New results from buffered interfacing techniques used with short-wavelength IR photodiode arrays at room temperature are presented and analyzed. Performance of linear Ge and InGaAs arrays is shown not to be limited by detector characteristics at room temperature, but instead by on-focal-plane hybrid interfacing electronics. Two key issues associated with Si complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) interfacing circuitry are input offset voltage, which results in excessive dark currents, and input voltage noise with excessive 1/f characteristics. An analysis of white and 1/f noise generated by both detector and preamplifier is presented. Improved noise performance models give excellent agreement with experimental data. Proposed improvements in readout electronics will result in improved sensitivity and will relax costly cooling requirements associated with detectors.
We analyzed the gain error issue and non-linearity issue of a precise Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and found the root cause to be Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise in bipolar devices. The RTS noise produced nearly 1mV abrupt changes in a band-gap reference voltage, and affected ADC and other circuits where the reference voltage was used. We developed a new measurement method enabling us to detect RTS noise in bipolar with higher signal-to-noise ratio than traditional methods. We also developed an algorithm to extract RTS occurrence frequency and average magnitude. The RTS characterization capability has helped us invent a new bipolar structure and develop new processes to minimize RTS noise.
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