Injection-coupled devices (ICDs): Operation principle, applications, design-for-reliability

Operation principle and possible applications of a novel type of silicon cell integrated circuit (IC) device - injection-coupled device (ICD) - are addressed, including design-for-reliability (DfR) aspects. Examples of possible ICD electrical and physical designs are examined in detail. These are based on the existing CMOS and use bipolar technologies. It is shown that ICDs are, to an extent, similar to the charge-coupled devices (CCDs): they are also formed by a chain of cells and are therefore, like CCDs, devices of a serial operating principle type. The significant difference is, however, that, unlike CCDs, ICDs use asynchronous flow of the information charge along the cell chain. This circumstance enables one to achieve an extraordinarily low power consumption compared to the conventional cell ICs. This is because the power consumption of an ICD as a whole is not different of that of a single cell in its IC matrix. It is shown that in the case of an ICD designed as a double spiral coil the likelihood of failure decreases with an increase in the number of coils. E.g., the reliability of a 1 megacell matrix is expected to be by three orders of magnitude higher than the reliability of a single cell device. These advantages make ICDs highly attractive for a number of important applications, such as, e.g., radiation detectors or magnetic and thermal field detectors. This is particularly true for various aerospace applications, when failure-free operational performance is a must.