Integrated sensor for electro-magnetic near-field scanning

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Andreas Thiede
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2006 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 25250352

Subject of the applied project is the development of integrated probes for electro-magnetic near-field scanning of planar circuits on board, multi-chip module as well as integrated circuit level. Therefore, miniaturised probe antennae are to be monolithically combined with active electronics, such as matched buffers, amplifiers, linear pre-processing and if applicable mixers. Target operation frequency ranges up to 10 GHz. Double output probes enable significant reduction of scanning time by simultaneous measurement of two field components. Integration in GaAs-based HEMT technology offers high transit frequency, low noise figure, and most importantly a virtually lossless semi-insulating substrate, which in addition shields electronics by backside metallisation. Alternatively, SiGe HBT technology provides higher level of integration and compatibility to CMOS digital signal processing blocks. The applied project is coordinated with an NSF proposal by Prof. Richard DuBroff, University of Missouri-Rolla, United States, working towards probe arrays, and the MEDEA+ project PARACHUTE of Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) Berlin, Germany, Dept. Advanced System Engineering (ASE) Paderborn, Germany, focusing on compensation algorithms as well as measurement system aspects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants