Design and Tests of the Vertically Integrated Photon Imaging Chip

The Vertically Integrated Photon Imaging Chip (VIPIC) project explores opportunities of the three-dimensional integration for imaging of X-rays. The design details of the VIPIC1 chip are presented and are followed by results of testing of the chip. The VIPIC1 chip was designed in a 130 nm process, in which through silicon vias are embedded right after the front-end-of-line processing. The integration of tiers is achieved by the Cu-Cu thermo-compression or Cu-based oxide-oxide bonding. The VIPIC1 readout integrated circuit was designed for high timing resolution, pixel based, X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy experiments typically using 8 keV X-rays at a synchrotron radiation facility. The design was done for bonding a Silicon pixel detector, however other materials can be serviced as long as the positive polarity of charge currents is respected.