Deep-Submicron Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (DSM CMOS) process technology is quickly becoming the only technology available for the design and fabrication of specialized analog and mixed analog/digital circuits, required by current and future high energy physics (HEP) experiments. However, DSM CMOS technology presents challenges related to the difficulty in designing high-performance building blocks for the analog parts of the system, as well as integration issues related to placing large amounts of digital circuitry on the same substrate as the sensitive analog circuits. This project will demonstrate the placement of a previously-designed set of high-performance analog circuits on the same integrated circuit (IC) as a significant amount of digital circuitry. The feasibility of achieving desired performance from both the circuits as independent objects, and as they function as a part of a real system, will be shown. In Phase I, several analog circuit elements will be redesigned for a 0.25mm process, then fabricated and tested to ensure proper functionality and performance as stand-alone projects. These analog circuits will then be integrated with a large amount of digital circuitry on the same IC, and the performance of the analog circuitry in-situ will be evaluated. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by awardee: The analog circuits chosen have potential use in several current and future HEP experiments. Their functionality should also be general enough to find potential applications in the medical imaging industry.
