{"title":"A compact 0.3–10 GHz broadband stacked amplifier in 65nm standard CMOS","authors":"M. Tarar, M. Wei, R. Negra","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364360","url":null,"abstract":"This work presents the design and implementation of a fully integrated broadband medium power stacked amplifier in 65 nm bulk CMOS. The amplifier topology utilizes three NMOS stack and three PMOS stack to increase the output voltage swing along with the output impedance. The load impedance is further optimized with a resistive feedback which not only results in broadband operation but also avoids a lossy broadband output matching network which reduces area significantly. Further, small interstage peaking inductors are employed to peak the parasitics capacitances that limit the broadband operation. The proposed amplifier shows a measured peak saturated output power from 13 dBm to 8.5 dBm and a P1dB of 7 dBm to 4 dBm from 0.3 GHz to 10 GHz. The measured gain is 9 dB with a gain ripple of ±1.5 dB in the entire frequency range, yielding a fractional bandwidth of 188%. The measured load-pull -1 dB, -2 dB output power contours verify the optimum impedance around 50 Ω. The active chip area is only 0.44mm2.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"8 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":"126633740","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":"Systematic frequency planning for a high SFDR digital-IF RF-DAC-based transmitter","authors":"Oner Hanay, Erkan Bayram, M. Elsayed, R. Negra","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364409","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a design approach for frequency planning of a RF-DAC based transmitter, which combines digital-IF and RF-DAC architecture for the first time. With a proper frequency planning the achievable SFDR can be increased from 12 dB to 40 dB within a band of 800MHz at the center frequency of 2.4GHz without any additional circuitry effort. Spurs caused by harmonic mixing products of the IF and LO-signals are shifted out of the band of interest. The frequency planning is based on an optimization process, which delivers the IF and LO frequencies providing the highest SFDR at a certain transmit frequency. Therefore, a new FOM calculation is presented, which contains amplitude and frequency values of spurs with a Gaussian curve based weighting. The proposed structure introduced in this paper leads to a new class of SAW-less transmitters. Furthermore, the frequency planning and optimization method can be used for all kind of systems, which contains multiple frequency sources and lead to harmonic mixing products.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"49 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":"127727249","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":"Design and evaluation of correlation accelerator in IEEE-802.11a/g receiver using a template-based Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Array","authors":"Sajjad Nouri, Waqar Hussain, J. Nurmi","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364374","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the design and evaluation of a large scale template-based Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Array (CGRA) generated accelerator that processes correlation algorithm for Timing Synchronization (TS) required in Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) receivers. The CGRA works as a coprocessor with a Reduced Instruction-Set Computing (RISC) processor. The CGRA accelerator is composed of 80 reconfigurable Processing Elements (PEs) to compute 80-point correlation in 1.8 μs when synthesized on an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The power consumption is estimated by simulating the postfit gate-level FPGA netlist of the TS accelerator followed by evaluation and comparison with other state-of-the-art platforms in terms of multiple performance metrics.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"28 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":"128678922","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 chip wireless condition monitoring of power semiconductor modules","authors":"J. Nilsson, J. Borg, J. Johansson","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364407","url":null,"abstract":"A concept for doing accurate monitoring of temperature in power semiconductor modules is proposed. The concept involves glueing wireless single-chip temperature sensors with on-chip coils in direct contact with power semiconductor devices within their modules. Direct contact results in accurate temperature measurements while wireless technology such as RFID provides galvanic isolation from the power devices. An overview of the electromagnetic situation within wire bond power semiconductor modules is presented and a prototype chip with an on-chip coil has been manufactured as an initial attempt to investigate the feasibility of the concept. Measurements on said chip provides some insight in the challenges in on-chip coil designs. The feasibility of the concept is supported by earlier work that have demonstrated high power transfer efficiencies and a low power temperature sensor that is able to operate at high temperatures.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"29 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":"132199363","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}
Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Srinivasa Rao Pathapati, M. Vesterbacka
{"title":"A fully synthesized all-digital VCO-based analog-to-digital converter","authors":"Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Srinivasa Rao Pathapati, M. Vesterbacka","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364386","url":null,"abstract":"Synthesis of all-digital ADCs leads to significant reduction in design cost and design time, besides improving cross-technology portability. In this work, an ADC which is fully described in digital HDL is synthesized, placed and routed using standard digital design tools. A VCO-based architecture is chosen for its synthesizability. The design flow employed is discussed. The circuit is synthesized using the standard cell library in a 65 nm CMOS process, delivering a resolution of 9 ENOB over 10 MHz bandwidth according to post layout parasitic extracted simulations using the Spectre simulator. Post synthesis and post place-and-route performances are provided.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"9 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":"133144410","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 10-bit reference free current mode SAR ADC with 58.4 dB SFDR at 50 MS/s in 90 nm CMOS","authors":"Abdelrahman Elkafrawy, J. Anders, M. Ortmanns","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364355","url":null,"abstract":"A 10-bit 50 MS/s current mode based SAR ADC is presented in this paper. The SAR ADC uses a Gm stage which converts the input voltage to a current which is then processed in a current based binary search algorithm SAR loop. In comparison to the conventional switched capacitor SAR ADC structures, the sampling capacitor size is smaller than the total capacitance of the comparable SC-SAR ADCs. Moreover, this design does not require an external reference voltage to bias the Gm stage output. The presented current mode ADC is designed for an overall resolution of 10 bit over a Nyquist band from DC to 25 MHz. Measured results of the ADC fabricated in a 90 nm CMOS technology show an SNDR of 45 dB and SFDR of 58.4 dB, while consuming 6mW from a 1.2 /1.8V supply.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"12 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":"132095770","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":"Tracking PVT variations of Pulse Width Controlled PLL using variable-length ring oscillator","authors":"Takashi Toi, T. Nakura, T. Iizuka, K. Asada","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364412","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a PWPLL (Pulse-Width Controlled PLL) using a variable-length ring oscillator for autonomously tracking PVT (Process, Voltage and Temperature) variations. We fix the ring oscillator control code and the numbers of the reference CLKs and the feedback CLKs are compared, and then the additional Tracking Circuits switch the number of stages for a PWPLL to be locked. The PWPLL using a variable-length ring oscillator is implemented in a 180nm CMOS process. The measurement results of the prototype chip show it achieves 25% increase of the lock range from a conventional PWPLL, and 0.0265mm2 layout area along with 2.99ps rms jitter while consuming 4.79mW under a 1.8V supply with 600MHz output frequency.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"7 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":"132033913","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}
Farid Shamani, Vida Fakour Sevom, J. Nurmi, T. Ahonen
{"title":"Design, implementation and analysis of a run-time configurable Memory Management Unit on FPGA","authors":"Farid Shamani, Vida Fakour Sevom, J. Nurmi, T. Ahonen","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364375","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we describe the design of a configurable Memory Management Unit (MMU) and its prototype implementation on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We present analytical results of scaling the size of the second level software-managed Unified Translation Lookaside Buffer (UTLB) in terms of effect on the overall hit rate. Three design-time configurations with 16, 32, and 64 entries were used for this study. Critical path analysis of the logical design running on Altera Stratix-V FPGA is presented together with a description of optimization techniques employed in order to improve static timing performance. These optimization techniques assist in reaching 22.75% speed-up compared to non-optimized design. Moreover, maximum operating frequencies of 265, 225 and 200 MHz were achieved for UTLB sizes of 16, 32, and 64 entries, respectively. We quote worst case energy consumption figures with random input stimuli together with FPGA resource utilization characteristics for the above mentioned configurations. For resource-constrained or speed-critical hardware designs the 32-entry UTLB configuration provides a decent trade-off while the 16-entry configuration poses unsatisfactory performance. However, our target operating frequency of 200 MHz was eventually reached also for the 64-entry UTLB and hence it is our preferred option for most instantiations.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"10 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":"127622014","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":"Design of a hybrid multicore platform for high performance reconfigurable computing","authors":"Waqar Hussain, H. Hoffmann, T. Ahonen, J. Nurmi","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364376","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a loosely-coupled, hybrid architecture of homogeneous and heterogeneous cores integrated together over a Network-on-Chip (NoC). The architecture efficiently utilizes the NoC bandwidth by keeping a balance between the instantiated number of computational and communication nodes. Furthermore, the architecture also provides a mixed flavor of homogeneous general-purpose processing and heterogeneous reconfigurable computing. Prior approaches have mostly considered homogeneous and heterogeneous platforms as two different design paradigms despite both show domain-specific performance advantages over each other. In this context, the proposed architecture is designed for nine NoC nodes, arranged in a topology of three rows and three columns. The middle row contains three homogeneous Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) cores and rest of the nodes are integrated with Coarse-Grain Reconfigurable Arrays (CGRAs) of application-specific sizes. The overall architecture is template-based which can be crafted to application's performance requirements. The NoC allows loose coupling, so all the cores can mutually exchange the data as well as enable independent and simultaneous execution. Contrarily, the user can program the middle layer of RISC cores for specific data/control dependencies among all the cores. The system mitigates power dissipation as the CGRAs are custom tailored for heterogeneous computing. The platform is evaluated for a proof-of-concept test comprising of massively-parallel signal processing algorithms. Synthesis results from a Field Programmable Gate Array device are used to establish comparisons and evaluation against some of the existing state-of-the-art multicore platforms in terms of multiple performance metrics.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"46 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":"122644500","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":"Inductorless and cross-coupled wideband LNA with high linearity","authors":"David Bierbuesse, P. Bousseaud, R. Negra","doi":"10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/NORCHIP.2015.7364391","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, the design of a wideband LNA employing simultaneously noise cancellation and a linearisation technique is presented. The designed LNA consists of a cross-coupled common-gate topology for wideband matching and noise cancellation. Also, a linearisation technique is used in order to cancel out third order nonlinearities. The proposed LNA is designed in a 130 nm CMOS technology. It has a simulated gain of 14 dB in the frequency range from 100 MHz to 4.7 GHz. The noise figure (NF) is between 3 dB and 4 dB across this frequency band. The third-order input intercept point IIP3 is simulated to be better than +3.5 dBm. The LNA core consumes 2.4 mW from a 1.2 V supply.","PeriodicalId":428994,"journal":{"name":"2015 Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP & International Symposium on System-on-Chip (SoC)","volume":"42 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":"132111731","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}