Turnkey Products
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Modeling & Architecture: Behavioral model of chip performance in overall system context
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Design Specification & Technology Selection: Specify design performance target specification and select optimal technology node for prototyping and production
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Schematics & Layout: Design schematics and layouts of the chip in selected technology node
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Post-Layout & Extraction: Integrated circuit layouts and physical implementation elements translated back into the electrical circuit components it is intended to represent
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Tape out to Foundry: Final design is sent to manufacturing for mask set and design fabrication
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Prototype Packaging: Prototype is packaged as a means of ensuring the packaging is durable and meets the specified prototyping needs
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Test System Development: Test bench circuit boards and periphery products to ensure the designed chip technology functions correctly and meets specifications
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Full Chip & Test System Characterization: Complete characterization of the chip and test system specifications and design limitations as it applies to the overall system requirements
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Design for Production: Design integrated circuits to be fabricated with production specific criteria like testability, yield, EM emissions, etc.
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Wafer Probe Development: Develop wafer probe tester to test individual chips at wafer level prepackaging. It carries out the testing process while ensuring precise wafer positioning to determine prepacked parts yield and preselect dies for the final packaging step
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Final Product Packaging & Testing: Final packaged product is tested for reassurance then sent out to qualification
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Qualification & Yield Improvement: Process parameters are adjusted, and final improvements are made to achieve optimal performance in future fabrication runs
Technical Areas
Advanced Imaging
You can’t stay safe if you can’t see what’s coming. At SenseICs, we understand our customers’ needs for optimal visibility, even in sub-optimal conditions. That’s why we designed advanced imaging sensors that enable systems to capture images in any light. Unlike other technologies, which compromise high-quality images at either end of the light spectrum, lack sensitivity, and require costly and time-consuming processing, our sensors work smarter and at the pixel-level to adapt and react to different levels of light within a frame. Our advanced sensors work in one efficient capture to produce a crystal-clear, high-quality image.
Capabilities:
- IR ROICs
- Visible CMOS Image Sensors (CIS)
- Advanced 3DIC – Stacked integration and processing
Communications
Whether in friendly, congested, or contested environments, radio frequency (RF) technologies must be flexible and resilient. At SenseICs, we design RF microelectronics components and systems for applications in communications, 5G, radar, and electronic warfare. To help solve our customers’ unique problems, our technologies are agile and efficient across critical bands of the spectrum.
Capabilities:
- Trusted turnkey 5G RFIC designs
- Software defined radio (SDR)
- RF packaging and testing
Trusted Microelectronics
Integrated circuits are used in technologies all around us. But as their ubiquity increases, they also become more vulnerable to attack. SenseICs develops integrated circuits designed with security and authenticity at their core. Our circuits include encryption cores,
fingerprints for authenticity tracking, and countermeasures against information leakage.
Capabilities:
- CMOS analog and digital designs from legacy to advanced nodes: 250 nm,
- 180 nm, 130 nm, 90 nm, 65 nm, 45 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, and 12 nm
- IC authenticity and trustworthiness
- Domestic supply chain
High Radiation Environments
Extreme environments require complex circuitry solutions. High levels of radiation interfere with almost all circuit designs, leading to major malfunctions that can compromise an entire mission. SenseICs is one of few circuit design providers who are equipped with the intelligence to provide radiation-resistant circuitry. Our deep and unique experience with extreme environments enables us to think ahead and mitigate the negative effects of radiation at each phase of the design, testing, and validation process. Our circuits are reinforced against radiation and are built for innovative space or nuclear applications.
Capabilities:
- Radiation hardening by design:
- Enhanced total ionizing dose (TID) hardness
- Single event effects (SEE) mitigation
- Radiation effects testing
Core Technologies
High Dynamic Range Readout Integrated Circuit
Our High Dynamic Range Readout Integrated Circuit (HDR ROIC) is designed with the capabilities to capture HDR images with low c-swap. The HDR ROIC adapts to different signal levels within a scene to provide unparalleled intraframe dynamic range. The HDR ROIC also takes advantage of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) technology to capture coarse digital images to enable event detection, smart windowing, and compressive sensing with lower power and less data transmitted.
Tamper Resistant Integrated Circuits
Integrated Circuit (IC) trust is important in the design, production, and life cycle of commercial and government systems. Through Verification and Validation (V & V), we can ensure that ICs fulfill their intended purposes and meet specifications. Advanced node IC technologies present challenges due to high complexity of the designs. In support of these challenges, we have designed test subjects for the V & V community known as the Headache IC and Migraine IC. These both provide access to golden reference designs to be leveraged for the advancement of V & V techniques, second order effect characterization, and other research in trusted microelectronics.
Wide-band Gallium Nitride Power Amplifier
As high data rate wireless communication systems are developed for 5G, there is an increasing need for capable broadband power amplifiers. For communication systems to be viable, the Power Amplifiers must remain power efficient while accommodating linearity requirements of higher order modulation. Our goal is to provide an unparalleled low size, weight, power, and cost transmitter capable of operation across the entire L, S, and C radio frequency bands.
Applications
Surveillance
Advanced imaging technology is a key functionality for The U.S. Army’s Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center under the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DVCOM). The DVCOM C5SIR needs to be able to capture images in any light and condition in order to provide optimal surveillance. To meet this need, SenseICs proposed to develop a high dynamic range (HDR) readout integrated circuit (ROIC) that is bioinspired to adapt to scene characteristics and capture HDR images with less data bandwidth. We are adapting the ROIC designs to perform operations in space and with UAS applications.
Lidar
Our HDR advanced imaging technology can be applied to Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) applications to revolutionize machine vision capabilities in defense, automotive, transportation, surveying, agriculture, and quality control industries. We utilize exceptionally sensitive infrared (IR) readout integrated circuit (ROIC) architecture to detect small targets at suboptimal atmospheric conditions and construct 3D images. This gives our technology an extraordinary advantage when applied in 3D mapping and situational awareness in urban and non-urban environments.
5G Midband
We have developed wide-band transmitter technology that operates within the 5G band, the 5G mid-band spectrum (between 1 and 8 GHz). This band is strategically important for the military because it provides reliable coverage, high-capacity , and quick communications. Enhanced connectivity of sensors, vehicles, and troops reduces the response time in the case of an emergency. This technology has other private sector potential such as applications in radar, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and virtual reality.
Telemetry
Program Executive Offices(PEO) of C5ISR need advanced communication technology in order to transmit action messages rapidly and accurately. The technology we have developed is used in military operations to communicate over any network such as commercial or government satellites or commercial cellular providers to support telemetry missions conducted across the globe. Our transmitter architecture is a fully integrated, high-output power, efficient solution with significant cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP) and spectrum agility benefits.
Circuit Security and Authenticity
A top priority at SenseICs is that anybody who uses our technology can be confident that their devices are equipped with an unprecedented level of security. To ensure trust and provenance in microelectronics integrity, fabrication supply chain and circuit intellectual property (IP) must be protected against malicious insertion, counterfeits, or information leakage. This is critical in commercial products interfacing with consumer data collection and storage but can be especially important for Department of Defense component integrity. In any commercial or defense application, our security solutions provide the authenticity and trustworthiness our US consumers deserve.
High Energy Physics (HEP) Experiments
HEP studies the nature of the particles that constitute matter and radiation. The Department of Energy plays a prominent role in this research and helping to better understand the world around us. Accelerators, detectors, and other computational tools are necessary to conduct research in this field, all of which need their data acquisition electronic front-ends to be radiation hard. Our engineers at SenseICs design circuitry for these applications to further explore the unknown.
Space
Space radiation is comprised of particles trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, particles shot into space during solar flares, and galactic cosmic rays, all of which are dangerous and a hindrance for space missions. Any operations that take place in space require consideration of the radiation environment. Radiation wears material down, reducing instrument reliability and performance which is why it is important for the technology to be designed with radiation hardening in mind. Our circuits are reinforced against radiation making our technology perfect for space applications.
© SenseICs 2023.