A PAL/NTSC digital video encoder on 0.6-μm CMOS with 66 dBtypical SNR, 0.4% differential gain, and 0.2° differentialphase

A digital video encoder chip which generates phase alternate (PAL) or National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) analog video output signals is presented. The chip operates from 3 to 5.5 V; typical differential gain and phase performance at 5 V is 0.4% and 0.2°, respectively, and SNR is 66 dB rms. The architecture, circuit, and die size minimization techniques used to achieve this performance in a 4×4 mm CMOS die are presented. The die is packaged in a 44-pin plastic quad flatpack package (7×7 mm). The digital logic has 47 k gates and achieves an average power dissipation of 0.37 μW/gate/MHz. The paper also covers the circuit and packaging techniques used to reduce power, Θ J-A, and junction temperature in this package in order to allow continuous operation in still-air ambient temperatures of 70°C     

A Reed-Solomon product-code (RS-PC) decoder chip for DVDapplications

In this paper, a Reed-Solomon Product-Code (RS-PC) decoder for DVD applications is presented. It mainly contains two frame-buffer controllers, a (182, 172) row RS decoder, and a (208, 192) column RS decoder. The RS decoder features an area-efficient key equation solver using a novel modified decomposed inversionless Berlekamp-Massey algorithm. The proposed RS-PC decoder solution was implemented using 0.6 μm CMOS single-poly double-metal (SPDM) standard cells. The chip size is 4.22×3.64 mm² with a core area of 2.90×2.88 mm ^mm², where the total gate count is about 26 K. Test results show that the proposed RS-PC decoder chip can support 4×DVD speed with off-chip frame buffers or 8×DVD speed with embedded frame buffers operating at 3 V     

Memory array architecture and decoding scheme for 3 V only sectorerasable DINOR flash memory

A memory array architecture and row decoding scheme for a 3 V only DINOR (divided bit line NOR) flash memory has been designed. A new sector organization realizes one word line driver per two word lines, which is conformable to tight word line pitch. A hierarchical negative voltage switching row decoder and a compact source line driver have been developed for 1 K byte sector erase without increasing the chip size. A bit-by-bit programming control and a low threshold voltage detection circuit provide a high speed random access time at low V_cc and a narrow program threshold voltage distribution. A 4 Mb DINOR flash memory test device was fabricated from 0.5 μm, double-layer metal, triple polysilicon, triple well CMOS process. The cell measures 1.8×1.6 μm² and the chip measures 5.8×5.0 mm ². The divided bit line structure realizes a small NOR type memory cell     

A 2.2 W, 80 MHz superscalar RISC microprocessor

A 28 mW/MHz at 80 MHz structured-custom RISC microprocessor design is described. This 32-b implementation of the PowerPC architecture is fabricated in a 3.3 V, 0.5 μm, 4-level metal CMOS technology, resulting in 1.6 million transistors in a 7.4 mm by 11.5 mm chip size. Dual 8-kilobyte instruction and data caches coupled to a high performance 32/64-b system bus and separate execution units (float, integer, loadstore, and system units) result in peak instruction rates of three instructions per clock cycle. Low-power design techniques are used throughout the entire design, including dynamically powered down execution units. Typical power dissipation is kept under 2.2 W at 80 MHz. Three distinct levels of software-programmable, static, low-power operation-for system power management are offered, resulting in standby power dissipation from 2 mW to 350 mW. CPU to bus clock ratios of 1×, 2×, 3×, and 4× are implemented to allow control of system power while maintaining processor performance. As a result, workstation level performance is packed into a low-power, low-cost design ideal for notebooks and desktop computers     

A pixel size shrinkage of amplified MOS imager with two-line mixing

This paper describes a pixel size shrinkage of an amplified MOS image sensor (AMI). We have developed a new circuit technique to achieve the reduction of a pixel size while realizing vertical two-line mixing and high sensitivity. A 1/4-in format 250-k pixel image sensor was developed using a 0.8-μm CMOS process. The difference from the conventional CMOS process is an additional layer of ion-implantation process. The power supply voltages of this imager are 4 and 6 V. The dynamic range of 75 dB, the sensitivity of 1.8 μA/Ix, and the smear noise of less than -120 dB have been attained for the pixel size of 7.2 (H)×5.6 (V) μm². Although the measured fixed pattern noise ratio (FPN) of this imager is -55 dB, analysis with a test chip shows that FPN can be improved by 2 dB by adopting a suitable gate length for amplifier and resetting MOSFET, respectively     

A 2-D velocity- and direction-selective sensor with BJT-basedsilicon retina and temporal zero-crossing detector

In this paper, a 2-D velocity- and direction-selective visual motion sensor with a bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based silicon retina and temporal zero-crossing detector is proposed and implemented. In the proposed sensor, a token-based delay-and-correlate computational algorithm is adopted to detect the selected speed and direction of moving object images. Moreover, binary pulsed signals are used as correlative signals to increase the velocity and direction selectivities. Each basic detection cell in the sensor has a compact architecture, which consists of one BJT-based silicon retina cell, one current-input edge extractor, two delay paths, and four correlators. Using the proposed architecture, an experimental 32×32 visual motion sensor chip with a cell size of 100×100 μm² has been designed and fabricated by using 0.6-μm CMOS technology. The correct operations of the fabricated sensor chip have been verified through measurements. The measured ranges of selectively detected velocity and direction in the fabricated sensor chip are 56 mm/s-5 m/s and 0-360°, respectively. The complete sensor system consumes 20 mW at 5 V     

A new cryogenic CMOS readout structure for infrared focal planearray

A new current readout structure for the infrared (IR) focal-plane-array (FPA), called the switch-current integration (SCI) structure, is presented in this paper. By applying the share-buffered direct-injection (SBDI) biasing technique and off focal-plane-array (off-FPA) integration capacitor structure, a high-performance readout interface circuit for the IR FPA is realized with a pixel size of 50×50 μm². Moreover, the correlated double sampling (CDS) stage and dynamic discharging output stage are utilized to improve noise and speed performance of the readout structure under low power dissipation. In experimental SCI readout chip has been designed and fabricated in 0.8-μm double-poly-double-metal (DPDM) n-well CMOS technology. The measurement results of the fabricated readout chip at 77 K with 4 and 8 V supply voltages have successfully verified both the readout function and the performance improvement. The fabricated chip has a maximum charge capacity of 1.12×10⁸ electrons, a maximum transimpedance of 1×10⁹ Ω, and an active power dissipation of 30 mW. The proposed CMOS SCI structure can be applied to various cryogenic IR FPA's     

A 286 mm2 256 Mb DRAM with ×32 both-ends DQ

This paper describes a 256 Mb DRAM chip architecture which provides up to ×32 wide organization. In order to minimize the die size, three new techniques: an exchangeable hierarchical data line structure, an irregular sense amp layout, and a split address bus with local redrive scheme in the both-ends DQ were introduced. A chip has been developed based on the architecture with 0.25 μm CMOS technology. The chip measures 13.25 mm×21.55 mm, which is the smallest 256 Mb DRAM ever reported. A row address strobe (RAS) access time of 26 ns was obtained under 2.8 V power supply and 85°C. In addition, a 100 MHz×32 page mode operation, namely 400 M byte/s data rate, in the standard extended data output (EDO) cycle has been successfully demonstrated     

A low glitch 14-b 100-MHz D/A converter

A low glitch 14-b 100-MHz current output digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is described. In addition to segmentation of the four most significant bits (MSB's) into 15 equally weighted current sources, a proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) switching voltage is applied to the current steering devices to minimize glitch over temperature. A bidirectional thin-film trim network and high β n-p-n devices reduce the amount of laser trimming required to achieve 14-b accuracy, resulting in less post-trim degradation of DAC linearity over temperature and the life of the chip. The converter has been fabricated in a 4-GHz/1.4-μm BiCMOS technology and exhibits a measured glitch energy of 0.5 pV·s (singlet). Settling time to within ±0.012% of the final value is ⩽20 ns for both rising and falling edges of a full scale step. Spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) for the described converter is 87 dBc at an update rate (f_CLK) of 10 MHz and an output frequency (f_OUT) of 2.03 MHz. The converter operates from +5 V and -5.2 V supplies and consumes 650 mW independent of conversion rate. The chip size is 4.09×4.09 mm including bond pads and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices     

A 5-V-only operation 0.6-μm flash EEPROM with row decoder schemein triple-well structure

An experimental 4-Mb flash EEPROM has been developed based on 0.6-μm triple-well CMOS technology in order to establish circuit technology for high-density flash memories. A cell size of 2.0×1.8 μm² has been achieved by using a negative-gate-biased source erase scheme and a self-aligned source (SAS) process technology. A newly developed row decoder with a triple-well structure has been realized in accordance with its small cell size. The source voltage during the erase operation was reduced by applying a negative voltage to the word line, which results in a 5-V-only operation. The chip size of the 4-Mb flash EEPROM is 8.11×6.95 mm², and the estimated chip size of a 16-Mb flash EEPROM is 98.4 mm² by using the minimal cell size (2.0×10 μm²)     

一种片内集成飞电容的自适应开关电容DC-DC

提出一种电容片内集成、高效率升压模式的DC-DC电源管理芯片,较普通结构相比,文中提出的电路结构具有6组2×,3组3×,2组4×升压模型共11种工作模式,并具有低纹波等优点。通过MIM电容与积累型NMOS电容串联的方式,提高单位面积容值,使得总电容面积大幅减小。采用SMIC 0.18μm CMOS工艺,利用Cadence工具对电路进行仿真验证,所提出自适应开关电容升压电路,在输出电压为3 V时,其效率最高可达到83.6%。在开关频率为20 MHz时,输入电压范围为1~1.8 V,所需总片内集成电容总面积为900 μm×900 μm,输出电压纹波＜40 mV     

A 1.2-ns HEMT 64-kb SRAM

A 1.2-ns emitter-coupled-logic (ECL)-compatible 64-kb static RAM using 0.60-μm gate high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) technology was developed. To achieve fast access time, the memory cell array was divided into sixteen 4-kb memory planes and a data-line equalization technique was adopted. The chip power consumption was suppressed to 5.9 W by using three power supply voltages (-1.0, -2.0, and -3.6 V) and a normally off (E/D) source-follower buffer for the word driver circuit. A new device fabrication technique, the HEMT double-etch-stop process, enabled the RAM to be fabricated in simple and fewer processing steps and reduced the chip dimensions to 7.4×6.5 mm     

A CMOS-only micro touch pointer

A direct-contact finger mouse realized in 0.7-μm digital CMOS is presented. It is based on the motion detection of the fingerprint images acquired with a capacitive sensor. Stroking and tapping the chip surface with the finger causes movement of the cursor and clicking-like mouse. By properly partitioning analog collective computation and digital processing, a power consumption of about 900 μW at 5 V is achieved. The sensor area is 3.8×3.8 mm², and overall chip size is 7.7×6.7 mm²     

A 1.5-ns 256-kb BiCMOS SRAM with 60-ps 11-K logic gates

A 1.5-ns address access time, 256-kb BiCMOS SRAM has been developed. To attain this ultra-high-speed access time, an emitter-coupled logic (ECL) word driver is used to access 6-T CMOS memory cells, eliminating the ECL-MOS level-shifter time delay. The RAM uses a low-power active pull down ECL decoder. The chip contains 11-K, 60-ps ECL circuit gates. It provides variable RAM configurations and general logic functions. RAM power consumption is 18 W; chip power consumption is 35 W. The chip is fabricated by using a 0.5-μm BiCMOS process. The memory cell size is 58 μm² and the chip size is 11×11 mm     

The effect of surface passivation on the microwave characteristicsof undoped AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Surface passivation of undoped AlGaN/CaN HEMT's reduces or eliminates the surface effects responsible for limiting both the RF current and breakdown voltages of the devices. Power measurements on a 2×125×0.5 μm AlGaN/GaN sapphire based HEMT demonstrate an increase in 4 GHz saturated output power from 1.0 W/mm [36% peak power-added efficiency (PAE)] to 2.0 W/mm (46% peak PAE) with 15 V applied to the drain in each case. Breakdown measurement data show a 25% average increase in breakdown voltage for 0.5 μm gate length HEMT's on the same wafer. Finally, 4 GHz power sweep data for a 2×75×0.4 μm AlGaN/GaN HEMT on sapphire processed using the Si₃N₄ passivation layer produced 4.0 W/mm saturated output power at 41% PAE (25 V drain bias). This result represents the highest reported microwave power density for undoped sapphire substrated AlGaN/GaN HEMT's     

A digital adaptive beamforming QAM demodulator IC for high bit-ratewireless communications

A very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation of an integrated adaptive beamforming processor and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) demodulator which will be incorporated into a frequency-hopped spread spectrum portable receiver for 2.4-GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band applications is presented. The chip performs coherent QAM demodulation of variable constellation size and complete adaptive beamforming processing including four-channel adaptive beamforming combining, a fully programmable training processor, a readable/writable system control processor, an acquisition state machine, and a microcontroller interface. Interleaving area intensive blocks such as the 49-tap square-root Nyquist filters and 12×12 b multipliers is employed to reduce chip area. This chip can operate as a stand-alone adaptive beamforming QAM demodulator, or it can work together with an adaptive equalizer for high bit rate indoor wireless applications. The core area of the chip is 6.22 mm×4.58 mm in 0.8-μm CMOS technology, and the power dissipation is 610 mW at 5 V and a 5 MBaud symbol rate. In a 2.2-dB signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio environment, the receiver chip achieves a link quality of 32.6 dB SNR by performing digital adaptive beamforming to null out interferers     

An 800-MHz quadrature digital synthesizer with ECL-compatibleoutput drivers in 0.8 μm CMOS

An 800 MHz quadrature direct digital frequency synthesizer (QDDFS4) chip is presented. The chip synthesizes 12 b sine and cosine waveforms with a spectral purity of -84.3 dBc, The frequency resolution is 0.188 Hz with a corresponding switching speed of 5 ns and a tuning latency of 47 clock cycles. The chip is also capable of frequency and phase modulation. ECL-compatible output drivers are provided to facilitate I/O compatibility with other high speed devices. A high gain amplifier at the clock input enables the QDDFS4 chip to be clocked with ac-coupled RF signal sources with peak-to-peak voltage swings as small as 0.5 V. The 0.8 μm triple level metal N well CMOS chip has a complexity of 94000 transistors with a core area of 5.9×6.7 mm². Power dissipation is 3 W at 800 MHz and 5 V     

Low voltage circuit design techniques for battery-operated and/orgiga-scale DRAMs

This paper describes a charge-transferred well (CTW) sensing method for high-speed array circuit operation and a level-controllable local power line (LCL) structure for high-speed/low-power operation of peripheral logic circuits, aimed at low voltage operating and/or giga-scale DRAMs. The CTW method achieves 19% faster sensing and the LCL structure realizes 42% faster peripheral logic operation than the conventional scheme, at 1.2 V in 15 Mb-level devices. The LCL structure realizes a subthreshold leakage current reduction of three or four orders of magnitude in sleep mode, compared with a conventional hierarchical power line structure. A negative-voltage word line technique that overcomes the refresh degradation resulting from reduced storage charge (Q_s) at low voltage operation for improved reliability is also discussed. An experimental 1.2 V 16 Mb DRAM with a RAS access time of 49 ns has been successfully developed using these technologies and a 0.4-μm CMOS process. The chip size is 7.9×16.7 mm² and cell size is 1.35×2.8 μm²     

A programmable focal-plane MIMD image processor chip

An 80×78 pixels vision chip for focal-plane image processing is presented. The chip employs a Multiple-Instruction-Multiple-Data (MIMD) architecture to provide five spatially processed images in parallel. The size, configuration, and coefficients of the spatial kernels are programmable. The chip's architecture allows the photoreceptor cells to be small and parked densely by performing all computations on the read-out, away from the array. The processing core uses digitally programmed current-mode analog computation. Operating at 9.6 K frames/s in 800-lux ambient light, the chip consumes 4 mW from a 2.5-V power supply. Performing 11×11 spatial convolutions, an equivalent computation (5.5 bit scale-accumulate) rate of 12.4 GOPS/mW is achieved using 22 mm² in a 1.2-μm CMOS process. The application of the chip to line-segment orientation detection is also presented