{"title":"A 65nm CMOS fraction-N digital PLL with shaped in-band phase noise","authors":"Ahmed Mahmoud, P. Andreani, P. Lu","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364356","url":null,"abstract":"A digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) which uses a high resolution 2-dimension gated-Vernier time-to-digital converter (TDC) is presented. The shaped Vernier quantization of TDC greatly improves the in-band phase noise. Also the 2-dimension structure makes DPLL be able to process large phase errors almost without the influence of latency time. Combined with a high figure-of-merit (FOM) class-D digitally controlled oscillator (DCO), the DPLL achieves -110dBc/Hz and -130dBc/Hz for in-band and 1MHz-offset phase noise, respectively, with carrier frequency of 3.5 GHz. The digital PLL is simulated in a 65nm CMOS process, consuming 11.2mW from a 1.0V supply.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122491185","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":"Fixed pattern noise correction for wide dynamic range CMOS image sensor with Reinhard tone mapping operator","authors":"Waqas Mughal, B. Choubey","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364383","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents an investigation and a correction technique for fixed pattern noise in wide dynamic range image sensor with on the focal plane Reinhard tone mapping. The Human eye is capable of capturing images over a wide dynamic range of illumination; however, typical CMOS image sensors have limited ability to capture dynamic range available in nature. Even when wide dynamic range images are captured, they need to be displayed on conventional media with limited ability to display WDR scenes. Hence, the image has algorithmically transformed by mathematical operators called tone mapping operators to fit the limited dynamic range. In this paper, we report our research on a pixel, which captures a scene with inbuilt tone mapping operator, particularly, the Reinhard photographic mapping operator, which is a monotonically increasing function. However, the inherent Fixed pattern noise(FPN) limits the performance of image sensors. This is mainly due to the variations between the responses of individual pixels within an array of pixels. A simple procedure has been adapted to reduce FPN in which parametric response of the pixel is used, with FPN modeled as variations in the individual parameters. The parameters of each individual pixel are measured, recorded and then used to correct their response.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"70 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134092599","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":"Highly linear and reliable low band class-O RF power amplifier in 130 nm CMOS technology for 4G LTE applications","authors":"Muhammad Abdullah Khan, A. Aref, M. Wei, R. Negra","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364389","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a highly linear low-band 706MHz LTE compatible class-O RF power amplifier in 130nm CMOS technology for handheld wireless applications. Class-O topology uses a combination of common-source and common-drain amplifiers working in parallel with high linearity without the need for digital predistortion(DPD). With continuous wave measurements, 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of 30.6dBm and peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 45.2% is achieved. For the modulated signal measurements, the amplifier is tested with 16-QAM 20MHz LTE signal with peak-to-average-power ratio of 6.54 dB. The amplifier meets the stringent LTE specs with an ACPR less than -30 dBc for both EUTRA and UTRA1 with average output power of 27 dBm and PAE above 20%. Owing to the voltage following between gate source junctions in the common-drain amplifier in addition to cascode structure of common-source amplifier, the stress is significantly reduced at the transistor terminals. The reliability is demonstrated by operating the amplifier in nominal and worst VSWR conditions.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134536423","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":"An ultra-low-power/high-speed 9-bit adder design: Analysis and comparison Vs. technology from 130nm-LP to UTBB FD-SOI-28nm","authors":"H. Attarzadeh, S. Aunet, T. Ytterdal","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364365","url":null,"abstract":"A sub-threshold 9-bit adder based on a minority-3 based full adder is designed and analyzed versus technology. A power-delay design space exploration is presented in multiple technology nodes. The performances are demonstrated and compared on spanning technology nodes of 130nm-LP, 65nm-LP-BULK, 28nm-LP-high-k-bulk, 28nm Ultra-Thin-Body-and-BOX (UTFF) FDSOI. An extensive body biasing was then applied to the UTBB FDSOI 28nm technology to adapt the circuit to the target operating frequency of 65MHz. The extensive body biasing exploits the feature provided by the Ultra-Thin-Body-and-BOX Fully Depleted SOI (UTBB FDSOI) technology, which allows a bias range of -300mV ~3V . The design was implemented in physical level, and all the results account for the layout parasitics. A minimum energy point of 1.03f J/(bit.cycle) is achieved in the 28nm-UTFF-FDSOI, at the 0.24V supply with the 1.8MHz operating speed. For the target frequency of 65MHz and a 9-bit adder, a total minimum energy operation of 11f J percycle for a supply voltage of 0.309V and a body voltage of 1.35V is achieved.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"315 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133287189","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 comparison of serial interfaces on energy critical systems","authors":"Tharald Solheim, Marius Grannaes","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364373","url":null,"abstract":"Inter Integrated Circuit (I2C) and Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI) are popular communication interfaces in embedded systems. In recent years, energy consumption has become increasingly important in such systems. This paper describes a theoretical model for the off-chip power consumption of these two popular standards. In addition, the models are validated through experiments on a popular microcontroller.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"152 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123517860","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":"Ultra low power on-chip hybrid start-up for wireless sensor networks","authors":"N. Vamsi, A. Gupta, A. Dutta, S. Singh","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364415","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents ultra low power hybrid energy harvesting start-up circuit for 1V , implemented in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. It consists of solar and RF energy harvesters, capable to harvest ambient solar and RF sources respectively. The start-up circuit enables operation of the system even in the absence of any one of these ambient energy sources. The integration of solar and RF on a common platform provides improved charging time in crucial start-up phase. In general, to charge the super capacitor (Cstartup=100pF) to 1V , the solar energy harvester alone (with minimum input voltage of 317mV ) will take a charging time of 542.3μs. With the addition of RF interface, the charging time is drastically reduced to 86.8μs, for -26dBm input power level, at 953MHz providing a 83.9% reduction in start-up time. The start-up circuit delivers output power of 7.4μW with an efficiency of 68.5% for the combined solar and RF input at 317mV and -20dBm respectively.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"99 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124897002","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}
V. Rieger, Henning Schütz, Stefan Gambach, A. Rothermel
{"title":"On-chip spatial filter for subretinal implants","authors":"V. Rieger, Henning Schütz, Stefan Gambach, A. Rothermel","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364401","url":null,"abstract":"Retinal implants are raising hope for blind people to restore part of their visual capabilities. Enormous advances have taken place in this field while several groups worldwide are striving to achieve this long-yearned-for accomplishment. Current studies about visual perception parameters from patients using subretinal implants showed that effects like electric field interference limit the achievable visual acuity. According to our previous work, discussing a model of the implant-plus-retina system, this effect could be moderated by the implementation of a spatial high-pass filter. This work introduces an on-chip realization of a contrast enhancement circuit using a four-neighbor high-pass filter, extending the functionality of an existing retinal stimulator. For the evaluation of different filter kernels a new approach, combining the methods of image processing with the techniques of analog circuit design, is proposed. The circuits discussed in this work are already designed and they will be fabricated in a 180nm CMOS technology in near future.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"110 1 Pt 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130729909","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}
A. Ashok, G. Varga, I. Subbiah, M. Schrey, S. Heinen
{"title":"Process tolerant highly linear mixer output stage with feedforward linearity improvement method for a high-IF converter","authors":"A. Ashok, G. Varga, I. Subbiah, M. Schrey, S. Heinen","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364403","url":null,"abstract":"A highly linear output stage for passive mixers in mixer-first front-ends is presented. Passive nature and mixer-first can provide high linearity for a transmit chain front-end and the linearity is generally limited by the mixer output stage and the succeeding stages. The output amplifier design presented in this paper utilizes feedforward cancellation using an auxiliary transistor to cancel the Inter-Modulation Distortion (IMD3) products to improve the linearity. With the addition of this feedforward technique a linearity improvement of 8 dB can be obtained by optimum biasing. In order to reduce the dependence of linearity under process variations, constant-gm biasing scheme is used and bias points are selected such a way that the resulting variation from process is still within the specification. The third order intermodulation point (IIP3) of such a linearized stage is 22dBm for a frequency of 500 MHz. The total current consumption and gain are 4mA and 10 dBV respectively. The design is performed in CMOS130 technology with 3.3V power supply.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127107577","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":"Comparative analysis of flip-flop architectures for subthreshold applications in 28nm FDSOI","authors":"E. Låte, A. Vatanjou, T. Ytterdal, S. Aunet","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364372","url":null,"abstract":"Nine D flip-flop architectures were implemented in 28nm FDSOI at a target, subthreshold, supply voltage of 200mV. The goal was to identify promising D flip-flops for ultra low power applications. The pass gate flip-flop was implemented using 49% of the S2CFF's area and was functional at the lowest operating voltage of 65mV in the typical process corner. At the targeted supply voltage of 200mV the racefree DFF gives the best functional yield of 99.8%. The flip-flops having the shortest D-Q delays were the PowerPC 603 and the transmission gate D flip-flop. These also had the lowest power delay products of 52.08aJ and 61.09aJ respectively.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131156905","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 design platform for flexible programmable DSP for automotive sensor conditioning","authors":"A. Sisto, Luca Pilato, R. Serventi, L. Fanucci","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364361","url":null,"abstract":"In automotive field the signal processing algorithms implemented on chips is getting more and more complex. This is leading to a growing area of digital blocks of sensor systems and to greater digital design effort. The work presented in this paper has been started in order to have a flexible software-oriented DSP in portfolio, quickly customizable for the current product and with the minimum area overhead. The design platform has three levels: the instruction set emulator model for a fast algorithm implementation and the instruction set definition, the bit-true and cycle-true model of the processor for a fine verification of the application firmware, and the RTL design of a three-stage pipeline μ-processor. The instruction set and the hardware resources of the μ-processor are easily customizable. A case study, a design aided by the platform, is presented. Synthesis results are discussed, being the area constraint one of the most significant.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115080740","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}