Influence of Flexibility of the Interconnects on the Dynamic Bending Reliability of Flexible Hybrid Electronics

The growing interest towards thinner and conformable electronic systems has attracted significant attention towards flexible hybrid electronics (FHE). Thin chip-foil packages fabricated by integrating ultra-thin monocrystalline silicon integrated circuits (ICs) on/in flexible foils have the potential to deliver high performance electrical functionalities at very low power requirements while being mechanically flexible. However, only very limited information is available regarding the fatigue or dynamic bending reliability of such chip-foil packages. This paper reports a series of experiments where the influence of the type of metal constituting the interconnects on the foil substrates on their dynamic bending reliability has been analyzed. The test results show that chip-foil packages with interconnects fabricated from a highly flexible metal like gold endure the repeated bending tests better than chip-foil packages with stiffer interconnects fabricated from copper or aluminum. We conclude that further analysis work in this field will lead to new technical concepts and designs for reliable foil based electronics.

Key Technologies for THz Wireless Link by Silicon CMOS Integrated Circuits

In terahertz-band communication using ultra-high frequencies, compound semiconductors with superior high-frequency performance have been used for research to date. Terahertz communication using the 300 GHz band has nonetheless attracted attention based on the expectation that an unallocated frequency band exceeding 275 GHz can be used for communication in the future. Research into wireless transceivers using BiCMOS integrated circuits with silicon germanium transistors and advanced miniaturized CMOS integrated circuits has increased in this 300 GHz band. In this paper, we will outline the terahertz communication technology using silicon integrated circuits available from mass production, and discuss its applications and future.

Vision

Vision is a sensory modality of primary importance to many animal species. The efficient implementation of visual perception is also one of the main challenges in the design of intelligent robotic systems. This chapter reviews the principles of operation and key features of the early stages of biological vision systems. Following the observation that visual information processing starts in the eye, it reviews several approaches to constructing biomimetic artificial vision systems. It presents devices inspired by the morphology of the insects’ compound eyes, and devices tightly integrating image sensing and processing circuitry. These include silicon integrated circuits mimicking the operation of vertebrate retinas, and bio-inspired systems oriented towards machine vision applications, such as dynamic vision sensors and vision chips with pixel-parallel cellular processor arrays. It elucidates the advantages of the near-sensor processing of the visual information, and potential for future developments of neuromorphic vision sensors.

Electrical Invasiveness of Grinding and Polishing Silicon Integrated Circuits Down to 1 μm Remaining Silicon Thickness

Anticipating the end of life for IR-based failure analysis techniques, a method of global backside preparation to ultra-thin remaining silicon thickness (RST) has been developed. When the remaining silicon is reduced, some redistribution of stress is expected, possibly altering the performance (timing) of integrated circuits in addition to electron-hole pair generation. In this work, a study of the electrical invasiveness due to grinding and polishing silicon integrated circuits to ultra-thin (< 5 um global, ~ 1 um local) remaining thickness is presented.

Characterization of 14 nm Silicon Integrated Circuits with 1.55–2 μm Emission Microscopy—A Case Study

We describe here the first demonstration of 14nm silicon device characterization using 1.55-2µm emission microscopy as a technique to interrogate the radiative properties of various physical defects. A study is presented and discussed for cases highlighting photo-emission only, hybrid photo-thermal-emission, and thermal-emission only.