Study of Adjustable Gains for Control of Oscillation Frequency and Oscillation Condition in 3R-2C Oscillator

An idea of adjustable gain in order to obtain controllable features is very useful for design of tuneable oscillators. Several active elements with adjustable properties (current and voltage gain) are discussed in this paper. Three modified oscillator conceptions that are quite simple, directly electronically adjustable, providing independent control of oscillation condition and frequency were designed. Positive and negative aspects of presented method of control are discussed. Expected assumptions of adjustability are verified experimentally on one of the presented solution

Design of Signal Generators Using Active Elements Developed in I3T25 CMOS Technology Single IC Package for Illuminance to Frequency Conversion

This paper presents a compact and simple design of adjustable triangular and square wave functional generators employing fundamental cells fabricated on a single integrated circuit (IC) package. Two solutions have electronically tunable repeating frequency. The linear adjustability of repeating frequency was verified in the range between 17 and 264 kHz. The main benefits of the proposed generator are the follows: A simple adjustment of the repeating frequency by DC bias current, Schmitt trigger (threshold voltages) setting by DC driving voltage, and output levels in hundreds of mV when the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process with limited supply voltage levels is used. These generators are suitable to provide a simple conversion of illuminance to frequency of oscillation that can be employed for illuminance measurement and sensing in the agriculture applications. Experimental measurements proved that the proposed concept is usable for sensing of illuminance in the range from 1 up to 500 lx. The change of illuminance within this range causes driving of bias current between 21 and 52 mu A that adjusts repeating frequency between 70 and 154 kHz with an error up to 10% between the expected and real cases

Integrated Building Cells for a Simple Modular Design of Electronic Circuits with Reduced External Complexity: Performance, Active Element Assembly, and an Application Example

This paper introduces new integrated analog cells fabricated in a C035 I3T25 0.35-m ON Semiconductor process suitable for a modular design of advanced active elements with multiple terminals and controllable features. We developed and realized five analog cells on a single integrated circuit (IC), namely a voltage differencing differential buffer, a voltage multiplier with current output in full complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) form, a voltage multiplier with current output with a bipolar core, a current-controlled current conveyor of the second generation with four current outputs, and a single-input and single-output adjustable current amplifier. These cells (sub-blocks of the manufactured IC device), designed to operate in a bandwidth of up to tens of MHz, can be used as a construction set for building a variety of advanced active elements, offering up to four independently adjustable internal parameters. The performances of all individual cells were verified by extensive laboratory measurements, and the obtained results were compared to simulations in the Cadence IC6 tool. The definition and assembly of a newly specified advanced active element, namely a current-controlled voltage differencing current conveyor transconductance amplifier (CC-VDCCTA), is shown as an example of modular interconnection of the selected cells. This device was implemented in a newly synthesized topology of an electronically linearly tunable quadrature oscillator. Features of this active element were verified by simulations and experimental measurements

Fully-Differential Frequency Filters with Modern Active Elements

Tato disertační práce se zaměřuje na výzkum v oblasti frekvenčních filtrů. Hlavním cílem je navrhnout a analyzovat plně diferenční kmitočtové filtry pracující v proudovém módu a využívající moderní aktivní prvky. Prezentované filtry jsou navrženy za použití proudových sledovačů, operačních transkonduktančních zesilovačů, plně diferenčních proudových zesilovačů a transrezistančních zesilovačů. Návrh se zaměřuje na možnost řídit některý z typických parametrů filtru pomocí řiditelných aktivních prvků, které jsou vhodně umístněny do obvodové struktury. Jednotlivé prezentované filtry jsou navrženy v nediferenční a diferenční verzi. Velký důraz je věnován srovnání plně diferenčních struktur s jejich odpovídajícími nediferenčními formami. Funkčnost jednotlivých návrhů je ověřena simulacemi a v některých případech i experimentálním měřením.This doctoral thesis focuses on research in the field of frequency filters. The main goal is to propose and analyze fully-differential current-mode frequency filters employing modern active elements. Presented filters are proposed using current followers, operational transconductance amplifiers, digitally adjustable current amplifiers and transresistance amplifiers. The proposal is focusing on ability to control some of the typical filter parameter or parameters using controllable active elements suitably placed in the circuit structure. Individual presented filters are proposed in their single-ended and fully-differential forms. Great emphasis is paid to a comparison of the fully-differential structures and their corresponding single-ended forms. The functionality of each proposal is verified by simulations and in some cases also by experimental measurements.

Synthesis of neuromorphic circuits with neuromodulatory properties

The field of neuromorphic engineering shows great promise in delivering novel devices inspired by biological principles that would undertake sensory and processing tasks with an unprecedented level of efficiency. In order to achieve that, engineers are required to understand and implement the many complex biological regulatory mechanisms that allow the nervous system to robustly operate and adapt over scales covering many orders of magnitude, while at the same time using unreliable and noisy components. As a step towards that, this thesis aims at discussing and implementing the principles of neuromodulation in neuromorphic hardware, mechanisms which allow neurons to change and regulate their behaviour through the continuous control of their internal currents. We discuss how neural dynamics and its modulation can be broken down into four essential feedback loops, and we introduce a simplified model of the neural membrane respecting this fundamental structure. We present a novel methodology for controlling the neuron's behaviour through the shaping of its I-V curves in distinct timescales, thus characterising the behaviour of the neural circuit through its input-output properties. We show how modulation of the feedback loops affects the behaviour, and importantly, captures the transition between spiking and bursting oscillatory regimes, two major signalling modes of neurons. We then show how the architecture can be easily implemented using well-known neuromorphic building blocks based on subthreshold MOSFET circuits. Finally, we discuss how the excitability switch captured by the model can be exploited in simple network settings, thus opening up the possibility for future research into novel architectures where the control of cellular properties is utilised to shape the global behaviour of the network

Realization of electronically tunable voltage-mode/current-mode quadrature sinusoidal oscillator using ZC-CG-CDBA

a b s t r a c t This paper presents a first of its kind canonic realization of active RC (ARC) sinusoidal oscillator with non-interactive/independent tuning laws, which simultaneously provides buffered quadrature voltage outputs and explicit quadrature current outputs. The proposed circuit is created using a new active building block, namely the Z-copy controlled-gain current differencing buffered amplifier (ZC-CG-CDBA). The circuit uses three resistors and two grounded capacitors, and provides independent/non-interactive control of the condition of oscillation (CO) and the frequency of oscillation (FO) by means of different resistors. Other advantageous features of the circuit are the inherent electronic tunability of the FO via controlling current gains of the active elements and the suitability to be employed as a low-frequency oscillator. A non-ideal analysis of the circuit is carried out and experimental results verifying the workability of the proposed circuit are included

Neurocomputing systems for auditory processing

This thesis studies neural computation models and neuromorphic implementations of the auditory pathway with applications to cochlear implants and artificial auditory sensory and processing systems. Very low power analogue computation is addressed through the design of micropower analogue building blocks and an auditory preprocessing module targeted at cochlear implants. The analogue building blocks have been fabricated and tested in a standard Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon (CMOS) process. The auditory pre-processing module design is based on the cochlea signal processing mechanisms and low power microelectronic design methodologies. Compared to existing preprocessing techniques used in cochlear implants, the proposed design has a wider dynamic range and lower power consumption. Furthermore, it provides the phase coding as well as the place coding information that are necessary for enhanced functionality in future cochlear implants. The thesis presents neural computation based approaches to a number of signal-processing problems encountered in cochlear implants. Techniques that can improve the performance of existing devices are also presented. Neural network based models for loudness mapping and pattern recognition based channel selection strategies are described. Compared with state—of—the—art commercial cochlear implants, the thesis results show that the proposed channel selection model produces superior speech sound qualities; and the proposed loudness mapping model consumes substantially smaller amounts of memory. Aside from the applications in cochlear implants, this thesis describes a biologically plausible computational model of the auditory pathways to the superior colliculus based on current neurophysiological findings. The model encapsulates interaural time difference, interaural spectral difference, monaural pathway and auditory space map tuning in the inferior colliculus. A biologically plausible Hebbian-like learning rule is proposed for auditory space neural map tuning, and a reinforcement learning method is used for map alignment with other sensory space maps through activity independent cues. The validity of the proposed auditory pathway model has been verified by simulation using synthetic data. Further, a complete biologically inspired auditory simulation system is implemented in software. The system incorporates models of the external ear, the cochlea, as well as the proposed auditory pathway model. The proposed implementation can mimic the biological auditory sensory system to generate an auditory space map from 3—D sounds. A large amount of real 3-D sound signals including broadband White noise, click noise and speech are used in the simulation experiments. The efiect of the auditory space map developmental plasticity is examined by simulating early auditory space map formation and auditory space map alignment with a distorted visual sensory map. Detailed simulation methods, procedures and results are presented