Radiation Effects Characterization Tool for SiGe Processes

Ridgetop Group will develop a low-cost reliability and radiation effects characterization tool for state-of-the art silicon-germanium (SiGe) fabrication processes. The significance of this innovation is that SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) integrated circuits (ICs) have demonstrated extremely high performance for critical DOD applications, and SiGe has also been shown to have low susceptibility to total dose and displacement damage radiation effects, making SiGe a strong candidate for space applications. Ridgetop"s ProChek characterization tool will support the wider application of SiGe circuits in advanced spacecraft and missile systems, which can improve production yield and help reduce costs. SiGe BiCMOS circuits offer many benefits compared to their silicon CMOS counterparts for space microelectronics engineering. SiGe implementations have an advantage in terms of higher circuit speed, better transistor matching, and better noise performance. They also operate significantly better in extreme temperatures and are very robust against total ionizing dose (TID) radiation effects. The work will concentrate on IBM"s newest SiGe BiCMOS offering, the 9HP process, which provides ultra-fast SiGe hetero bipolar transistors (HBTs) to 300GHz fT and 385 GHz fMAX, as well as 90 nm CMOS devices. The result will be a more comprehensive reliability and performance characterization that can be incorporated into more precise design models having more accuracy.