Online Condition Monitoring Methodology for Power Electronics Package Reliability Assessment

This article introduces an online condition monitoring strategy that utilizes a transient heat pulse to detect package thermal performance degradation. The metric employed is the temperature-dependent transient thermal impedance "Zth(t, Tamb)."The proposed methodology offers quantitative insights into package thermal performance degradation...

Copper Nanoparticle Sintering Enabled Hermetic Packaging With Fine Sealing Ring for MEMS Application

Driving by the increased demand for hermetic packaging in the more than Moore (MtM) roadmap, a Cu nanoparticle sintering-enabled hermetic sealing solution was developed with a small-size sealing ring. The developed technology simplifies microfabrication and requires less surface roughness using a sinterable Cu nanoparticle paste. A 50μm size...

A Sub-1 V Capacitively Biased BJT-Based Temperature Sensor With an Inaccuracy of ± 0.15 ∘ C (3 σ ) From − 55 ∘ C to 125 ∘ C

This article presents a sub-1 V bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based temperature sensor that achieves both high accuracy and high energy efficiency. To avoid the extra headroom required by conventional current sources, the sensor’s diode-connected BJTs are biased by precharging sampling capacitors to the supply voltage and then discharging...

ThermoSurf: Thermal display technology for dynamic and multi-finger interactions

Thermal feedback has been proven to enhance user experience in human-machine interactions. Yet state-of-the-art thermal technology has focused on the single finger or palm in static contact, overlooking dynamic and multi-finger interactions. The underlying challenges include incompatible designs of conventional interfaces for providing...

A Highly Linear Temperature Sensor Operating up to 600°C in a 4H-SiC CMOS Technology

In this work, a highly linear temperature sensor based on a silicon carbide (SiC) p-n diode is presented. Under a constant current biasing, the diode has an excellent linear response to the temperature (from room temperature to 600°C). The best linearity (coefficient of determination ${R}^{{2}}$ = 99.98%) is achieved when the current density...

RGO-Based Memristive Sensor for Rapid Hydrogen Detection at Room-Temperature

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in investigating the potential of emerging memristor (MR) devices for gas sensing applications, particularly at room temperature. This article reports on a planar Au/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Au memristive hydrogen sensor, fabricated on a cost-effective cyclic olefin copolymer (COC)...

A 16 MHz CMOS RC Frequency Reference With ±90 ppm Inaccuracy From -45 °C to 85 °C

This article presents a 16-MHz RC frequency reference implemented in a standard 180-nm CMOS process. It consists of a frequency-locked loop (FLL) in which the output frequency of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is locked to the frequency-phase characteristic of a Wien bridge RC filter. Since it is made from on-chip resistors and...

Acoustic Modulation Enables Proton Detection with Nanodroplets at Body Temperature

Superheated nanodroplet (ND) vaporization by proton radiation was recently demonstrated, opening the door to ultrasound-based in vivo proton range verification. However, at body temperature and physiological pressures, perfluorobutane nanodroplets (PFB-NDs), which offer a good compromise between stability and radiation sensitivity, are not...

A rugged FBG-based pressure sensor for water level monitoring in dikes

This paper describes the implementation of an FBG sensor to measure water levels in a dike. The sensor is based on a 3D-printed mechanical transducer through which the external pressure is converted into longitudinal strain exerted on the fiber. An additional FBG integrated within the sensor measures temperature and is used to compensate for...

A CMOS-Imager-Pixel-Based Temperature Sensor for Dark Current Compensation

This brief proposes employing each of the classical 4 transistor (4T) pinned photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixels, for both imaging and temperature measurement, intended for compensating the CISs' dark current, and dark signal non-uniformity (DSNU). The proposed temperature sensors rely on the thermal behavior of MOSFETs working in...

A BJT-Based Temperature-to-Digital Converter With a 0.25 C 3 $\sigma$ -Inaccuracy From-40 C to 180 C Using Heater-Assisted Voltage Calibration

This article presents a BJT-based temperature-to-digital-converter (TDC) that achieves ±0.25 °C 3 sigma -inaccuracy from -40 °C to +180 °C after a heater-assisted voltage calibration (HA-VCAL). Its switched-capacitor (SC) ADC employs two sampling capacitors and, thus, the minimum number of critical sampling switches, which minimizes the...

Characterization and modeling of mismatch in Cryo-CMOS

This paper presents a device matching study of a commercial 40-nm bulk CMOS technology operated at cryogenic temperatures. Transistor pairs and linear arrays, optimized for device matching, were characterized over the temperature range from 300 K down to 4.2 K. The device parameters relevant for mismatch, i.e., the threshold voltage and the...

Compensation for Process and Temperature Dependency in a CMOS Image Sensor

This paper analyzes and compensates for process and temperature dependency among a (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) CMOS image sensor (CIS) array. Both the analysis and compensation are supported with experimental results on the CIS’s dark current, dark signal non-uniformity (DSNU), and conversion gain (CG). To model and to...

A Resistor-Based Temperature Sensor With a 0.13 pJ·K² Resolution FoM

This paper describes a high-resolution energy-efficient CMOS temperature sensor, intended for the temperature compensation of MEMS/quartz frequency references. The sensor is based on silicided poly-silicon thermistors, which are embedded in a Wien-bridge RC filter. When driven at a fixed frequency, the filter exhibits a temperature-dependent...

In Situ  Failure Detection of Electronic Control Units Using Piezoresistive Stress Sensor

Recent advancements in automotive technologies, most notably autonomous driving, demand electronic systems much more complex than those realized in the past. The automotive industry has been forced to adopt advanced consumer electronics to satisfy the demand, and thus it becomes more challenging to assess system reliability while adopting the...