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The AMchip; A full-custom CMOS VLSI associative memory for pattern recognition

Conference · · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)
OSTI ID:6721831
An Associative Memory full-custom CMOS VLSI chip (AMchip), to be used in fast Trigger Systems for pattern recognition, has been designed and is being successfully tested at INFN in Pisa. The AMchip is the first full-custom associative memory IC developed for high energy physics until today. It contains about 140,000 mos transistors, has been realized in 1.5 micron, double metal, silicon gate CMOS technology, and is housed in a 120 pins package. The AMchip has been designed to be used with any kind of detector which provides in output the hits coordinates, such as, for example, a silicon microstrips detector. In this paper, the authors plan to realize a new AMchip version using sub-micron technology (available in 1992) and new circuital solutions, improving the patterns capacity of a factor 4, and improving significantly the speed. These versions will be developed to match new high energy physics experiments' specific requirements (see, for example, the CDF Silicon Vertex Tracker).
OSTI ID:
6721831
Report Number(s):
CONF-911106--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Journal Volume: 39:4
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English