Low-power wide-locking-range injection-locked frequency divider for OFDM UWB systems

This paper describes a divide-by-two injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) for frequency synthesizers as used in multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. By means of dual-injection technique and other conventional tuning techniques, such as DCCA and varactor tuning, the divider demonstrates a wide locking range while consuming much less power. The chip was fabricated in the Jazz 0.18 μm RF CMOS process. The measurement results show that the divider achieves a locking range of 4.85 GHz (6.23 to 11.08 GHz) at an input power of 8 dBm. The core circuit without the test buffer consumes only 3.7 mA from a 1.8 V power supply and has a die area of 0.38 × 0.28 mm2. The wide locking range combined with low power consumption makes the ILFD suitable for its application in UWB systems.     

A Low-Power Multicarrier-CDMA Downlink Baseband Receiver for Future Cellular Communication Systems

In this paper, design and implementation of a baseband receiver integrated circuit (IC) for a downlink multi-carrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system are presented. This MC-CDMA system aims to provide higher data transmission capacity than the current wide-band CDMA systems in mobile cellular communication environments. The proposed chip provides a robust tracking mechanism for synchronization errors and an accurate channel estimation strategy to overcome the challenge of outdoor fast-fading channels. Besides, low-power and low-complexity architecture design techniques are adopted to satisfy mobile receiver needs. Experimental results of the designed baseband receiver integrated circuit demonstrate its superior system performance and great reduction in power consumption. The chip was fabricated in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology with a core area of 2.6 mm times 2.6 mm. It can support up to 21.7-Mbps uncoded data rate in a 5-MHz bandwidth. When running at 5.76 MHz, its power consumption is as low as 9.9 mW from a supply voltage of 1.1 V.     

优化VLSI缓冲器功耗的设计模型研究

对优化超大规模集成（ＶＬＳＩ）缓立足点顺的功耗进行了研究,夺于驱动较大负载,在满足缓冲器延迟限度范围内实现系统功耗的最小化,是提高ＶＬＳＩ缓立足点顺性能的关键问题之一,文章发展了关于缓冲器信号延迟、功耗功间的关系,并给出了基于最小延 基础上缓立足点顺功耗的优化设计模型和方法。经ＳＰＩＣＥ模拟验证,该模型苛有效地降低系统功耗和提高系统工作性能,文章贪赃划合理和可行的。     

Novel circuit techniques for zero-power 25-ns CMOS erasable programmable logic devices (EPLDs)

A family of CMOS erasable programmable logic devices (EPLDs) is described with emphasis on the state-of-the-art chip architecture and circuit design techniques. The main features of this family of EPLDs include zero standby power, high-speed operation, flip-flop reconfigurability, small chip size, and high reliability. A novel input-transition-detection circuit allows the chip to consume no power during standby and yet wakes the chip up with minimum delay. Basic architectural differences between EPLDs and EPROM are discussed that require extra design considerations to achieve an optimal speed path through the array. A direct-drive technique is used in the transistor-transistor logic buffer and flip-flop circuits to improve speed, layout area, and chip organization.     

A low-power half-delay-line fast skew-compensation circuit

A fast skew-compensation circuit is useful for a chip to safely recover from the halt state because it can quickly compensate the clock skew induced by the on-chip clock driver. A low-power half-delay-line fast skew-compensation circuit (HDSC) is proposed in this work. The HDSC circuit features several new design techniques. The first is a new measure-and-compensate architecture, with which the HDSC circuit gains advantages including an enlarged operation frequency range, more robust operation, more accurate phase alignment, higher scalability for using advanced technologies, and lower power consumption, as compared to the conventional fast skew-compensation circuits. The second is a frequency-independent phase adjuster, with which the delay line can be shortened by half and the maximal power consumption is reduced accordingly if the clock signal has a 50% duty cycle. The third is a fine delay cell, which is used to accompany the half-delay-line, comprising of minimum-sized coarse delay cells, to effectively reduce the static phase error. Extensive circuit simulations are carried out to prove the superiority of the proposed circuit. In addition, an HDSC test chip is implemented for performance verification at high frequencies. The test chip is designed based on a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process, and has a coarse cell delay of 220 ps. It works successfully between 600/spl sim/800 MHz, as designed, with a power consumption of 25/spl sim/36 /spl mu/W/MHz. When measured at 616.9 and 791.6 MHz, the static phase error is 76.8 and 124.5 ps, respectively.     

Sleepy Stack Leakage Reduction

Leakage power consumption of current CMOS technology is already a great challenge. International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors projects that leakage power consumption may come to dominate total chip power consumption as the technology feature size shrinks. Leakage is a serious problem particularly for CMOS circuits in nanoscale technology. We propose a novel ultra-low leakage CMOS circuit structure which we call "sleepy stack". Unlike many other previous approaches, sleepy stack can retain logic state during sleep mode while achieving ultra-low leakage power consumption. We apply the sleepy stack to generic logic circuits. Although the sleepy stack incurs some delay and area overhead, the sleepy stack technique achieves the lowest leakage power consumption among known state-saving leakage reduction techniques, thus, providing circuit designers with new choices to handle the leakage power problem     

Gate-diffusion input (GDI): a power-efficient method for digital combinatorial circuits

Gate diffusion input (GDI) - a new technique of low-power digital combinatorial circuit design - is described. This technique allows reducing power consumption, propagation delay, and area of digital circuits while maintaining low complexity of logic design. Performance comparison with traditional CMOS and various pass-transistor logic design techniques is presented. The different methods are compared with respect to the layout area, number of devices, delay, and power dissipation. Issues like technology compatibility, top-down design, and precomputing synthesis are discussed, showing advantages and drawbacks of GDI compared to other methods. Several logic circuits have been implemented in various design styles. Their properties are discussed, simulation results are reported, and measurements of a test chip are presented.     

An analog beam-forming circuit for ultrasound imaging usingswitched-current delay lines

A mixed-signal integrated circuit implements 1120 analog memory points arranged in 16 independent fully programmable delay lines in a 0.8 μm CMOS technology. It demonstrates the feasibility of large scale mixed-mode circuits using the switched current technique. The die area of the chip is 72 mm² and incorporates 16 rather large and complex analog blocks, which take advantage of special design techniques developed in order to keep power consumption at a reasonable level and to eliminate second-order effects due to long power and signal lines. At the nominal 64 MHz sampling rate, harmonic distortion is -48 dB, dynamic range is above 60 dB, and power consumption is 1.22 W from a single 5 V supply     

Sub-threshold synchronizer

Sub-threshold operation has been proven to be very effective to reduce the power consumption of circuits when high performance is not required. Future low power systems on chip are likely to consist of many sub-systems operating at different frequencies and VDDs from super-threshold to sub-threshold region. Synchronizers are therefore needed to interface between these sub-systems. However, VDD scaling rapidly degrades synchronizers' performance making them unsuitable for sub-threshold operation. For the first time, we analyze the synchronizer performance at ultra low voltages and propose to apply forward body bias to extend the operation of synchronizers to the sub-threshold region and to make them resilient to process variation. We show that applying full-VDD bias significantly increases the transconductance of the bi-stable in synchronizers without adding capacitance to the switching nodes. As a result all the circuit parameters (τ metastability time constant, T_d normal propagation delay and T_w metastability window) determining synchronizer performance or mean time between failure (MTBF) can be improved by more than 80% (i.e. by five times) in the sub-threshold region. We also study the impact of process variation on the synchronizer performance in the sub-threshold region and conclude that with full-VDD bias the synchronizer MTBF can be improved from seconds to years for the worst case corner. Finally, we propose an implementation scheme of full-VDD body-biased synchronizer, which is able to work for a wide range of VDDs from sub-threshold region to nominal VDD with nearly zero overhead.     

Novel Low-Overhead Operand Isolation Techniques for Low-Power Datapath Synthesis

Power consumption in datapath modules due to redundant switching is an important design concern for high-performance applications. Operand isolation schemes that reduce this redundant switching incur considerable overhead in terms of delay, power, and area. This paper presents novel operand isolation techniques based on supply gating that reduce overheads associated with isolating circuitry. The proposed schemes also target leakage minimization and additional operand isolation at the internal logic of datapath to further reduce power consumption. We integrate the proposed techniques and power/delay models to develop a synthesis flow for low-power datapath synthesis. Simulation results show that the proposed operand isolation techniques achieve at least 40% reduction in power consumption compared to original circuit with minimal area overhead (5%) and delay penalty (0.15%)     

A 123-mW W-CDMA uplink baseband receiver IC with beamforming capability

In this paper, architecture and circuit design of a beamforming baseband receiver IC for uplink W-CDMA communication systems is presented. In the proposed receiver, a four-antenna-element beamformer and a four-finger RAKE combiner are adopted to exploit both spatial diversity and path diversity receiving. To minimize the size and power consumption of the receiver, a latch-based 1024-tap complex delay line is custom designed for the matched filter in the channel estimation circuit. The receiver chip was fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m n-well CMOS single-poly quadruple-metal technology. The minimum supply voltage with the chip running at the nominal 15.36-MHz clock rate is measured at 2.15 V. The chip has an area of 6 mm by 6.3 mm and a power consumption of about 123 mW.     

A 0.6 V Low-Power Wide-Range Delay-Locked Loop in 0.18 $mu$m CMOS

In this letter, a delay-locked loop (DLL) suitable for low-power and low-voltage operations is presented. To overcome the performance limitations, such as a restricted locking range and elevated output jitters, a novel voltage-controlled delay cell and a phase/frequency detector with a start controller are employed in the proposed DLL. Using a standard 0.18 mum CMOS process, the fabricated circuit exhibits a locking range from 85 to 550 MHz. The measured peak-to-peak and rms jitters at 550 MHz are 25.6 and 3.8 ps, respectively. Operated at a supply voltage of 0.6 V, the power consumption of the DLL circuit varies from 2.4 to 4.2 mW within the entire locking range.     

针对级联型ⅡR滤波器群延时的均衡优化技术

为了减小由非恒定群延时所引起的滤波器的输出信号失真,本文提出一种适用于级联型无限长脉冲响应数字滤波器的群延时均衡优化方法.通过在级联型ⅡR数字滤波器每一级的输出插入全通均衡器,减小群延时在通带范围内的变化,进而减小滤波器的输出信号失真.对于本文提出的群延时优化方法,当采用1阶和2阶均衡器进行电路优化时,在0~100Hz的通带范围内,分别将群延时的变化量减小了28.19%和49.93%.基于0.18μm CMOS标准单元库进行逻辑综合与版图设计,最终得到整个滤波电路IP核版图的面积为0.1747mm².相比于已有文献方法,本文方法在群延时优化上效果显著,电路实现上功耗和面积较小,非常适合片上系统应用.     

基于参数化模型的FPGA时钟网络设计和优化

本文在FPGA时钟网络（Clock Distributed Network,CDN）关键结构尺寸的参数化建模基础上,提出一种针对全定制FPGA CDN的设计和优化方法.本文所建立的参数化模型将结构尺寸分为拓扑结构和电路与互连两类,分别给出了这两类尺寸参数的设计原则.在标准CMOS 0.13μm工艺下,对H树型、鱼骨型以及混合型三种类型时钟网络设计了2组结构参数,分别代表优化前和优化后,对比分析延时、偏斜、功耗和面积等性能参数.实验结果显示：混合型结构在绝对延时和时钟偏斜上减小最多,分别达到20.89%和63.20%;鱼骨型结构的面积减小达到50.14%;H树型结构的绝对延时和功耗则均降低了7.37%和8.33%.以上结果充分证明了本文所提设计优化方法的有效性.     

不受温度影响的电流源

为了改进电流源电路的温度特性,提出了一种对温度不敏感的高精度电流源的实现方案。与现有的电路相比．本电路并没有改变原来的主电路结构．而仅仅在参考电流源中增加了一个小电阻。它在零下50℃到150℃的大范围内的温度效应被限制在1％-2％。该电阻在芯片上是利用闲置区域布线的,因此并不会增加集成电路的制造成本。另外．该电阻是连接在恒流源中,不会增加芯片的功耗。     

A novel robust FPGA routing switch box design for ultra low power applications

Fabrication cost of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) is exponentially rising in deep submicron region due to rapidly rising non-recurring engineering cost. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide an attractive alternative to ASICs but consume an order of magnitude higher power. There is a need to explore ways of reducing FPGA power consumption so that they can also be employed in ultra low power (ULP) applications instead of ASICs. Subthreshold region of operation is an ideal choice for ULP low-throughput FPGAs. The routing of an FPGA consumes most of the chip area and primarily determines the circuit delay and power consumption. There is a need to design moderate-speed ULP routing switches for subthreshold FPGA. This article proposes a novel subthreshold FPGA routing switch box (SB) that utilises the leakage voltage through transistor as biasing voltage which shows 69%, 61.2% and 30% improvement in delay, power delay product and delay variation, respectively, over conventional routing SB.     

1.2V低功耗时钟发生器设计

基于整数分频锁相环结构实现的时钟发生器,该时钟发生器采用低功耗、低抖动技术,在SMIC 65 nm CMOS工艺上实现。电路使用1.2 V单一电源电压,并在片上集成了环路滤波器。其中,振荡器为电流控制、全差分结构的五级环形振荡器。该信号发生器可以产生的时钟频率范围为12.5～800MHz,工作在800 MHz时所需的功耗为1.54 mW,输出时钟的周期抖动为:pk-pk=75 ps,rms=8.6 ps;Cycle-to-Cycle抖动为:pk-pk=132 ps,rms=14.1 ps。电路的面积为84μm2。     

基于OPF格式的多电压芯片设计

集成电路进入SoC时代以来,功耗已经成为与面积和性能同等重要的设计目标,在无线、移动和嵌入式应用中,功耗指标已经成为最重要的因素之一。本文概述了多电压设计的概念,设计中的注意事项,以Cadence公司CPF格式定义电压转换器,采用130nm多电压工艺库进行了芯片设计。结果表明,芯片中采用多电压设计技术可以有效的降低芯片的动态功耗。     

Design of 24-GHz 0.8-V 1.51-mW Coupling Current-Mode Injection-Locked Frequency Divider With Wide Locking Range

A 0.8-V CMOS coupling current-mode injection-locked frequency divider (CCMILFD) with 19.5% locking range and a current-injection current-mode logic (CICML) frequency divider have been designed and fabricated using 0.13-$mu{hbox{m}}$ 1p8m CMOS technology. In the proposed CCMILFD, the current-mode technique to minimize the loss of input signals and the coupling circuit to enlarge the phase response have been designed to increase the locking range. The locking range of the fabricated CCMILFD is 4.1 GHz with a power consumption of 1.51 mW from a power supply of 0.8 V. In the proposed CICML frequency divider, the current-injection interface is applied to the current inputs to make the circuit operated at a higher frequency with low power consumption under a low voltage supply. The operation frequency of the fabricated CICML frequency divider can divide the frequency range from CCMILFD and consume 1.89 mW from a 0.8-V voltage supply. The chip core areas of the CCMILFD and CICML frequency divider without pads are 0.23 and 0.015 $ {hbox{mm}}^{2}$, respectively. The proposed circuits can be operated in a low supply voltage with the advantages of a wider locking range, a higher operation frequency, and lower power consumption.      

应用于高速串行接口的低噪声时钟发生器

设计了一种应用于28 Gbit/s高速串行接口的低噪声时钟发生器,包括全差分电荷泵、差分环路滤波器、差分压控振荡器。为了降低相位噪声,采用全差分结构来降低共模噪声和电流失配。为了进一步降低小数分频器引入的噪声,提出一种基于计数器的分频器。为了保证时钟发生器在各种工艺和温度偏差下均能自动锁定,设计了自适应调谐电容电路。采用65 nm CMOS工艺进行设计,芯片面积为0.36 mm²,整体功耗为36 mW。后仿真结果表明,该时钟发生器在14 GHz 锁定后的相位噪声是-113 dBc@1 MHz,压控振荡器的调谐范围是12.8~15.0 GHz,自动锁定电路能在全调谐范围内对电路进行自动调整和锁定。