A low power and low signal 4 bit 50MS/s double sampling pipelined ADC for monolithie active pixel sensors

A 4 bit very low power and low incoming signal analog to digital converter (ADC) using a double sampling switched capacitor technique, designed for use in CMOS monolithic active pixels sensor readout, has been implemented in 0.35μm CMOS technology. A non-resetting sample and hold stage is integrated to amplify the incoming signal by 4. This first stage compensates both the amplifier offset effect and the input common mode voltage fluctuations. The converter is composed of a 2.5 bit pipeline stage followed by a 2 bit flash stage. This prototype consists of 4 ADC double-channels; each one is sampling at 50MS/s and dissipates only 2.6mW at 3.3V supply voltage. A bias pulsing stage is integrated in the circuit. Therefore, the analog part is switched OFF or ON in less than 1μs. The size for the layout is 80μm*0.9mm. This corresponds to the pitch of 4 pixel columns, each one is 20μm wide

Statistical analysis of A/D converters: a comparative study

International audienc

Sensibilisation au développement d’accélérateurs matériels sur FPGA

Les applications liées au traitement du signal et à la vidéo sont propices pour la mise en exergue des besoins d’implantation de certaines fonctions sous forme de blocs matériels dédiés. Cette implantation matérielle est une tache complexe qui nécessite des connaissances approfondies dans domaines des circuits ciblés et des méthodologies de conception. En effet, les choix réalisés au niveau algorithmiques ont des répercussions importantes sur les performances des circuits à concevoir. Partant de ce constat, nous avons décidé de créer une séquence pédagogique ciblant des étudiants de 3ème année (master 2, semestre 9) pour les sensibiliser à cette problématique. La réalisation de cet enseignement passe par trois étapes principales. Dans un premier temps, nous fournissons aux étudiants les codes VHDL réalisant les opérations arithmétiques usuelles afin de mettre en évidence les performances que peuvent atteindre les circuits en fonction du format des données. Dans un second temps, les étudiants doivent concevoir un accélérateur matériel (pour la norme JPEG-2000) sous différentes formes, démontrant ainsi l’impact du choix de l’architecture sur les performances. Enfin dans un dernier temps, nous relions l’accélérateur matériel à un processeur SoftCore dans le FPGA afin de (1) valider fonctionnellement le circuit développé; (2) comparer les performances à celles obtenues dans une approche purement logicielle. L’objectif de cet article est de présenter le travail réalisé par les étudiants ainsi que les objectifs pédagogiques atteints. L’ensemble des documents nécessaires à la séquence pédagogique ainsi que les codes sources sont librement accessibles sur internet. Cette démarche vise à permettre une transposition de l’enseignement au sein d’autres structures manifestant les mêmes besoins

Reliability measurements of an augmented reality-based 4.0 system for supporting workmen in handmade assembly

The 4.0 paradigm has diffused across many sectors in a number of technological application fields, from industry to healthcare and constructions, and also to immaterial contexts, such as social events. The relevant enabling technologies of this paradigm are declined to adhere to the requirements of the specific field. Because 4.0 is often associated with technological advancement, in the literature, little attention has been dedicated to the adoption of 4.0 technologies in sectors that are not 'intrinsically technological'. Starting from these considerations, the goal of this work is to address the possibility of extending the 4.0 Era paradigm also to fields that, by definition, are not technology-oriented, such as the craft sector. In particular, as a case study, the adoption of augmented reality (AR) to administer instructions to a workman in the manual assembly of a product is addressed. In line with the 4.0 paradigm, a dedicated workman-centered, AR application was designed, implemented and tested. As a case study, the manual assembly of a mechanical clock was considered. After describing the design strategies and the implementation modalities, experimental tests were carried out to measure the reliability of the AR-based system

Performance impact of various SEE mechanisms in classical analog-to-digital converter architectures

International audienceAn original methodology is presented for characterizing SEE impact on ADCs performance parameters. Events produced by a pulsed laser and heavy ions are analyzed with an ADC testing dedicated software coupled with the THESIC+ tester

A Cross-Layer Measurement Approach to Assess LoRa Wireless Technology in Presence of Noise

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm refers to the extension of the internet network to the world of physical objects ('things'), embedded with sensors, actuators, and other technologies that allow them to evolve and become smarter and connected ('smart things') [1]. The physical objects can be anything. The smart objects can sense, monitor, react to the environment, and communicate autonomously the information they process and collect to other smart things or cloud services. A set of smart things can interact together to realize amazing smart applications that improve users' experience, quality of life, and safety [2]. The easiest service provided by IoT is the ability to remotely control and monitor the physical environment over the internet network. As an example, thanks to IoT it is possible today to easily monitor heart rate, manage home lighting, check the availability of parking and much else besides [3]. IoT applications are rapidly changing environments and ecosystems, giving rise to smart cities, smart grids, smart industry, smart communities, etc. The opportunities offered by IoT are endless, since IoT can make everything smart (Internet of Everything-IoE) [4]

DETECTION AND LOCATION OF DEFECTS IN ELECTRONIC DEVICES BY MEANS OF SCANNING ULTRASONIC MICROSCOPY AND THE WAVELET TRASFORM

International audienc