10-13.6 Gbit/s 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS modulator drivers with 8 V/sub PP/ differential output swing

A novel intrinsic drain-gate capacitance (C/sub DG/) feedback network is incorporated into the conventional cascode circuit configuration to implement a 10-13.6 Gbit/s modulator driver. The driver fabricated in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process could generate an 8 V/sub PP/ differential output swing. The power consumption is as low as 0.6 W. The present work shows that the driving capability is greater than the currently reported CMOS drivers.     

Design of low-power fast VCSEL drivers for high-density links in 90-nm SOI CMOS

The continuous decrease of the supply voltage to 1 V and below in CMOS makes the design of laser drivers a challenging task. Hence, a detailed comparison of three basic driver architectures, namely, common source (CS), CS with source degeneration, and source follower (SF) is presented using transistor models including short channel effects. Based on this comparison, two power-optimized driver topologies are implemented in a 90-nm silicon-on-insulator CMOS technology. The SF driver features a bandwidth of 18 GHz on a 50-/spl Omega/ load. The required chip area is only 140 /spl mu/m/spl times/140 /spl mu/m, which is very beneficial for high-density short-distance optical interconnects. This allows a data rate of 12.5 Gb/s at a bit error ratio of less than 10/sup -12/ to be achieved even with a 10-Gb/s oxide confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The power consumption is 27 mW. The drivers were optimized for maximal eye opening by applying a fast and accurate VCSEL model.     

Multilevel differential encoding with precentering for high-speed parallel link transceiver

A multilevel differential encoding scheme is proposed as a new approach for use in high-speed parallel transceiver systems. While incurring little or no increase in the number of links, the proposed encoding scheme overcomes two major problems in single-ended parallel links-reference ambiguity and power-line fluctuations. The proposed scheme transmits differentially encoded data among the pins and adjusts the driving current to be constant so as to minimize the L(di/dt) switching noise on the output driver power lines. A new precentering scheme is also applied to maximize the horizontal eye opening by centering all signals during a predefined time before the start of the next symbol transition. To verify the proposed schemes, a transceiver chip was designed and fabricated in 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The chip, which consists of 18 parallel links with only three ground and three supply pins for the output drivers, employs a three-level differential encoding scheme to achieve a maximum data rate of 1.8 Gb/s with a bit error rate of less than 10/sup -12/.     

10-Gb/s modulator drivers with local feedback networks

A novel intrinsic collector-base capacitance (C/sub CB/) feedback network (ICBCFN) was incorporated into the conventional cascode and series-connected voltage balancing (SCVB) circuit configurations to implement 10-Gb/s modulator drivers. The drivers fabricated in 0.35-/spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS process could generate 9 V/sub PP/ differential output swings with rise/fall time of less than 29 ps. Also, the ICBCFN was modified as an intrinsic drain-gate capacitance feedback network (IDGCFN) to implement drivers with differential output swing of 8 V/sub PP/ in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The power consumption is as low as 0.6 W. The present work shows that the driving capability is greater than that of the currently reported silicon-based drivers.     

A high-speed low-power rail-to-rail column driver for AMLCD application

A high-speed rail-to-rail low-power column driver for active matrix liquid crystal display application is proposed. An inversion controller is attached to a typical column driver for rail-to-rail operation. Two high-speed complementary differential buffer amplifiers are proposed to drive a pair of column lines and to realize a rail-to-rail and high-speed drive. The output buffer amplifier achieves a large driving capability by employing a simple comparator to sense the transients of the input to turn on an auxiliary driving transistor, which is statically off in the stable state. This increases the speed without increasing static power consumption. The experimental prototype 6-bit column driver implemented in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology demonstrates that the driver exhibits the maximum settling times of 1.2 /spl mu/s and 1.4 /spl mu/s for rising and falling edges with a dot inversion under a 680-pF capacitance load. The static current consumptions are 4.7 and 4.2 /spl mu/A for pMOS input buffers and nMOS input buffers, respectively. The values of the differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL) are less than 1/2 LSB.     

High-speed driving scheme and compact high-speed low-power rail-to-rail class-B buffer amplifier for LCD applications

A high-speed driving scheme and a compact high-speed low-power rail-to-rail class-B buffer amplifier, which are suitable for small- and large-size liquid crystal display applications, are proposed. The driving scheme incorporates two output driving stages in which the output of the first output driving stage is connected to the inverting input and that of the second driving stage is connected to the capacitive load. A compensation resistor is connected between the two output stages for stability. The second output stage is used to improve the slew rate and the settling time. The buffer draws little current while static but has a large driving capability while transient. The circuit achieves the large driving capability by employing simple comparators to sense the transients of the input to turn on the output stages, which are statically off in the stable state. This increases the speed of the circuit without increasing static power consumption too much. A rail-to-rail folded-cascode differential amplifier is used to amplify the input signal difference and supply the bias voltages for the second stage. An experimental prototype output buffer implemented in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology demonstrates that the circuit draws only 7-/spl mu/A static current and exhibits the settling times of 2.7 /spl mu/s for rising and 2.9 /spl mu/s for falling edges for a voltage swing of 3.3 V under a 600-pF capacitance load with a power supply of 3.3 V. The active area of this buffer is only 46.5/spl times/57/spl mu/m/sup 2/.     

Utilizing the effect of relative delay on energy dissipation in low-power on-chip buses

This paper presents an analysis of how the power dissipation of on-chip buses is affected by introducing a relative delay between the switching lines. Relative delay is shown to reduce the dissipated power of oppositely switching lines while causing a power penalty for similarly switching lines. A new low-power bus scheme that uses this effect is proposed and analyzed. As the introduced delay increases, the achieved power reduction increases while decreasing the bus throughput. Thus, a tradeoff between power reduction and throughput is required when selecting the imposed relative delay. The proposed low-power scheme, dynamic delayed line bus (DDL) scheme, led to a power reduction of up to 25%, 33%, and 42% when applied to data, address, and differential buses, respectively. Simple DDL hardware is designed and implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m TSMC CMOS technology and applied to a 4500-/spl mu/m long Metal4 bus. Circuit simulation results for different bus widths are presented.     

Low-power high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier for flat panel display drivers

A new high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier consuming a very small quiescent current is proposed. This buffer amplifier recursively copies the output driving current and increases the tail current of the input differential pair during slewing. Since the proposed buffer has a possible slew rate higher than 10 V//spl mu/s for a load capacitance of 1 nF almost independently of static currents as low as 1 /spl mu/A, this buffer amplifier is promising for column driver ICs of flat panel displays that require low static power consumption, high current driving capabilities, and small silicon areas.     

A 4-Gb/s/pin low-power memory I/O interface using 4-level simultaneous bi-directional signaling

This paper presents a simultaneous bi-directional (SBD) 4-level I/O interface for high-speed DRAMs. The data rate of 4 Gb/s/pin was demonstrated using a 500-MHz clock generator and a full CMOS rail-to-rail power swing. The power consumed by the I/O circuit was measured to be 28 mW/pin, when connected to a 10-pF load, at a 1.8-V supply voltage. The transmitter uses a 4-level push-pull linear output driver and a 4-level automatic impedance controller, achieving the reduction of driver currents and the voltage margin as large as 200 mV. The receiver employs a hierarchical sampling scheme, wherein a differential amplifier selects three out of six reference voltage levels. This scheme ensures minimized sampling power and a wide common-mode sampling range. The 6-level reference voltage for sampling is generated by the combination of the transmitter replica. The proposed I/O interface circuits are fabricated using a 0.10-/spl mu/m, 2-metal layers DRAM process, and the active area is 330 /spl times/ 66 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. It exhibits 200 mV /spl times/ 690 ps eye windows on the given channel with a 1.8-V supply voltage.     

A 130-nm 0.9-V 66-MHz 8-Mb (256K /spl times/ 32) local SONOS embedded flash EEPROM

In a 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS logic compatible process, a 256K /spl times/ 32 bit (8 Mb) local SONOS embedded flash EEPROM was implemented using the ATD-assisted current sense amplifier (AACSA) for 0.9 V (0.7 /spl sim/ 1.4 V) low V/sub CC/ application. Read operation is performed at a high frequency of 66 MHz and shows a low current of typically 5 mA at 66-MHz operating frequency. Program operation is performed for common source array with wide I/Os (/spl times/32) by using the data-dependent source bias control scheme (DDSBCS). This novel local SONOS embedded flash EEPROM core has the cell size of 0.276 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ (16.3 F/sup 2//bit) and the program and erase time of 20 /spl mu/s and 20 ms, respectively.     

Low-voltage low-power LVDS drivers

Two low-voltage low-power LVDS drivers used for high-speed point-to-point links are discussed. While the previously reported LVDS drivers cannot operate with low-voltage supplies, the proposed double current sources (DCS) LVDS driver and the switchable current sources (SCS) LVDS driver are suitable for low-voltage applications. Although static current consumption is greater than the minimum amount required by the signal swing, the DCS LVDS driver is simple and fast. The SCS LVDS driver, by dynamically switching the current sources, draws minimum static current and reduces the power consumption by 60% compared to previously reported realizations. Both drivers were fabricated in a standard 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process; they are compliant with LVDS standards and can operate at data rates up to gigabits-per-second.     

Raised cosine approximation signalling technique for reduced simultaneous switching noise

A new technique for reducing noise crosstalk due to inductive effects in high-speed switching environments is presented. A signalling scheme based on raised cosine approximation (RCA) pulses is used to achieve gradual buffer turn on without any speed penalties. A new current-mode RCA line driver is proposed and incorporated in a 16 bit 1 Gbit/s off-chip transmitter. Simulation results based on TSMC 0.25 /spl mu/m show ground bounce noise reduction greater than 40%.     

40 Gbit/s lumped-element modulator driver in GaAs pHEMTs

A high-speed and high-gain modulator driver circuit using 0.15 /spl mu/m gate length GaAs pHEMT technology is presented. The IC was developed for driving electroabsorption modulators in 40 Gbit/s optical fibre systems. To meet application requirements a lumped-element approach was used with differential configuration. Measured results show the circuit operates at 40 Gbit/s with a swing of 3 V/sub p-p/ for single-ended and 6 V/sub p-p/ for differential output, and 8/10 ps rise/fall times.     

Abrupt power-off detector for mobile TFT-LCD driver IC using dual power supply

A circuit technique to detect unexpected power conditions such as battery separation is presented. Abrupt power-off owing to unexpected power conditions may cause an abnormal display in mobile TFT-LCDs because an adequate power-off sequence cannot be performed. The proposed abrupt power-off detector (APD) recognises decay of supply voltage and generates a signal to perform a proper power-off sequence. As mobile TFT-LCD driver ICs are usually operated with dual power supply, the APD detects abrupt power-off for both of the power supplies. To demonstrate the feasibility of the APD, a test chip was designed and fabricated in a 30 V/4 /spl mu/m 5 V/0.8 /spl mu/m 2.5 V/0.25 /spl mu/m triple-well CMOS process. Experimental results show that the proposed APD improves display quality by allowing a proper power-off sequence at all abrupt power-off conditions.     

Electrical characteristics of 8-/spl Aring/ EOT HfO/sub 2//TaN low thermal-budget n-channel FETs with solid-phase epitaxially regrown junctions

The authors demonstrate high-performing n-channel transistors with a HfO/sub 2//TaN gate stack and a low thermal-budget process using solid-phase epitaxial regrowth of the source and drain junctions. The thinnest devices have an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 8 /spl Aring/, a leakage current of 1.5 A/cm/sup 2/ at V/sub G/=1 V, a peak mobility of 190 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s, and a drive-current of 815 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m at an off-state current of 0.1 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m for V/sub DD/=1.2 V. Identical gate stacks processed with a 1000-/spl deg/C spike anneal have a higher peak mobility at 275 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s, but a 5-/spl Aring/ higher EOT and a reduced drive current at 610 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m. The observed performance improvement for the low thermal-budget devices is shown to be mostly related to the lower EOT. The time-to-breakdown measurements indicate a maximum operating voltage of 1.6 V (1.2 V at 125 /spl deg/C) for a ten-year lifetime, whereas positive-bias temperature-instability measurements indicate a sufficient lifetime for operating voltages below 0.75 V.     

SODEL FET: novel channel and source/drain profile engineering schemes by selective Si epitaxial growth technology

In this paper, novel channel and source/drain profile engineering schemes are proposed for sub-50-nm bulk CMOS applications. This device, referred to as the silicon-on-depletion layer FET (SODEL FET), has the depletion layer beneath the channel region, which works as an insulator like a buried oxide in a silicon-on-insulator MOSFET. Thanks to this channel structure, junction capacitance (C/sub j/) has been reduced in SODEL FET, i.e., C/sub j/ (area) was /spl sim/0.73 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ both in SODEL nFET and pFET at Vbias =0.0 V. The body effect coefficient /spl gamma/ is also reduced to less than 0.02 V/sup 1/2/. Nevertheless, current drives of 886 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m (I/sub off/=15 nA//spl mu/m) in nFET and -320 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m (I/sub off/=10 nA//spl mu/m) in pFET have been achieved in 70-nm gate length SODEL CMOS with |V/sub dd/|=1.2 V. New circuit design schemes are also proposed for high-performance and low-power CMOS applications using the combination of SODEL FETs and bulk FETs on the same chip for 90-nm-node generation and beyond.     

A micropower, small input-to-output delay, high-voltage bipolar driver/demultiplexer IC

Describes a 2.6/spl times/2.6 mm bipolar driver/demultiplexer integrated circuit used to selectively switch one of six off-chip MOS devices. A carefully chosen chip architecture coupled with novel circuit techniques has reduced power consumption by more than two orders of magnitude over currently available micropower drivers that offer comparable performance. A low-voltage bipolar process (BV/SUB CEO/>20 V) that utilizes an extra deep n/SUP +/ diffusion (d-n/SUP +/) combines I/SUP 2/L and linear circuitry to achieve a micropower function (<100 /spl mu/W) with small input-to-output delay (<400 ns) and high-voltage capability (40 V max).     

Four-valued memory circuit using three-peak MOS-NDR devices and circuits

A four-valued memory circuit using the three-peak MOS-NDR circuit as the driver and a current source as the load is demonstrated. The fabrication of the circuit is based on the standard 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process.     

An MSI GaAs integrated circuit: 4 bit arithmetic and logic unit

A GaAs 4 bit arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) has been fabricated using a planar ion implantation technique with 2 /spl mu/m gate length FETs. The basic circuit is a buffered FET logic (BFL) circuit composed of normally on GaAs MESFETs and Schottky diodes. The active layers of the FETs and diodes are made by implanting Si into Cr-doped semi-insulating GaAs substrate. This ALU contains 629 FETs and 225 diodes within an area of 1.6/spl times/2.1 mm/SUP 2/. The ALU, capable of driving 50 /spl Omega/ transmission lines, is mounted on a 24 lead flat package. A delay time of 2.1 ns through the data path and a total power dissipation of 1.2 W with supply voltages of +5 V and -3 V have been obtained.     

Oxide-isolated integrated Schottky logic

Integrated Schottky logic has been fabricated in an oxide-isolated technology using 5 /spl mu/m lines and spaces. The novel device uses a merged substrate p-n-p (base width /spl sime/1.0 /spl mu/m) to clamp the collector-base junction of the oxide-walled base, down-operated n-p-n transistor. Ion-implanted low-barrier PtSi-nSi Schottky diodes are used for n-p-n collector decoupling. The average propagation delay measured on a 25-stage ring oscillator (fan-in=fan-out=1) was 2.3 ns at 65 /spl mu/A/stage and 25/spl deg/C. This 150 fJ/V power-delay product is a 3.6/spl times/ improvement compared with 540 fJ/V for junction-isolated ISL (2.7 ns at 200 /spl mu/A/stage).