A low-noise low-offset capacitive sensing amplifier for a 50-/spl mu/g//spl radic/Hz monolithic CMOS MEMS accelerometer

This paper describes a CMOS capacitive sensing amplifier for a monolithic MEMS accelerometer fabricated by post-CMOS surface micromachining. This chopper stabilized amplifier employs capacitance matching with optimal transistor sizing to minimize sensor noise floor. Offsets due to sensor and circuit are reduced by ac offset calibration and dc offset cancellation based on a differential difference amplifier (DDA). Low-duty-cycle periodic reset is used to establish robust dc bias at the sensing electrodes with low noise. This work shows that continuous-time voltage sensing can achieve lower noise than switched-capacitor charge integration for sensing ultra-small capacitance changes. A prototype accelerometer integrated with this circuit achieves 50-/spl mu/g//spl radic/Hz acceleration noise floor and 0.02-aF//spl radic/Hz capacitance noise floor while chopped at 1 MHz.     

A fourth-order /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ interface for micromachined inertial sensors

This paper presents the design and implementation of a high-order /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ interface for micromachined inertial sensors, which employs an electronic filter in series with the mechanical sensor element to reject the excessive in-band quantization noise inherently present in state-of-the-art second-order solutions. A fourth-order prototype was fabricated in a standard 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The active circuit area measures 0.9 mm/sup 2/, and the interface consumes 13 mW from a 5-V supply and achieves resolution of 1/spl deg//s//spl radic/Hz with a gyroscope and 150/spl mu/g//spl radic/Hz with an accelerometer. Comparison between the measured and simulated behavior of the system shows that the contribution of the quantization error to the total noise is negligible.     

A CMOS voltage reference based on weighted /spl Delta/V/sub GS/ for CMOS low-dropout linear regulators

A CMOS voltage reference, which is based on the weighted difference of the gate-source voltages of an NMOST and a PMOST operating in saturation region, is presented. The voltage reference is designed for CMOS low-dropout linear regulators and has been implemented in a standard 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS technology (V/sub thn//spl ap/|V/sub thp/|/spl ap/0.9 V at 0/spl deg/C). The occupied chip area is 0.055 mm/sup 2/. The minimum supply voltage is 1.4 V, and the maximum supply current is 9.7 /spl mu/A. A typical mean uncalibrated temperature coefficient of 36.9 ppm//spl deg/C is achieved, and the typical mean line regulation is /spl plusmn/0.083%/V. The power-supply rejection ratio without any filtering capacitor at 100 Hz and 10 MHz are -47 and -20 dB, respectively. Moreover, the measured noise density with a 100-nF filtering capacitor at 100 Hz is 152 nV//spl radic/(Hz) and that at 100 kHz is 1.6 nV//spl radic/(Hz).     

The golden code: a 2/spl times/2 full-rate space-time code with nonvanishing determinants

In this paper, the Golden code for a 2/spl times/2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is presented. This is a full-rate 2/spl times/2 linear dispersion algebraic space-time code with unprecedented performance based on the Golden number 1+/spl radic/5/2.     

Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As/In/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As (0/spl les/x/spl les/0.25) doped-channel field-effect transistors (DCFET's)

The properties of both lattice-matched and strained doped-channel field-effect transistors (DCFET's) have been investigated in AlGaAs/In/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As (0/spl les/x/spl les/0.25) heterostructures with various indium mole fractions. Through electrical characterization of grown layers in conjunction with the dc and microwave device characteristics, we observed that the introduction of a 150-/spl Aring/ thick strained In/sub 0.15/Ga/sub 0.85/As channel can enhance device performance, compared to the lattice-matched one. However, a degradation of device performance was observed for larger indium mole fractions, up to x=0.25, which is associated with strain relaxation in this highly strained channel. DCFET's also preserved a more reliable performance after biased-stress testings.<>     

Real-time imaging using a 4.3-THz quantum cascade laser and a 320 /spl times/ 240 microbolometer focal-plane array

We report the use of a /spl sim/50-mW peak power 4.3-THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) as an illumination source for real-time imaging with a 320 /spl times/ 240 element room-temperature microbolometer focal-plane array detector. The QCL is modulated synchronously with the focal-plane array for differential imaging. Signal-to-noise ratios of /spl sim/340 are achieved at a 20-frame/s acquisition rate, and the optical noise equivalent power of the detector array at 4.3 THz is estimated to be /spl sim/320 pW//spl radic/Hz. Both reflection and transmission mode imaging are demonstrated.     

Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bounds on SNR estimation of BPSK signals in Rayleigh fading channels with dual MRC diversity

Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bound expressions are derived in closed-form for data and non-data-aided SNR estimation of BPSK signals in flat Rayleigh fading channels employing uncorrelated dual MRC diversity. Assuming correlation between the two branches, presented are the bounds most conveniently as plots because of their complexity. Bound expressions are also given for the case of no diversity for comparison.     

Cryptographic applications of Brahmagupta-Bha/spl tilde/skara equation

The Brahmagupta-Bha/spl tilde/skara (BB) equation is a quadratic Diophantine equation of the form NX/sup 2/+k=Y/sup 2/, where k is an integer (positive or negative) and N is a positive integer such that /spl radic/N is irrational. A particular case of the BB equation with k=1 is also known as Pell equation in literature. This equation in the Galois Field GF(p), where p is an odd prime has some practically useful properties. Application of these properties in two different fields of cryptography, namely, digital encryption and user authentication are discussed in this paper. For those applications, where software computation of the roots of the BB equation is unacceptable for being too slow, a hardware architecture for using the BB equation in GF(p) is given that is useful for implementation in VLSI form.     

MOS capacitors on epitaxial Ge-Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x/ with high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics using RPCVD

We report the successful growth of MOS capacitor stacks with low temperature strained epitaxial Ge or Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x/(x=0.9) layer directly on Si substrates, and with HfO/sub 2/(EOT=9.7 /spl Aring/) as high-/spl kappa/ dielectrics, both using a novel remote plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition technique. These novel MOS capacitors, which were fabricated entirely at or below 400/spl deg/C, exhibit normal capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics.     

360/spl deg/ Varactor Linear Phase Modulator

Theory is presented which 1) derives the circuit impedance requirements to match the nonlinearity of the varactor reactance-versus-voltage curve to the tangent /spl theta/ curve to obtain 180/spl deg/ linear phase modulation from one diode; 2) gives the value and position of a resistor to make insertion loss invariant with phase; and 3) derives the circuit requirements for combining two 180/spl deg/ diode phase moduIators in an admittance adding network to obtain 360/spl deg/ phase modulation. Experiments are disclosed rising series tuning at 1 GHz providing 360/spl deg/ phase modulation within /spl plusmn/ 3.0 percent of linearity, and using shunt tuning at 5 GHz providing 360/spl deg/ phase modulation within /spl plusmn/ 3.3 percent of linearity. A discussion is given of the application of the modulators to the serrodyne function.     

Performance of dual maximal ratio combining diversity in nonidentical correlated Weibull fading channels using Pade/spl acute/ approximation

In this letter, we evaluate the performance of the dual-branch maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity scheme in nonidentical correlated Weibull fading channels with arbitrary parameters. We first use the Pade/spl acute/ approximation (PA) to find closed-form rational expressions for the moment generating function (MGF) of the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the MRC receiver. Different performance measures, such as the outage probability and the average symbol-error rate for different linear modulations, are then presented using the well-known MGF approach. Furthermore, the effect of the input SNRs unbalancing, the severity of fading, and the degree of correlation on the system performance are also studied. Our results are validated by comparing them with computer simulations, and we show that the PA technique is indeed a convenient tool for such performance evaluation studies.     

MIMO linear equalization with an H/sup /spl infin// criterion

In this paper, we study the problem of linearly equalizing the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications channels from an H/sup /spl infin// point of view. H/sup /spl infin// estimation theory has been recently introduced as a method for designing filters that have acceptable performance in the face of model uncertainty and lack of statistical information on the exogenous signals. In this paper, we obtain a closed-form solution to the square MIMO linear H/sup /spl infin// equalization problem and parameterize all possible H/sup /spl infin//-optimal equalizers. In particular, we show that, for minimum phase channels, a scaled version of the zero-forcing equalizer is H/sup /spl infin//-optimal. The results also indicate an interesting dichotomy between minimum phase and nonminimum phase channels: for minimum phase channels the best causal equalizer performs as well as the best noncausal equalizer, whereas for nonminimum phase channels, causal equalizers cannot reduce the estimation error bounds from their a priori values. Our analysis also suggests certain remedies in the nonminimum phase case, namely, allowing for finite delay, oversampling, or using multiple sensors. For example, we show that H/sup /spl infin// equalization of nonminimum phase channels requires a time delay of at least l units, where l is the number of nonminimum phase zeros of the channel.     

A 75-dB image rejection IF-input quadrature-sampling SC /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ Modulator

Quadrature sampling of intermediate frequency (IF) signals is subject to the well-known problem of gain and phase mismatches between the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) channels. This paper presents an IF-input quadrature-sampling switched-capacitor (SC) /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator that circumvents the I/Q mismatch problem by time-sharing between the I and Q channels the critical circuit components, namely, the sampling capacitor and the capacitor of the first-stage feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC). In addition, a clocking scheme that is insensitive to I/Q phase imbalance is used. A third-order single-loop 1-bit low-pass modulator has been designed and fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process with an active area of 0.57mm/sup 2/. The experimental results show that the modulator achieves an image-rejection ratio (IRR) of greater than 75dB throughout a 200-kHz signal bandwidth.     

New radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(4/spl times/4/spl times/4) and radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(8/spl times/8/spl times/8) DIF FFT algorithms for 3-D DFT

In this paper, new three-dimensional (3-D) radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(4/spl times/4/spl times/4) and radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(8/spl times/8/spl times/8) decimation-in-frequency (DIF) fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms are developed and their implementation schemes discussed. The algorithms are developed by introducing the radix-2/4 and radix-2/8 approaches in the computation of the 3-D DFT using the Kronecker product and appropriate index mappings. The butterflies of the proposed algorithms are characterized by simple closed-form expressions facilitating easy software or hardware implementations of the algorithms. Comparisons between the proposed algorithms and the existing 3-D radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2) FFT algorithm are carried out showing that significant savings in terms of the number of arithmetic operations, data transfers, and twiddle factor evaluations or accesses to the lookup table can be achieved using the radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(4/spl times/4/spl times/4) DIF FFT algorithm over the radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2) FFT algorithm. It is also established that further savings can be achieved by using the radix-(2/spl times/2/spl times/2)/(8/spl times/8/spl times/8) DIF FFT algorithm.     

1/spl times/2 and 1/spl times/4 electrooptic switches

We describe the design, fabrication, and testing of two packaged electrooptic switches built from poled LiTaO/sub 3/ crystals. The 1/spl times/2 switch requires a driving voltage of 1200 V and exhibits insertion loss of 2.4 dB and crosstalk of -39.2 dB; the 1/spl times/4 switch exhibits insertion loss and crosstalk of 2.8 dB and -40.6 dB, respectively, and operates using a 1100-V voltage source. The maximum deflection time between the channels is 86 ns.     

Integrated high-/spl kappa/ (/spl kappa/ /spl sim/19) MIM capacitor with Cu/low-/spl kappa/ interconnects for RF application

We demonstrate a high-performance metal-high /spl kappa/ insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor integrated with a Cu/low-/spl kappa/ backend interconnection. The high-/spl kappa/ used was laminated HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ with effective /spl kappa/ /spl sim/19 and the low-/spl kappa/ dielectric used was Black Diamond with /spl kappa/ /spl sim/2.9. The MIM capacitor (/spl sim/13.4 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) achieved a Q-factor /spl sim/53 at 2.5 GHz and 11.7 pF. The resonant frequency f/sub r/ was 21% higher in comparison to an equivalently integrated Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-MIM capacitor (/spl sim/0.93 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) having similar capacitance 11.2 pF. The impacts of high-/spl kappa/ insulator and low-/spl kappa/ interconnect dielectric on the mechanism for resonant frequency improvement are distinguished using equivalent circuit analysis. This letter suggests that integrated high-/spl kappa/ MIM could be a promising alternative capacitor structure for future high-performance RF applications.     

Continuous-time /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators using distributed resonators

We derive a method for using distributed resonators in /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators and demonstrate these /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators have several advantages over existing /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator architectures. Like continuous-time (CT) /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators, the proposed /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators do not require a high-precision track-and-hold, and additionally can take advantage of the high-Q of distributed resonators. Like discrete-time /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators, the proposed /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators are relatively insensitive to feedback loop delays and can subsample. We present simulations of several types of these /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulators and examine the challenges in their design.     

Polarization independent bulk active region semiconductor optical amplifiers for 1.3 /spl mu/m wavelengths

Semiconductor optical amplifiers for 1.3 /spl mu/m are realized combining single-step grown bulk InGaAsP active region with ridge-waveguides. Achieved fiber-to-fiber gains are in excess of 27 dB with spectral ripples below 0.2 dB. Gain is polarization insensitive to within 1 dB over the entire range of driving current, 1.28 /spl mu/m to 1.34 /spl mu/m wavelength and 10/spl deg/C to 50/spl deg/C heat sink temperature. Intrinsic noise figure is 6.3 dB. Gain saturates at +10 dBm.     

Thermo-optical modulation at /spl lambda/=1.5 /spl mu/m in an /spl alpha/-SiC-/spl alpha/-Si-/spl alpha/-SiC planar guided-wave structure

A planar waveguide based on an amorphous silicon-amorphous silicon carbide heterostructure is proposed for the realization of passive and active optical components at the wavelengths /spl lambda/=1.3-1.5 /spl mu/m. The waveguide has been realized by low temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and is compatible with the standard microelectronic technologies. Thermo-optical induced modulation at /spl lambda/=1.5 /spl mu/m is demonstrated in this waveguide. Numerical simulations predict that operation frequencies of about 3 MHz are possible. The measurements have also allowed the determination of the previously unknown thermo-optical coefficient of undoped amorphous silicon at this wavelength.     

Generalization of the /spl Sigma//sub 0/-rank criteria for space-time codes

Recently, Liu et al., developed the /spl Sigma//sub 0/-rank criteria for space-time codes. It provides a sufficient condition on codeword and generator matrices defined over finite rings /spl Zopf//sub 2k/(j) to ensure full spatial diversity with 2/sup 2k/-QAM modulation. Here, we generalize the /spl Sigma//sub 0/-rank criteria and derive a sufficient condition on the generator matrices defined over finite rings /spl Zopf//sub 2l/(j) to ensure full spatial diversity with 2/sup 2k/-QAM modulation for any positive integer l/spl les/k. We also show that generator matrices defined over GF(2) satisfying the BPSK stacking construction constraint of Mammons and El Gamal achieve full spatial diversity when used with 2/sup 2k/-QAM modulation.