Scaling and application of commercial, feature-rich, modular mixed-signal technology platforms for large format ROICs

Today's modular, mixed-signal CMOS process platforms are excellent choices for manufacturing of highly integrated, large-format read out integrated circuits (ROICs). Platform features, that can be used for both cooled and un-cooled ROIC applications, can include (1) quality passives such as 4fF mu m(2) stacked MIM capacitors for linearity and higher density capacitance per pixel, 1kOhm high-value poly-silicon resistors, 2.8 mu m thick metals for efficient power distribution and reduced I-R drop; (2) analog active devices such as low noise single gate 3.3V, and 1.8V/3.3V or 1.8V/5V dual gate configurations, 40V LDMOS FETs, and NPN and PNP devices, deep n-well for substrate isolation for analog blocks and digital logic; (3) tools to assist the circuit designer such as models for cryogenic temperatures, CAD assistance for metal density uniformity determination, statistical, X-sigma and PCM-based models for corner validation and to simulate design sensitivity, and (4) sub-field stitching for large die. The TowerJazz platform of technology for 0.50 mu m, 0.25 mu m and 0.18 mu m CMOS nodes, with features as described above, is described in detail in this paper.