220 research outputs found
Mixed-signal integrated circuits design and validation for automotive electronics applications
Automotive electronics is a fast growing market. In a field primarily dominated by mechanical or hydraulic systems, over the past few decades there has been exponential growth in the number of electronic components incorporated into automobiles. Partly thanks to the advance in high voltage smart power processes in nowadays cars is possible to integrate both power/high voltage electronics and analog/digital signal processing circuitry thus allowing to replace a lot of mechanical systems with electro-mechanical or fully electronic ones. High level modeling of complex electronic systems is gaining importance relatively to design space exploration, enabling shorter design and verification cycles, allowing reduced time-to-market. A high level model of a resistor string DAC to evaluate nonlinearities has been developed in MATLAB environment. As a test case for the model, a 10 bit resistive DAC in 0.18um is designed and the results were compared with the traditional transistor level approach. Then we face the analysis and design of a fundamental block: the bandgap voltage reference. Automotive requirements are tough, so the design of the voltage reference includes a pre-regulation part of the battery voltage that allows to enhance overall performances. Moreover an analog integrated driver for an automotive application whose architecture exploits today’s trends of analog-digital integration allowing a greater range of flexibility allowing high configurability and fast prototipization is presented. We covered also the mixed-signal verification approach. In fact, as complexity increases and mixed-signal systems become more and more pervasive, test and verification often tend to be the bottleneck in terms of time effort. A complete flow for mixed-signal verification using VHDL-AMS modeling and Python scripting is presented as an alternative to complex transistor level simulations. Finally conclusions are drawn
Doctor of Philosophy
dissertationHigh speed wireless communication systems (e.g., long-term evolution (LTE), Wi-Fi) operate with high bandwidth and large peak-to-average power ratios (PAPRs). This is largely due to the use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation that is prevalent to maximize the spectral efficiency of the communication system. The power amplifier (PA) in the transmitter is the dominant energy consumer in the radio, largely because of the PAPR of the input signal. To reduce the energy consumption of the PA an amplifier that simultaneously achieves high efficiency and high linearity. Furthermore, to lower the cost for high volume production, it is desirable to achieve a complete System-on-Chip (SoC) integration. Linear amplifiers (e.g., Class-A, -B, -AB) are inefficient when amplifying signals with large PAPR that is associated by high peak-to-average modulation techniques such as LTE. OFDM. Switching amplifiers (e.g., Class-D, -E, -F) are very promising due to their high efficiency when compared to their linear amplifier counterparts. Linearization techniques for switching amplifiers have been intensively investigated due to their limited sensitivity to the input amplitude of the signal. Deep-submicron CMOS technology is mostly utilized for logic circuitry, and the Moore's law scaling of CMOS optimizes transistors to operate as high-speed and low-loss switches rather than high gain transistors. Hence, it is advantageous to use transistors in switching mode as switching amplifies and use high-speed digital logic circuitry to implement linearization systems and circuitry. In this work, several linearization architectures are investigated and demonstrated. An envelope elimination and restoration (EER) transmitter that comprises a class-E power amplifier and a 10-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) controlled current modulator is investigated. A pipelined switched-capacitor DAC is designed to control an open-loop transconductor that operates as a current modulator, modulating the amplitude of the current supplied to a class-E PA. Such a topology allows for increased filtering of the quantization noise that is problematic in most digital PAs (DPA). The proposed quadrature and multiphase architecture can avoid the bandwidth expansion and delay mismatch associated with polar PAs. The multiphase switched capacitor power amplifier (SCPA) was proposed after the quadrature SCPA and it significantly improves the power efficiency
Accelerated neuromorphic cybernetics
Accelerated mixed-signal neuromorphic hardware refers to electronic systems that emulate electrophysiological aspects of biological nervous systems in analog voltages and currents in an accelerated manner. While the functional spectrum of these systems already includes many observed neuronal capabilities, such as learning or classification, some areas remain largely unexplored. In particular, this concerns cybernetic scenarios in which nervous systems engage in closed interaction with their bodies and environments. Since the control of behavior and movement in animals is both the purpose and the cause of the development of nervous systems, such processes are, however, of essential importance in nature. Besides the design of neuromorphic circuit- and system components, the main focus of this work is therefore the construction and analysis of accelerated neuromorphic agents that are integrated into cybernetic chains of action. These agents are, on the one hand, an accelerated mechanical robot, on the other hand, an accelerated virtual insect. In both cases, the sensory organs and actuators of their artificial bodies are derived from the neurophysiology of the biological prototypes and are reproduced as faithfully as possible. In addition, each of the two biomimetic organisms is subjected to evolutionary optimization, which illustrates the advantages of accelerated neuromorphic nervous systems through significant time savings
Design Techniques for High Speed Low Voltage and Low Power Non-Calibrated Pipeline Analog to Digital Converters
The profound digitization of modern microelectronic modules made Analog-to-
Digital converters (ADC) key components in many systems. With resolutions up to
14bits and sampling rates in the 100s of MHz, the pipeline ADC is a prime candidate for
a wide range of applications such as instrumentation, communications and consumer
electronics. However, while past work focused on enhancing the performance of the
pipeline ADC from an architectural standpoint, little has been done to individually
address its fundamental building blocks. This work aims to achieve the latter by
proposing design techniques to improve the performance of these blocks with minimal
power consumption in low voltage environments, such that collectively high
performance is achieved in the pipeline ADC.
Towards this goal, a Recycling Folded Cascode (RFC) amplifier is proposed as
an enhancement to the general performance of the conventional folded cascode. Tested
in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18?m Complementary
Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the RFC provides twice the
bandwidth, 8-10dB additional gain, more than twice the slew rate and improved noise performance over the conventional folded cascode-all at no additional power or silicon
area. The direct auto-zeroing offset cancellation scheme is optimized for low voltage
environments using a dual level common mode feedback (CMFB) circuit, and amplifier
differential offsets up to 50mV are effectively cancelled. Together with the RFC, the
dual level CMFB was used to implement a sample and hold amplifier driving a singleended
load of 1.4pF and using only 2.6mA; at 200MS/s better than 9bit linearity is
achieved. Finally a power conscious technique is proposed to reduce the kickback noise
of dynamic comparators without resorting to the use of pre-amplifiers. When all
techniques are collectively used to implement a 1Vpp 10bit 160MS/s pipeline ADC in
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) 0.18[mu]m CMOS, 9.2
effective number of bits (ENOB) is achieved with a near Nyquist-rate full scale signal.
The ADC uses an area of 1.1mm2 and consumes 42mW in its analog core. Compared to
recent state-of-the-art implementations in the 100-200MS/s range, the presented pipeline
ADC uses the least power per conversion rated at 0.45pJ/conversion-step
A built-in self-test technique for high speed analog-to-digital converters
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PhD grant (SFRH/BD/62568/2009
Power and spectrally efficient integrated high-speed LED drivers for visible light communication
Recent trends in mobile broadband indicates that the available radio frequency (RF) spectrum
will not be enough to support the data requirements of the immediate future. Visible
light communication, which uses visible spectrum to transmit wirelessly could be a potential
solution to the RF ’Spectrum Crunch’. Thus there is growing interest all over the
world in this domain with support from both academia and industry. Visible light communication(
VLC) systems make use of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are semiconductor
light sources to transmit information. A number of demonstrators at different data
capacity and link distances has been reported in this area. One of the key problems holding
this technology from taking off is the unavailability of power efficient, miniature LED
drive schemes. Reported demonstrators, mostly using either off the shelf components or
arbitrary waveform generators (AWGs) to drive the LEDs have only started to address this
problem by adopting integrated drivers designed for driving lighting installations for communications.
The voltage regulator based drive schemes provide high power efficiency (> 90 %) but it is difficult to realise the fast switching required to achieve the Mbps or Gbps
data rates needed for modern wireless communication devices. In this work, we are exploiting
CMOS technology to realise an integrated LED driver for VLC. Instead of using
conventional drive schemes (digital to analogue converter (DAC) + power amplifier or
voltage regulators), we realised a current steering DAC based LED driver operating at
high currents and sampling rates whilst maintaining power efficiency. Compared to a
commercial AWG or discrete LED driver, circuit realised utilisng complementary metal
oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has resulted in area reduction (29mm2).
We realised for the first time a multi-channel CMOS LED driver capable of operating
up to a 500 MHz sample rate at an output current of 255 mA per channel and >70%
power efficiency. We were able to demonstrate the flexibility of the driver by employing
it to realise VLC links using micro LEDs and commercial LEDs. Data rates up to 1 Gbps
were achieved using this system employing a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO)
scheme. We also demonstrated the wavelength division multiplexing ability of the driver
using a red/green/blue commercial LED. The first integrated digital to light converter
(DLC), where depending on the input code, a proportional number of LEDs are turned
ON, realising a data converter in the optical domain, is also an output from this research.
In addition, we propose a differential optical drive scheme where two output branches of
a current DAC are used to drive two LEDs achieving higher link performance and power
efficiency compared to single LED drive
Ultra-low-power circuits and systems for wearable and implantable medical devices
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-231).Advances in circuits, sensors, and energy storage elements have opened up many new possibilities in the health industry. In the area of wearable devices, the miniaturization of electronics has spurred the rapid development of wearable vital signs, activity, and fitness monitors. Maximizing the time between battery recharge places stringent requirements on power consumption by the device. For implantable devices, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that energy storage capacity is limited by volume constraints, and frequent battery replacement via surgery is undesirable. In this case, the design of energy-efficient circuits and systems becomes even more crucial. This thesis explores the design of energy-efficient circuits and systems for two medical applications. The first half of the thesis focuses on the design and implementation of an ultra-low-power, mixed-signal front-end for a wearable ECG monitor in a 0.18pm CMOS process. A mixed-signal architecture together with analog circuit optimizations enable ultra-low-voltage operation at 0.6V which provides power savings through voltage scaling, and ensures compatibility with state-of-the-art DSPs. The fully-integrated front-end consumes just 2.9[mu]W, which is two orders of magnitude lower than commercially available parts. The second half of this thesis focuses on ultra-low-power system design and energy-efficient neural stimulation for a proof-of-concept fully-implantable cochlear implant. First, implantable acoustic sensing is demonstrated by sensing the motion of a human cadaveric middle ear with a piezoelectric sensor. Second, alternate energy-efficient electrical stimulation waveforms are investigated to reduce neural stimulation power when compared to the conventional rectangular waveform. The energy-optimal waveform is analyzed using a computational nerve fiber model, and validated with in-vivo ECAP recordings in the auditory nerve of two cats and with psychophysical tests in two human cochlear implant users. Preliminary human subject testing shows that charge and energy savings of 20-30% and 15-35% respectively are possible with alternative waveforms. A system-on-chip comprising the sensor interface, reconfigurable sound processor, and arbitrary-waveform neural stimulator is implemented in a 0.18[mu]m high-voltage CMOS process to demonstrate the feasibility of this system. The sensor interface and sound processor consume just 12[mu]W of power, representing just 2% of the overall system power which is dominated by stimulation. As a result, the energy savings from using alternative stimulation waveforms transfer directly to the system.by Marcus Yip.Ph.D
Design Techniques for High Speed Low Voltage and Low Power Non-Calibrated Pipeline Analog to Digital Converters
The profound digitization of modern microelectronic modules made Analog-to-
Digital converters (ADC) key components in many systems. With resolutions up to
14bits and sampling rates in the 100s of MHz, the pipeline ADC is a prime candidate for
a wide range of applications such as instrumentation, communications and consumer
electronics. However, while past work focused on enhancing the performance of the
pipeline ADC from an architectural standpoint, little has been done to individually
address its fundamental building blocks. This work aims to achieve the latter by
proposing design techniques to improve the performance of these blocks with minimal
power consumption in low voltage environments, such that collectively high
performance is achieved in the pipeline ADC.
Towards this goal, a Recycling Folded Cascode (RFC) amplifier is proposed as
an enhancement to the general performance of the conventional folded cascode. Tested
in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18?m Complementary
Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the RFC provides twice the
bandwidth, 8-10dB additional gain, more than twice the slew rate and improved noise performance over the conventional folded cascode-all at no additional power or silicon
area. The direct auto-zeroing offset cancellation scheme is optimized for low voltage
environments using a dual level common mode feedback (CMFB) circuit, and amplifier
differential offsets up to 50mV are effectively cancelled. Together with the RFC, the
dual level CMFB was used to implement a sample and hold amplifier driving a singleended
load of 1.4pF and using only 2.6mA; at 200MS/s better than 9bit linearity is
achieved. Finally a power conscious technique is proposed to reduce the kickback noise
of dynamic comparators without resorting to the use of pre-amplifiers. When all
techniques are collectively used to implement a 1Vpp 10bit 160MS/s pipeline ADC in
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) 0.18[mu]m CMOS, 9.2
effective number of bits (ENOB) is achieved with a near Nyquist-rate full scale signal.
The ADC uses an area of 1.1mm2 and consumes 42mW in its analog core. Compared to
recent state-of-the-art implementations in the 100-200MS/s range, the presented pipeline
ADC uses the least power per conversion rated at 0.45pJ/conversion-step
- …