D. Shang, Oyinkuro Benafa, F. Xia, Yuqing Xu, A. Yakovlev
{"title":"An elastic timer for wide dynamic working range","authors":"D. Shang, Oyinkuro Benafa, F. Xia, Yuqing Xu, A. Yakovlev","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182004","url":null,"abstract":"Oscillators are needed in many systems for time keeping purposes. They are often called timers. In low duty cycle systems, such as wireless sensors, such oscillators may incur a significant portion of system power consumption. Extensive research exists in making on-chip oscillators low power. However, the other part of the time keeping function, that of computing the number of oscillation cycles, is normally not treated in such research. This paper describes research that focuses on developing oscillators with an innate capability of counting its own oscillation cycles, suitable for direct use as timekeeping devices. The functional correctness of solutions based on asynchronous counters and matched delays are demonstrated and a number of designs are characterized in terms of oscillation frequency and working ranges. In addition, the proposed timers are seamlessly elastic in relation to voltage variations.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131245776","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}
Gönenç Berkol, A. Unutulmaz, Engin Afacan, Günhan Dündar, Francisco V. Fernández, A. E. Pusane, I. F. Baskaya
{"title":"A two-step layout-in-the-loop design automation tool","authors":"Gönenç Berkol, A. Unutulmaz, Engin Afacan, Günhan Dündar, Francisco V. Fernández, A. E. Pusane, I. F. Baskaya","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182115","url":null,"abstract":"There exists circuit sizing and layout generation tools for analog circuit designers to speed up the design process. Generally, these tools handle the circuit sizing and the layout generation processes separately, which may cause performance failures and laborious redesign iterations. Recently, new tools have been developed which simultaneously take care of circuit sizing and layout generation. However, they either suffer from long run times or limited accuracy of the utilized parasitic model. This paper presents a complete layout-aware design automation tool for analog circuits. The proposed tool combines a simulation-based circuit sizing tool with a template-based layout generation tool. The layout-induced parasitics are automatically extracted via a commercially available extractor. To reduce the run time cost originating from parasitic extraction, a two step methodology is followed, where infeasible solutions are prohibited from costly extraction process.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129471389","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":"Calibration and characterization techniques for on-wafer device characterization","authors":"L. Galatro, M. Spirito","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7181978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7181978","url":null,"abstract":"In this contribution we review the challenges and possible solutions to achieve accurate s-parameters and power calibration in the (sub)mm-wave bands. A numerical and experimental analysis of multimode propagation over co-planar transmission lines, used during the calibration process, is described. The losses and coupling effects arising from the unwanted propagating modes are analysed by means of 3D electro-magnetic simulations. Fused silica is then proposed as an optimal calibration substrate due to its low loss-tangent and low dielectric constant, which allows to reduce, compared to alumina, losses arising from spurious modes. Experimental data of probelevel calibration performed in the 220-325GHz band are presented. A frequency scalable approach to achieve absolute power control for large signal characterization in the (sub)mm-wave bands is introduced. The proposed hardware configuration employs only a commercially available VNA and the required frequency extenders to cover a given band and does not employ expensive additional test-sets. Measurement results are provided in WR-10, WR-05 and WR-03 waveguide bands to report the scalability of the method.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"87 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130007295","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":"Hybrid encoded QDI combinational circuits","authors":"Fu-Chiung Cheng, Andi Peng, Xiao-Li Lin, Shu-Chuan Huang","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182082","url":null,"abstract":"Quasi-Delay insensitive (QDI) circuits are the most robust and practical circuits that can be built and are resilient to process, temperature and voltage variations. This paper proposes a novel energy and cost efficient synthesis scheme to translate any Boolean functions into 4-phase handshaking QDI circuits with hybrid dual-rail (DR) and 1-of-4 (OOF) encoding signals. Preliminary experimental results in FPGAs indicate significant cost and energy reduction over DR DIMS design.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"117 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123325830","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":"Digitally controlled transconductor based on a quantum transconductance","authors":"H. Barthélemy, R. Vauché, S. Bourdel","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182067","url":null,"abstract":"A new CMOS digitally controlled negative-transconductance amplifier (DTA) and an application example of a 4-Bits-Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO) are presented in this paper. The DTA is based on the traditional Digital CMOS inverter topology. From simulation and under 1.2 volts supply voltage, the proposed DCO oscillates from 375MHz to 475MHz which is compatible with the Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS) frequency band. The maximum total power consumption is about 2.5mW and only 2.5nW in power-off mode. All simulations have been performed using a CMOS 130nm process design kit from STMicroelectronics.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114247700","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":"Q-enhancement with on-chip inductor optimization for reconfigurable Δ-Σ radio-frequency ADC","authors":"J. Lota, A. Demosthenous","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182018","url":null,"abstract":"The paper details on-chip inductor optimization for a reconfigurable continuous-time delta-sigma (Δ-Σ) modulator based radio-frequency analog-to-digital converter. Inductor optimisation enables the Δ-Σ modulator with Q enhanced LC tank circuits employing a single high Q-factor on-chip inductor and lesser quantizer levels thereby reducing the circuit complexity for excess loop delay, power dissipation and dynamic element matching. System level simulations indicate at a Q-factor of 75 Δ-Σ modulator with a 3-level quantizer achieves dynamic ranges of 106, 82 dB and 84 dB for RFID, TETRA, and Galileo over bandwidths of 200 kHz, 10 MHz and 40 MHz respectively.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121093593","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 curve fitting approach for non-iterative divider design with accuracy and performance trade-off","authors":"Lei Wu, C. Jong","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182097","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents an approach based on the curve fitting method for the design of non-iterative divider circuits with accuracy and area-delay product (ADP) trade-offs. The curved surfaces representing the quotient are partitioned into several regions, each of which is then approximated by a square/triangular plane. The planes are obtained by using the curve fitting method for accuracy optimization. The proposed architecture for implementing the planes contains only simple arithmetic operations and a look-up table. Several non-iterative divider circuits with different accuracies and ADPs are obtained. The accuracy achieved in terms of the maximum absolute error percentage (MAEP) ranges from 1.87% to 0.14%. The MAEP of 0.14% is 30% better than the one achieved by the best existing non-iterative divider.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133571176","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":"Single-switch inductorless power management circuit for electrostatic vibration energy harvesters","authors":"É. Lefeuvre, Jie Wei, H. Mathias, F. Costa","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7181987","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7181987","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a new power management circuit for electrostatic vibration energy harvesting devices. Compared to most of the existing electronic interfaces dedicated to electrostatic vibration energy harvesting, this circuit presents three main advantages. Firstly, it does not include any inductive element, enabling drastic miniaturization. Secondly, the switch control does not need to be synchronized with the mechanical motion of the electrostatic device and thirdly, the energy conversion cycle is self-maximized and does not require any optimization algorithm, enabling thus simple, ultra-low power implementation of the circuit.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"71 5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128011618","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 compact 67 GHz oscillator in 65nm CMOS","authors":"D. Pepe, D. Zito","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182032","url":null,"abstract":"A compact 67 GHz LC oscillator implemented in 65nm bulk CMOS technology by STMicroelectronics is presented. It exploits a three-spiral transformer to achieve low phase noise and low power consumption. The measurements show that the oscillator core is capable to operate with a supply voltage as low as 0.6 V, while consuming 3.6 mW. The measured phase noise amounts to -96 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier when operating with 1.2 V, and -88.7 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier when operating with 0.6 V voltage supply.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128146704","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":"Self calibrating high sensitivity ultra-low power envelope detector","authors":"L. Chandernagor, P. Jean, J. Lintignat, B. Jarry","doi":"10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182068","url":null,"abstract":"An amplitude demodulation system is described here. An envelope detector is connected to the non inverting input of a differential amplifier whereas a reference voltage is applied to its inverting input. This reference is established during a self calibration process and compensates the input offset of the differential amplifier. This mechanism has been designed and implemented within the circuit described in this paper. The circuit is designed in a 160 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor process. A sensitivity of -30 dBm is achieved. It can operate over a wide frequency and temperature ranges, 100 MHz-3 GHz and -55 °C-125 °C respectively. It consumes only a few microwatts.","PeriodicalId":404655,"journal":{"name":"2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)","volume":"34 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133685694","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}