This paper provides an in-depth treatment of voltage-to-time converters (VTCs) for time-based signal processing with a nonlinearity emphasis. The need for VTCs in deployment of time-based techniques for high-speed or high-resolution analog-to-digital converters is investigated. It is followed with the classification of VTCs. A detailed treatment of the principle, topology, operation, and design consideration of variable-slope (VS) and constant-slope (CS) VTCs is provided. The nonlinearity of VS-VTCs and that of CS-VTCs are analyzed in detail analytically. It is shown that VS-VTCs is inherently nonlinear while CS-VTCs is intrinsically linear. Factors contributing to the nonlinearity of these VTCs are investigated. VS-VTCs and CS-VTCs studied are designed in TSMC 130 nm 1.2 V CMOS and analyzed using Spectre from Cadence Design Systems with BSIM3.3 device models. A good agreement between simulation and analytical results is obtained. The average gain of the VS-VTC is 4.4 times that of the CS-VTC. The 2nd and 3rd harmonics of the CS-VTC are significantly smaller as compared with those of the VS-VTC at the price of more power consumption.
We proposed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) refractive index sensor based on hollow-core anti-resonance fiber (HC-ARF). Gold was filled in two symmetric cladding tubes of the fiber, while the analyte was filled in central air holes. The sensing performance was investigated by the finite element method (FEM). Results show that two resonance peaks (a crossing point around 1 030 nm and an anti-crossing region around 1 065 nm) appear for x-polarization (x-pol) core mode coupling with the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode. Moreover, the sensitivity was also analyzed. The sensitivity increased with the increase of cladding tube thickness t. The sensor with thickness t=1.7 μm gave a wavelength sensitivity of 7 350—14 790 nm/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.33—1.45 with resonance wavelength from 1 900 nm to 450 nm. Meanwhile, the resolution of 10-6 RIU was achieved. Thanks to high sensitivity and resolution, the proposed sensor has potential applications in glucose detection. 相似文献
In this paper, a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) refractive index sensor based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed to solve the problem of low refractive index analyte detection. 31 silver nanowires are placed on the surface of the D-shaped PCF, which increases the contact area between the plasma material and the analyte. The simulation results indicate that the maximum sensitivity of the sensor reaches 16 400 nm/RIU, and the refractive index detection range is 1.26—1.33. It is proved that the sensor has a good prospect in low refractive index detection. 相似文献