For mm-sized implants incorporating silicon integrated circuits, ensuring lifetime operation of the chip within the corrosive environment of the body still remains a critical challenge. For the chip's packaging, various polymeric and thin ceramic coatings have been reported, demonstrating high biocompatibility and barrier properties. Yet, for the evaluation of the packaging and lifetime prediction, the conventional helium leak test method can no longer be applied due to the mm-size of such implants. Alternatively, accelerated soak studies are typically used instead. For such studies, early detection of moisture/ion ingress using an in-situ platform may result in a better prediction of lifetime functionality. In this work, we have developed such a platform on a CMOS chip. Ingress of moisture/ions would result in changes in the resistance of the interlayer dielectrics (ILD) used within the chip and can be tracked using the proposed system, which consists of a sensing array and an on-chip measurement engine. The measurement system uses a novel charge/discharge based time-mode resistance sensor that can be implemented using simple yet highly robust circuitry. The sensor array is implemented together with the measurement engine in a standard 0.18 $\mu$ m 6-metal CMOS process. The platform was validated through a series of dry and wet measurements. The system can measure the ILD resistance with values of up to 0.504 peta-ohms, with controllable measurement steps that can be as low as 0.8 M $\Omega$ . The system works with a supply voltage of 1.8 V, and consumes 4.78 mA. Wet measurements in saline demonstrated the sensitivity of the platform in detecting moisture/ion ingress. Such a platform could be used both in accelerated soak studies and during the implant's life–time for monitoring the integrity of the chip's packaging.

中文翻译：

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芯片完整性监测器，用于评估毫米尺寸单芯片植入物中的水分/离子进入。

对于包含硅集成电路的毫米大小的植入物，确保芯片在人体腐蚀性环境中的使用寿命始终是一项严峻的挑战。对于芯片的包装，已经报道了各种聚合物涂层和薄陶瓷涂层，证明了高生物相容性和阻隔性能。然而，由于这种植入物的毫米尺寸，因此对于包装和寿命预测的评估，常规的氦气泄漏测试方法不再适用。或者，通常使用加速浸泡研究。对于此类研究，使用原位平台尽早检测水分/离子进入可能会更好地预测使用寿命。在这项工作中，我们已经在CMOS芯片上开发了这样的平台。水分/离子的进入将导致芯片内使用的层间电介质（ILD）的电阻发生变化，并且可以使用建议的系统进行跟踪，该系统由传感阵列和片上测量引擎组成。该测量系统使用一种新颖的基于充电/放电的时间模式电阻传感器，该传感器可使用简单但高度耐用的电路来实现。传感器阵列与测量引擎一起在标准0.18中实现$ \ mu $ m 6金属CMOS工艺。该平台通过一系列干湿测量得到了验证。该系统可以测量高达0.504 peta-ohms的ILD电阻，并且测量步骤的可控制范围可低至0.8 M $ \ Omega $ 。该系统在1.8 V的电源电压下工作，消耗4.78 mA的电流。盐水中的湿法测量证明了平台在检测水分/离子进入方面的敏感性。这样的平台既可以用于加速浸泡研究，也可以在植入物的使用寿命期间用于监测芯片包装的完整性。