Performance of a new MCM-D technology front-end digital readout

A CEE-ESPRIT project developed a new MCM-D packaging technology with a view to industrial, biomedical and HEP applications. The objective was to establish a cost-efficient, commercial manufacturing base in silicium-based MCMs, with active substrates and ball-grid array interconnects. Among the main features are the integration of active and passive components in the substrate and the use of a flip-chip technique and wafer rerouting, leading to size reduction of interconnects and also a reduction of power consumption and of noise. The demonstrator built to show the potentiality of this technique, is a prototype of a fast digital readout front-end electronics. It gathers a low-noise and fast preamplifier and a fast and large dynamic range 12-bit ADC. Therefore it mixes analogue and digital components. It also includes a PLL and boundary scan test cells, that are integrated in the substrate as well as passive components. Detailed tests have been performed showing that this demonstrator achieves very high performances in terms of noise, stability, power consumption, imaging properties and signal processing.