Ambient Light Organic Sensor in a Printed Complementary Organic TFT Technology on Flexible Plastic Foil

n/

Design Techniques for Low-Voltage RF/mm-Wave Circuits in Nanometer CMOS Technologies

This paper reviews state-of-the-art design approaches for low-voltage radio frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) CMOS circuits. Effective design techniques at RF/mm-wave frequencies are described, including body biasing in fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technologies and circuit topologies based on integrated reactive components (i.e., capacitors, inductors and transformers). The application of low-voltage design techniques is discussed for the main RF/mm-wave circuit blocks, i.e., low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), mixers and power amplifiers (PAs), highlighting the main design tradeoffs

Printed Organic Electronics on Flexible Foil: Circuit Design and Emerging Applications

This brief provides an overview of recent advancements in printed flexible electronics, focusing on both circuit design and emerging applications of organic thin film transistors, including radio-frequency identification, organic sensors and their electronic interfaces. Printed circuits are low cost and large area, and thus enable applications where silicon-based circuits are either too expensive or need to be complemented by flexible circuitry distributed on large surfaces. Circuit topologies, design guidelines and tradeoffs are discussed with reference to state-of-the-art printed organic digital/analog building blocks enabling complex systems. Both technology and design challenges along with application bottlenecks are pointed out. Several printed organic systems on flexible substrate are also discussed as representative examples, namely a 13-MHz RFID tag, an ambient light sensor, and a large-area pressure sensor

Package-Scale Galvanic Isolators Based on Radio Frequency Coupling: Micro–Antenna Design

This paper presents the design of on-chip micro-antennas for package-scale galvanic isolators based on RF planar coupling. A step-by-step design procedure is proposed, which aims at the maximization of the weak electromagnetic coupling between the RX and TX antennas integrated on side-by-side co-packaged chips to enable both high isolation rating and common-mode transient immunity thanks to the high dielectric strength and low capacitive parasitics of a molding compound-based galvanic barrier, respectively. Micro-antenna design guidelines are drawn, highlighting the main relationship between coil coupling performance and their layout parameters, which are often in contrast with respect to traditional integrated inductor ones

An Experimental Comparison of Galvanically Isolated DC-DC Converters: Isolation Technology and Integration Approach

This paper reviews state-of-the-art approaches for galvanically isolated DC-DC converters based on radio frequency (RF) micro-transformer coupling. Isolation technology, integration level and fabrication issues are analyzed to highlight the pros and cons of fully integrated (i.e., two chips) and multichip systems-in-package (SiP) implementations. Specifically, two different basic isolation technologies are compared, which exploit thick-oxide integrated and polyimide standalone transformers, respectively. To this aim, previously available results achieved on a fully integrated isolation technology (i.e., thick-oxide integrated transformer) are compared with the experimental performance of a DC-DC converter for 20-V gate driver applications, specifically designed and implemented by exploiting a stand-alone polyimide transformer. The comparison highlights that similar performance in terms of power efficiency can be achieved at lower output power levels (i.e., about 200 mW), while the fully integrated approach is more effective at higher power levels with a better power density. On the other hand, the stand-alone polyimide transformer approach allows higher technology flexibility for the active circuitry while being less expensive and suitable for reinforced isolation

Blood lipid, homocysteine, uric acid and vitamins in clinically stable Multiple Sclerosis patients

A decrease of antioxidants, of neuroprotective and immunoregulatory vitamins and an increase of total-Homocysteine, Cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and of cellular stress markers [1] was reported in patients affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Recently, considering their unreliability, mainly due to the variability of the samples investigated, the attention focused on clinical relapse that results associated to a decrease of Uric acid and an increase of Cholesterol and stress markers. Aim. To identify the biochemical status during Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in a phase of clinical stability (PCS), we compared the blood levels of Urico acid (UA), Folic acid (FA), vitamins B12, A, and E, total-Homocysteine (t-Hcy), total Cholesterol (CHL) , HDL-CHL, and Triglycerides (TG) in 20 MS stable patients with those of 40 healthy controls. Methods. Consecutive MS patients, with relapsing-remitting or secondary-progressive courses, in a (PCS), were included. Plasma t-Hcy levels were determined by Ubbink method [1]. Technicon Immuno autoanalyser was used for serum FA and vitamin B12 assays. HPLC and fluorometry were used for UA, vitamin A and E, CHL, HDL-CHL, and TG assays. The ratio of E/CHL was valued. Results and Discussions. We found that MS patients in a PCS have higher blood levels of vitamin B12, t-Hcy, CHL, and HDL-CHL and lower blood levels of vitamin E and of the ratio E/CHL. The blood level of UA, FA, vitamin A, and TG do not differ from controls during this phase of MS. The increased level of CHL could be expression of both an its increased synthesis by neural cells and a chronic damage of myelin and axons. HDL-CHL concentration might arise to counteract the increase of CHL and assure its transport to the liver. Plasma levels of vitamin E, the major hydrophobic chain-breaking antioxidant, are decreased and our data confirm and support the view that it is consumed to counterbalance MS chronic neurodegeneration. Also, the increased levels of t-Hcy and vitamin B12 match previous studies performed in MS patients outside relapse. No significant differences in UA, FA, vitamin A, and TG levels appeared, making unprobable their involvement in the degenerative process of the stable phase of MS

A Comparative Analysis between Standard and mm-Wave Optimized BEOL in a Nanoscale CMOS Technology

This paper presents an extensive comparison of two 28-nm CMOS technologies, i.e., standard and mm-wave-optimized (i.e., thick metals and intermetal oxides) back-end-of-line (BEOL). The proposed comparison is carried out at both component and circuit level by means of a quantitative analysis of the actual performance improvements due to the adoption of a mm-wave-optimized BEOL. To this end, stand-alone transformer performance is first evaluated and then a complete mm-wave macroblock is investigated. A 77-GHz down-converter for frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) long-range/medium range (LR/MR) radar applications is exploited as a testbench. For the first time, it is demonstrated that thicker metals and intermetal oxides do not guarantee significant improvements at mm-wave frequencies and a standard (low-cost) BEOL is competitive in comparison with more complex (expensive) ones

Organic thin-film transistor amplifiers

This chapter provides a detailed overview of amplifier topologies that can be manufactured using organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). Advantages and drawbacks of unipolar and complementary OTFT technologies are discussed. In the rest of the chapter, unipolar and complementary amplifier solutions are presented in sequence. First elementary unipolar amplifiers are analyzed in detail, providing quantitative insight in their performance (including gain, linearity, output swing, speed, and noise) based on a simple analytical model of the OTFT. Then examples of multistage unipolar amplifiers providing higher gain are described. Amplifiers based on complementary transistors are analyzed later, focusing on their benchmarking against unipolar solutions. Several complementary organic amplifiers exploiting multistage topologies are finally discussed, providing an analysis of their performance and their experimental characterization