Low-Power Analog Integrated Circuits for Wireless ECG Acquisition Systems

This paper presents low-power analog ICs for wireless ECG acquisition systems. Considering the power-efficient communication in the body sensor network, the required low-power analog ICs are developed for a healthcare system through miniaturization and system integration. To acquire the ECG signal, a low-power analog front-end system, including an ECG signal acquisition board, an on-chip low-pass filter, and an on-chip successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter for portable ECG detection devices is presented. A quadrature CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator and a 2.4 GHz direct-conversion transmitter with a power amplifier and upconversion mixer are also developed to transmit the ECG signal through wireless communication. In the receiver, a 2.4 GHz fully integrated CMOS RF front end with a low-noise amplifier, differential power splitter, and quadrature mixer based on current-reused folded architecture is proposed. The circuits have been implemented to meet the specifications of the IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz standard. The low-power ICs of the wireless ECG acquisition systems have been fabricated using a 0.18 μm Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) CMOS standard process. The measured results on the human body reveal that ECG signals can be acquired effectively by the proposed low-power analog front-end ICs.     

Modeling and measurement approaches for electrostatic discharge in semiconductor devices and ICs: an overview

Electrostatic charges can be generated everywhere. When they are discharged through semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, an event called an electrostatic discharge (ESD), failure of electronics systems using these devices and ICs can occur. This paper first gives an overview of the ESD sources and models. Then the emphasis is placed on the modeling and measurements of the most commonly used of these models called the human body model (HBM). Various HBM protection circuits are examined to look at ways of preventing ICs from being damaged should ESD events occur. The issue of HBM measurements is also addressed so that the rapid transient associated with this ESD model can be accurately measured and characterized.     

Recent advances in power electronics

Recent advances in several key areas of power electronics technology, such as power semiconductor devices, power converter circuits, and control of power electronics, are discussed. The structure and characteristics of IGBT, SIT, SITH, and MCT devices are reviewed. The principal converter types and their recent trends are described. A brief review of power integrated circuits is included. The features of microcomputer and VLSI control are described, and recent advances in microcomputers are highlighted. The principles of expert systems, fuzzy control, and neural networks are presented     

模拟微电子及应用技术前沿研究进展

我们所处的物理世界是模拟的。在现代信息与通信技术(ICT)、计算系统中,模拟电子的作用包括物理世界感应与交互、计算、控制、数据转换、通信、供电和测量等环节。以模拟集成电路为主体的模拟微电子器件是当今几乎所有以数字为中心的系统中的关键组件,对未来信息技术的发展至关重要。为了实现以5G、6G通信为代表的新一代ICT、工业4.0、物联网等信息社会的基础设施建设目标,其首要和必要条件是通过模拟硬件取得根本性突破,实现物理世界与机器交互的智能感知、认知和处理。为此要求模拟电子器件技术在无线信号链集成电路、计算范式与架构、高精度感知控制,以及模拟微电子技术的设计、工艺和封装测试技术、特定应用等方面开展研究,解决诸如计算范式与架构创新、压缩感知、新架构创新所需的工艺技术、毫米波和太赫兹等高频段集成电路开发所带来的各种挑战。文章从无线信号链集成电路、边缘机器学习中的模拟技术、高精度感知与控制、重要工艺创新等方面探讨了模拟微电子及应用技术前沿的最近研究进展,显示了未来模拟电子技术的关键发展趋势。     

Energy consumption limits in high-speed optical and electronic signal processing

The energy consumption of high-speed optical signal processing circuits using optical and electronic components is compared. Integrated nonlinear optical circuits consume more energy than CMOS ICs with O/E and E/O converters in all but the very simplest of circuits. It is concluded that future generations of high-performance electronics will be the technology of choice for optical signal processing.     

Power integrated circuits—A brief overview

A brief overview of developments in power and high-voltage integrated circuits is presented. The technology can be classified into two types: 1) smart power devices that contain one or more common drain, vertical power transistors with control, and protective circuitry built on the same chip, and 2) high-voltage integrated circuits that combine lateral high-voltage with CMOS logic and analog bipolar circuits on the same chip. These technologies are being aimed at display drivers, telecommunications, motor drives, power supplies, and automotive electronics. A rapid growth in their application in the future can be expected.     

Rapid Fabrication of Soft,Multilayered Electronics for Wearable Biomonitoring

Soft integrated electronics are key components for emerging applications in wearable biomonitoring, soft co‐robotics, and physical human–machine interaction. They are composed of soft and elastically deformable circuits and sensors that are combined with packaged microelectronics for signal processing, power regulation, and communication. While promising, widespread use of soft wearable electronics is currently limited by the lack of robust fabrication techniques to rapidly, efficiently, and precisely assemble soft and rigid components into multilayered systems. Here, an efficient digital fabrication approach is presented to create highly customizable wearable electronics through rapid laser machining and adhesion controlled soft materials assembly. Well aligned, multilayered materials are created from 2D and 3D elements that stretch and bend while seamlessly integrating with rigid components such as microchip integrated circuits, discrete electrical components, and interconnects. These techniques are applied using commercially available materials and components and the fabrication of thin, lightweight, customized sensor skins is demonstrated in under an hour. These fully integrated wireless devices conformably bond to the hand and are successfully used for monitoring hand gesture, pulse rate, and blood oxygenation. These materials and methods enable custom wearable electronics while offering versatility in design and functionality for a variety of applications through material selection and construction.     

Quantum wire lasers

Recent progress in the development of the concept and technology of semiconductor quantum wire (QWR) lasers is reviewed. In these quasi-one-dimensional structures, optical gain is provided by charge carriers that are quantum mechanically confined in two dimensions within wire-like active regions. These devices are expected to exhibit improved laser performance, including extremely low threshold currents (in the μA range), higher modulation bandwidth, narrower spectral linewidth, and reduced temperature sensitivity. QWR lasers would thus be particularly useful in applications involving densely packed laser arrays and monolithic integration of lasers with low-power electronics, including computer optical interconnects, optical computing, and integrated optoelectronic circuits. Approaches for fabricating these novel structures are reviewed, and recent successful demonstrations of lasing in semiconductor QWRs are described. Prospects for further progress in this area are also discussed     

An overview of twenty-five years of electrical and electronicsengineering in the Proceedings of the IEEE, 1963-87

A survey is presented of the history of electrical and electronics engineering as seen in the 136 special issues and special sections of the Proceedings of the IEEE, from 1963 to 1987, in seven areas: circuits and devices (microelectronics and lasers and electrooptics); computers; communications; signals, systems, and control; electromagnetics; energy, power, and industry and engineering and human environment. Special attention is paid to the incremental nature of technological change, the relationship between electrophysics and electrotechnology, and the role of government funding in supporting electronics R&D. It is hoped that setting the `snapshots' of the special issues and special sections in an historical framework will assist future researchers seeking to reach a better understanding of the electronics revolution of the post-Sputnik period     

Scenarios for Molecular-Level Signal Processing

Several research efforts are being carried out in molecular electronics; both theory and experiment claim extraordinary findings for molecular devices. However, before practical molecular circuits can be implemented, we need to develop scenarios for information coding and transfer in molecular circuits able to operate at integration densities and speeds orders of magnitude higher than current ICs do. Initial attempts have been already proposed; however,a simple adaptation to methods being used in current microelectronics devices does not offer much hope at the atomistic and nanoscopic levels due to the large dissipation energy densities that would be generated. We have proposed two new paradigms to process and transmit information in molecular circuits that can defeat the heat dissipation problem. One is based on the characteristic vibrational behavior of molecules and clusters, and the other is based on the molecular electrostatic potentials. It is suggested that these two scenarios can be used for molecular signal processing and transfer in molecular circuits; a theoretical demonstration using computational techniques is presented for these two paradigms.     

Integrated circuits for a bidirectional implantable pulsed Doppler ultrasonic blood flowmeter

The application of integrated circuits in medical implants and the complexity of these implants have increased at a rapid pace in the past few years. The need, however, still exists for a highly accurate and stable telemetry system for the measurement of blood flow. Two custom-designed ICs have been realized to resolve this problem. These ICs form the heart of a totally implantable pulsed Doppler ultrasonic bidirectional blood flowmeter; one circuit performs the basic timing functions, and the second implements low-level linear signal processing. For a small implanted package (3.8/spl times/2.8/spl times/0.8 cm/SUP 3/), these ICs must meet the stringent requirements of low-voltage operation (2.2-2.8 V), low power (<40 mW), high stability (short-term timing jitter <50 ppm), and the minimum of external components. Using a quadrature direction detecting technique, the circuits sense both positive and negative flow and produce a multiplexed telemetry signal. The approach used minimizes parts count and power drain and maximizes channel-to-channel matching in the multiplexed signal.     

Susceptibility of some electronic equipment to HPEM threats

In this paper, an overview of the susceptibility of a large number of different electronic devices like computer networks, computer systems, microprocessor boards, microcontrollers, and other basic integrated circuits (ICs) to different threats like electromagnetic pulse (EMP), ultrawideband (UWB), and high-power microwave pulses (HPM) is given. The presented data will include a comparison of the HPM and UWB susceptibility of some devices and a deeper look into the destruction effects in ICs. Therefore, the ICs were opened and the destruction effects were investigated. A norm based approach to describe the threat of different pulses to electronic devices gives a theoretical explanation for the measured susceptibility data.     

An innovative technique for packaging power electronic buildingblocks using metal posts interconnected parallel plate structures

Power electronics building blocks (PEBBs) are envisioned as integrated power modules consisting of power semiconductor devices, power integrated circuits, sensors, and protection circuits for a wide range of power electronics applications, such as inverters for motor drives and converters for power processing equipment. At the Center for Power Electronics Systems, we developed a topology for a basic building block-a two-switch two-diode half-bridge converter in totem-pole configuration with built-in gate-driver and protection circuitry, fiber-optic receiver/transmitter interface, and soft-switching capability. Based on the topology, a series of prototype modules, with 600 V, 3.3 kW rating, were fabricated using an innovative packaging technique developed for the program-metal posts interconnected parallel plate structure (MPIPPS). This new packaging technique uses direct attachment of bulk copper, not wire-bonding of fine aluminum wires, for interconnecting power devices. Electrical performance data of the packaged devices show that an air-cooled 15 kW inverter, operating from 400 V dc bus with 20 kHz switching frequency can be constructed by integrating three prototype modules, which is almost double what could be achieved with commercially packaged devices of the same rating     

Microprocessors and digital ICs for motion control

This paper reviews the developments in microprocessors and digital ICs with a special attention to applications to motion control. First, the use of microprocessors and digital ICs in the control of electric motor drives is considered. General-purpose microprocessors and microcontrollers are then presented with emphasis on features that are necessary for the implementation of real-time control systems. High-performance advanced processors such as digital signal processors (DSPs), reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) processors, and parallel processors are studied. Development and debugging tools required for developing sophisticated microprocessor-based control systems are considered. The capabilities of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in motion control and their design process are examined. Typical application examples illustrating research work in digital motion control using microprocessors and digital ICs are presented. The potentials of new devices are considered for application to high-performance drive systems. Trends for future development of the microprocessor technology for motion control applications are projected     

Making GaAs integrated circuits

Digital gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits offer prospects for high-performance electronics, particularly for increased speed and radiation hardness. Prototype GaAs devices fabricated in technologies ranging from ion-implanted metal semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) and junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) to epitaxial heterostructures, such as high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), have demonstrated these advantages. While these GaAs technologies share many common fabrication features, the unique characteristics of each and GaAs materials present significant manufacturing challenges. It is argues that to produce real integrated circuits (ICs) for system applications, the disciplines and rigors of a production environment as well as the innovations of research and development are required     

Demonstration of 4H-SiC CMOS digital IC gates based on the mainstream 6-inch wafer processing technique

In this article, the design, fabrication and characterization of silicon carbide (SiC) complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-based integrated circuits (ICs) are presented. A metal interconnect strategy is proposed to fabricate the fundamental N-channel MOS (NMOS) and P-channel MOS (PMOS) devices that are required for the CMOS circuit configuration. Based on the mainstream 6-inch SiC wafer processing technology, the simultaneous fabrication of SiC CMOS ICs and power MOSFET is realized. Fundamental gates, such as inverter and NAND gates, are fabricated and tested. The measurement results show that the inverter and NAND gates function well. The calculated low-to-high delay (low-to-high output transition) and high-to-low delay (high-to-low output transition) are 49.9 and 90 ns, respectively.     

Applications of VLSI circuits to medical imaging

The application of advanced VLSI circuits to medical imaging is explored. The relationship of both general-purpose signal processing chips and custom devices to medical imaging is discussed using examples of fabricated chips. In addition, advanced-aided design tools for silicon compilation are presented. Particular attention is given to the application of VLSI circuits to 3-D image display with ultrasound systems. It is concluded that devices built with these tools represents a possible alternative to custom devices and general-purpose signal processors for the next generation of medical imaging systems     

Limits in integrated optics

A review is given of the characteristics and limits of integrated optics devices and circuits, with emphasis on size, speed, and power consumption. Performance limits and trade offs are discussed for semiconductor lasers, filters, switches and modulators, and bistable devices.     

A dual complex pole-zero cancellation frequency compensation with gain-enhanced stage for three-stage amplifier

A dual complex pole-zero cancellation (DCPC) frequency compensation technique with gain enhanced stage (GES) for three-stage amplifier is proposed in this paper. It uses one pair of complex zeros to cancel one pair of complex poles, resulting in feature that the frequency response of three-stage amplifier exhibits that of a single-pole system. Meanwhile, the effective transconductance of output stage can be greatly increased by several times which are equal to gain of GES, and the power dissipation can be decreased when a GES is introduced. Thus the gain-bandwidth (GBW) is expected to be increased about 10 times compared to the conventional nested miller compensation (NMC) approach. Moreover, this technique requires only one very small compensation capacitor even when driving a large load capacitor. A GBW of 1.23 MHz, DC gain of 111 dB, PM of 86° and power dissipation of 0.29 mW can be achieved for a load capacitor of 500 pF with a single Miller compensation capacitor of 14 pF at a ± 1 V supply in a standard 0.6-μm CMOS technology. Qiang Li received the B.S. degree and the M.Sc. degree in College of Microelectronics and Solid-state Electronics from University of Electronic and Technology Science of China (UESTC), in 2002 and 2005, respectively. His main research interest is low-voltage low-power analog ICs and power switch management ICs. From 2005, he joined the o2micro as an analog IC designer. Jun Yi un Yi received the B.S. degree and the M.Sc. degree, both in Microelectronics, from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China. His research interests include low-voltage low-power analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, low-power power management system, with current emphasis on ultra-low-power power management and signal processing integrated circuits for micro-sensor, RFID, and biomedical applications. Bo Zhang was born in Chongqing, China, on May 26, 1964. He received his B. Tech. degree in electronic engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China in 1985, the M. Tech. degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 1988. From 1988 to 1996, he worked on power semiconductor devices research and development at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Visiting Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, U.S.A., where his research activities include device simulations, power semiconductor cryogenics, SiC power devices, and other Si-based power semiconductor devices. Since returning to the University of Electronic Science and Technology, China, in Nov. 1999, he has worked on power devices and smart power ICs. He is currently a Professor and has published more than 100 papers in the international conferences and journals. Zhaoji Li, professor, the director of IC design center of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC).