{"title":"A study of RF oscillator reliability in nanoscale CMOS","authors":"M. Babaie, R. Staszewski","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662205","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we investigate the nature of oxide breakdown and stress-related degradation mechanisms in MOS transistors. The MOS breakdown time is quantified based on exponential-law and defect-generation models versus the oxide-thickness, gate area, temperature and voltage stress at a given cumulative failure. As a consequence, a design guide is presented to estimate the time dependent dielectric breakdown of any analog circuit. Based on reliability analysis, the lifetime of the recently introduced class-F oscillator is evaluated for both thin and thick oxide options in TSMC 65-nm CMOS process.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130897229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Critical role of initial condition in the dynamics of memristive systems: Orbital narrowing revisited","authors":"Weiran Cai, R. Tetzlaff, F. Ellinger","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662209","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the characterization of memristive systems utilizing the characteristive curve of state and analyze the special role of initial condition in such history-dependent systems. The specifically studied system focuses on the titanium dioxide memristor based on the nonlinear ionic drift model of Joglekar. We derive first the characteristic curve of state (CCOS) as the analytical solution of the model to any integer index in the Gaussian hypergeometric form, based on which a characterization approach is then developed. The approach simply converts the complicated history-dependent dynamics into a mapping on the state-flux phase plane, expressing the initial condition as a pure translation along the flux axis, which is analogous to the characterization method for transistors. With this geometric view, we observe that the initial condition operates as an operation point for a memristive system and can effectively influence the orbital shape: the same input signal can produce two distinct orbital shapes when the initial conditions differ. From another point, there ought to be two factors giving rise to the orbital narrowing phenomenon: the frequency and the initial condition. It is pointed out that this is purely caused by the nonlinearity in the model.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131854532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Complex dynamics in neuromorphic memristor circuits","authors":"F. Corinto, M. Gilli, A. Ascoli, R. Tetzlaff","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662221","url":null,"abstract":"A deep study of the nonlinear dynamics of nonlinear circuits with memristors represents a fundamental step towards the development of memristor-based systems for bio-inspired applications and dense nonvolatile memories. A rich variety of complex dynamic behaviors, including chaos, may be observed even in a simple memristor oscillator. This article is organized according to the regulations of the ECCTD 2013 Special Sessions. We present a short summary of the state-of-the-art of memristor theory, model and applications. In addition, we briefly introduce a comprehensive Nonlinear Circuit Theory-based foundation for circuit implementation of the Hodgkin-Huxley neural model with memristors.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"33 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132020254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The spatial Cauchy problem for a dissipative infinite quantum waveguide supporting a single propagating mode","authors":"P. Civalleri, M. Gilli, M. Bonnin","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662282","url":null,"abstract":"We consider an infinite waveguide supporting a single propagating mode for which the excitation (say the electric or the magnetic field) is assigned in a given section assumed as the origin of the coordinate z along its axis. In steady state the state evolution along z is the solution of the spatial Cauchy problem along such coordinate. As soon as the radiation involves a low number of photons, or even reduces to a single one, the classical treatment must be replaced by a quantum one. Moreover the effect of dissipation must be taken into account by either a microscopic treatment of the properties of the dielectric material and of the metallic boundaries, or, as long as only the mathematical form of the equations be of interest, by using a spatial version of Lindblad equations. We choose here the second alternative. From the obtained equations it is possible to extend the treatment to multimode finite terminated waveguides.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132261696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matteo Biggio, F. Bizzarri, A. Brambilla, G. Carlini, M. Storace
{"title":"Reliable and efficient phase noise simulation of mixed-mode integer-N Phase-Locked Loops","authors":"Matteo Biggio, F. Bizzarri, A. Brambilla, G. Carlini, M. Storace","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662284","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper the results obtained by performing the Periodic Noise (PNoise) analysis of a Phase-Locked Loop (pll) modeled as a mixed analog/digital circuit are compared with those from experimental measurements. The PNoise analysis of this class of circuits is done by considering them as hybrid dynamical systems. Since the circuit simulators available on the academic and industrial shelves are not able to carry out this kind of simulation, experimental validation is mandatory to support numerical results and enforce the reliability of the proposed approach. A significant improvement of the PNoise analysis efficiency, in terms of reducing its computational burden when simulating noise in PLLs with a large frequency ratio, is also presented, which allows to more easily manage noise folding.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133250478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
B. Blanco-Filgueira, P. López, Manuel Suárez-Cambre, J. Roldán
{"title":"CMOS photodiode model and HDL implementation","authors":"B. Blanco-Filgueira, P. López, Manuel Suárez-Cambre, J. Roldán","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662192","url":null,"abstract":"With CMOS image sensors scaling down due to the resolution and miniaturization demands, compact models for these devices become essential. A physically based model can be used to optimize the device performance and allow circuit designers to use these sensors in integrated circuits. Among other capacities, this analytical model can be used to predict with high accuracy the best photodiode geometry to achieve the maximum photoresponse while optimizing the total layout area cost.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131375874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Study of peak and backoff efficiency of different power amplifier classes in outphasing systems","authors":"K. Aggour, R. Negra","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662245","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we present an outphasing power amplifier system. The system performance is studied and analysed. The peak power efficiency and backoff power efficiency are compared for three classes of operation, class-D, class-E and class-F. Class-D power amplifier shows superior efficiency at both maximum power (95 %) and at backoff power. At 10 dB backoff power from peak power, efficiency is simulated to be 60 %. A proposed phase modulation improves efficiency at backoff power by 7-8 %. A CMOS class-D version is proposed to test the system implementation feasibility in CMOS technology and its performance is reported. The maximum efficiency is found to be around 70 % and the 5 dB backoff power efficiency is about 35 %.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"94 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115597482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Strategies for finding a bandwidth-optimal topology for impedance matching","authors":"A. Lehtovuori, R. Valkonen","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662333","url":null,"abstract":"When searching for an impedance matching circuit yielding the maximum bandwidth with certain number of matching elements, the choice of the correct topology is crucial. Compared to optimal two-element (L-section) matching, the improvement of bandwidth provided by a third element can be anything from negligible to significant. In this paper, two approaches for finding an optimal three-element matching circuit are proposed. The first method is a simple optimization based search for promising matching topologies. The second method systematically searches the optimal matching topology and analyzes the bandwidth provided by the alternatives. Numerical results with example real-life loads are presented to demonstrate the importance of the topology choice in impedance matching.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123333122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samuel Sordo Ibáñez, B. Piñero-García, S. Espejo-Meana, A. Ragel-Morales, J. Caceres, M. Munoz-Diaz, L. Carranza-González, A. Arias-Drake, J. M. Mora-Gutierrez, M. A. Lagos-Florido
{"title":"An adaptive approach to on-chip CMOS ramp generation for high resolution single-slope ADCs","authors":"Samuel Sordo Ibáñez, B. Piñero-García, S. Espejo-Meana, A. Ragel-Morales, J. Caceres, M. Munoz-Diaz, L. Carranza-González, A. Arias-Drake, J. M. Mora-Gutierrez, M. A. Lagos-Florido","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662334","url":null,"abstract":"Many image sensors employ column-parallel ADCs in their readout structures. Single-slope ADCs are ideally suited for these multi-channel applications due to their simplicity, low power and small overall area. The ramp generator, shared by all the converters in the readout architecture, is a key element that has a direct effect in the transfer characteristic of single-slope ADCs. Because a digital counter is inherently present in this conversion scheme, one common practice is to use a digital-to-analog converter driven by the counter to generate the ramp. Given the direct relationship between the DAC and the ADC transfer characteristics, one of the main issues is to ensure a sufficient linearity of the DAC, with special emphasis on its monotonicity. Very often, in particular when medium to high resolutions are aimed, this requires calibration of the DAC, which must be repeated every once in a while to account for temperature, process, power supply, and aging variations. This paper presents an inherently monotonic ramp generator with high levels of linearity and stability against any expected source of variations, combined with a very efficient realization and an inherent automatic adaptability to different resolutions. The ramp generator has been designed using radiation hardening by design (RHBD) techniques, allowing its use in space applications.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123711790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A low noise single-ended to differential linear charge sampling SC-VGA for second harmonic cardiac ultrasound imaging","authors":"P. Wang, T. Ytterdal, T. Halvorsrod","doi":"10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662288","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCTD.2013.6662288","url":null,"abstract":"A low noise single-ended to differential linear switched capacitor variable gain amplifier (SC-VGA) is designed in a 0.18μm CMOS technology for 4MHz center frequency (fs) 26-MHz ultrasound imaging. To fit the higher source impedance from gradually scaled piezo-electric transducers (PZT) in ultrasound imaging systems, a charge sampling amplifier with a fixed integration time as the first stage exhibits the lower noise, and higher sensitivity compared to the conventional voltage sampling amplifiers. The second voltage sampling stage converts the single-ended input to differential outputs with an exponential gain control which exploits an 8b binary capacitor (CAP) array, and the gain varies dB-in-linear from -14dB to 14dB. To reduce the capacitance spread for a binary-weighted 8b CAP array, the array is segmented between the upper 4b and lower 4b by a divider capacitor. Simulation results show the analog part of proposed amplifier consumes 1.25mA at 1.8V, has HD2 -62dB, HD3 -79dB at 150mV output Vpp, and the input referred noise (IRN) is 6.56pA/√Hz at 4MHz and 25.3nArms at a sampling frequency (fs) of 30MHz. The layout size is 310μm×370μm.","PeriodicalId":342333,"journal":{"name":"2013 European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD)","volume":"20 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121001469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}