Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The present proposal supports the practical design and fabrication of high performance integrated circuits (ICs). The principal applicant and the co-applicants are currently involved in the design of wide range of advanced applications covering RF analog CMOS ICs, and optical- and RF-MEMS devices. Testing and characterisation of those ICs are prone to many sources of error in the measurement setups. These measurements should be done on a bare silicon die to avoid bond wire, package and test fixture effects. The requested Cascade Microtech M150 probing station is indispensible to accomplish accurate characterisation and measurement for our applications. This probe station can be used for precision electrical measurement of a variety of wafers and other devices ranging from singulated die to 150mm wafers to modules and printed circuit board assemblies. The M150 combined with high performance RF probes provides a reliable measurement platform for accurate RF measurement for our different ICs and devices. Also the M150 with DC probes and accessories, with guarded triaxial performance will offer accurate model extraction of our different components and allow us to obtain accurate low capacitance, low leakage, shielded measurement results. The requested equipment will have a great impact on advancing our research and on developing the expertise of our graduate and undergraduate students in the VLSI Research Lab of Dalhousie University.