On-Wafer Measurement System for the Analysis of Integrated Submillimeter-Wave Circuits

乌尔姆大学电子器件和电路研究所的一个中心研究重点是研究和调查极宽带传感器和通信系统的电路和集成系统概念。在这两个领域，目标是实现高载波频率，以便在高度集成和具有成本效益的集成电路技术（主要是硅锗）的基础上实现前所未有的基带带宽、最大数据速率和最高传感分辨率。载波频率进一步增加到亚毫米波范围，并且对于近似恒定的相对带宽，绝对带宽的直接相关增加使得精密小型化雷达传感器、光谱学应用（例如气体传感和材料表征）领域能够取得重大进展。这些极高的带宽的使用，进一步允许未来的无线通信与巨大的数据速率超过100 Gbaud/s。设计的集成收发器及其电路构建块的特性，以及材料参数和高频传输函数的传播路径的确定需要相应的测量技术的形式，亚毫米波S参数探测。对于有源集成电路，它需要包括用于确定噪声、线性度和信号质量的其他可能性。除此之外，测量站需要遵循现代电路实现趋势，并具有频率转换测量功能。表征直接在设计的IC的焊盘处执行，并且特别是单个构建块，并且需要测量设备与高频晶圆上探针台的共同实施和兼容性。

A central research focus of the Institute of Electronic Devices and Circuits at Ulm University is the research and investigation of circuits and integrated system concepts for extremely broadband sensors and communication systems. In both areas, the goal is to realization of high carrier frequencies for the realization of unprecedented baseband bandwidths far maximum data rates and highest sensing resolutions on the basis of highly-integrated and cost-efficient integrated circuit technology (mainly silicon-germanium). A further increase in carrier frequencies into the submillimeter-wave regime and the directly linked increase of absolute bandwidth for approximately constant relative bandwidths enables significant progress in the area of precision miniaturized radar sensors, spectroscopy applications such as gas sensing and material characterization. The use of these extremely high bandwidths further allows future wireless communication with huge data rates beyond 100 Gbaud/s.The characterization of designed integrated transceivers and their circuit building blocks, as well as the determination of material parameters and high-frequency transfer functions of propagations paths necessitates corresponding measurement technology in the form of submillimeter-wave S-parameter probing. For the active integrated circuits, it needs to include additional possibilities for the determination of noise, linearity, and signal quality. Beyond that, the measurement station needs to obey modern circuit implementation trends and feature frequency-converting measurements. The characterization is performed directly at the pads of the designed ICs, and especially single building blocks, and necessitates a co-implementation and compatibility of the measurement equipment with a high-frequency on-wafer probe station.