ASIC and HMC designs for portable nuclear instruments

This paper describes the seed activity done so far for realizing the goal of compact portable nuclear instruments and related instrumentation that can be designed, developed and manufactured without external constraints. This important activity requires critical components to be made in the country by tapping and gearing the established industrial units for this activity. A good deal of ground work has been carried out over a period of time in setting up IC design facility and CAD-FAB interface. There has been a close interaction with the production and semiconductor facilities to design and develop ASIC, hybrids, display devices, detectors/sensors etc. Efforts are also undertaken to develop the critical technologies that are required to fulfill the requirement. A status report on various technologies, ASIC, hybrids and their application development done in the face of out-standing challenges is being presented here. (author)