novel analysis of thermal breakdown
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Extraction and modeling of self-heating and mutual thermal coupling impedance of bipolar transistors
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Electrothermal limitations on the current density of high-frequency bipolar transistors
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Enabling calibration and characterization of environmental sensors
No full textThis work presents the activities carried out at ams Netherlands BV for the fulfillment of the Year Project requirements of the Professional Doctorate in Engineering in Design and Technology of Instrumentation at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The carried out assignments had the objective of enabling the characterization and calibration of some environmental sensors being developed by ams. These tasks required the creation of dedicated electronic hardware and graphic user interfaces, the design of various experimental setups, and data analysis. The achievements of this project were: Characterization of the temperature and relative humidity sensors while operating the co-packaged air quality sensor under a range of climatic and working conditions. Collaborative creation of an acquisition software for the manufacturing testing integrated circuit, which can control and acquire the laboratory equipment while it measures the sensors’ behavior. Design of a calibration printed circuit board that allows to acquire and to write calibration parameters into 128 sensors simultaneously and the power supply to feed the system
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