1-2hit |
Daisuke KOSAKA Makoto NAGATA Yoshitaka MURASAKA Atsushi IWATA
Substrate-coupling equivalent circuits can be derived for arbitrary isolation structures by F-matrix computation. The derived netlist represents a unified impedance network among multiple sites on a chip surface as well as internal nodes of isolation structures and can be applied with SPICE simulation to evaluate isolation strengths. Geometry dependency of isolation attributes to layout parameters such as area, width, and location distance. On the other hand, structural dependency arises from vertical impurity concentration specific to p+/n+ diffusion and deep n-well. Simulation-based prototyping of isolation structures can include all these dependences and strongly helps establish an isolation strategy against high-frequency substrate coupling in a given technology. The analysis of isolation strength provided by p+/n+ guard ring, deep n-well guard ring as well as deep n-well pocket well explains S21 measurements performed on high-frequency test structures targeting 5 GHz bandwidth, that was formed in a 0.25-µm CMOS high frequency.
The performance of avalanche photodiodes with deep guard rings for Geiger mode operation is studied. The electric field distribution is calculated using the finite element method and the carrier multiplication characteristic is calculated along typical lines in the device. The nonlinear dependence of the ionization rates on the electric field strength can make a guard ring less effective in Geiger mode operation. The maximum single photon detection efficiency that can be obtained without breakdown at the guard ring is calculated for several structure parameters. It is shown that the single photon detection efficiency strongly depends on the guard ring design.