A low-power high-PSRR current-mode microphone preamplifier

Bionic implants for the deaf require wide-dynamic-range low-power microphone preamplifiers with good wide-band rejection of the supply noise. Widely used low-cost implementations of such preamplifiers typically use the buffered voltage output of an electret capacitor with a built-in JFET source follower. We describe a design in which the JFET microphone buffer's output current, rather than its output voltage, is transduced via a sense-amplifier topology allowing good in-band power-supply rejection. The design employs a low-frequency feedback loop to subtract the dc bias current of the microphone and prevent it from causing saturation. Wide-band power-supply rejection is achieved by integrating a novel filter on all current-source biasing. Our design exhibits 80 dB of dynamic range with less than 5 /spl mu/V/sub rms/ of input noise while operating from a 2.8 V supply. The power consumption is 96 /spl mu/W which includes 60 /spl mu/W for the microphone built-in buffer. The in-band power-supply rejection ratio varies from 50 to 90 dB while out-of-band supply attenuation is greater than 60 dB until 25 MHz. Fabrication was done in a 1.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process with gain programmability for both microphone and auxiliary channel inputs.     

A low-voltage low-power current-mode high-pass leapfrog filter

A low-power bipolar continuous-time low-frequency high-pass second-order Butterworth filter is presented that works in the current domain and operates from a single 1.3-V battery. The filter contains two adjustable integrators. These integrators are realized by means of a capacitance and an adjustable transconductance amplifier with an indirect output. The complete filter, including all capacitances needed, can be integrated in an ordinary full-custom IC process. A semicustom realization is shown. The filter demonstrates operation down to 1 V with less than 16µW power consumption and a dynamic range of 50 dB. Its cutoff frequency can be exponentially tuned with a control current over a range from 100 Hz to 1 kHz.     

A new low-power current-mode MOS only versatile precision rectifier

In this paper, a new low-power versatile current-mode rectifier is proposed. As a salient feature, the proposed rectifier provides two positive half-wave, two inverting negative half-wave or two full-wave outputs from the same configuration. The proposed circuit employs only a dual-output second-generation current conveyor (DO-CCII) and a core rectifying circuit consisting of twelve MOS transistors. The input and output signals are current. Favorably, by adding two additional transistors, the proposed rectifier can also rectify voltage signals with electronic tuning capability. The simple and MOS only structure of the proposed circuit is highly attractive from integration point of view. In spite of providing multiple outputs at the same time, the proposed rectifier enjoys low power consumption. PSPICE simulations using 0.18 μm CMOS parameters and supply voltage of ±0.9 V demonstrate a precise operation and good temperature stability.     

A low-power and robust quaternary SRAM cell for nanoelectronics

This paper presents an efficient and low-power quaternary static random-access memory (SRAM) cell based on a new quaternary inverter. For implementation, carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) are used. Stacked CNTFETs are appropriately used in the proposed design to achieve a considerably low static power dissipation. The proposed SRAM has a more significant static noise margin due to its single quaternary digit line, and it is appropriate for MVL SRAM design as there are more than two stable states. The simulation results using Synopsys HSPICE with 32 nm Stanford comprehensive CNTFET model demonstrate the correct and robust operation of the proposed designs even in the presence of major process variations. In addition, the proposed SRAM cell is applied in a 4?×?4 SRAM array structure to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed SRAM. The results indicate that the proposed design significantly lowers the power consumption and provides comparable static noise margins compared to the other state-of-the-art CNTFET-based circuits.

     

Low-power embedded SRAM with the current-mode write technique

In the traditional current-mode SRAMs, only the read operation is performed in the current mode. In this paper, we propose to use the current-mode technique in both the read and write operations. Due to the current mode operation, voltage swings at bit lines and data lines are kept very small during both read and write. Then, the ac power dissipation of bit lines and data lines, which is proportional to the voltage swing, can be significantly saved. A new current-mode 128×8 SRAM has been designed based on a 0.6 μm CMOS technology, and the new SRAM consumes only 30% of the power of an SRAM with current-mode read but voltage mode write operations. Besides a test chip for the new SRAM, it has also been embedded in an 8-bit 1.1-controller. Experimental results show good agreement with the simulation results and prove the feasibility of the new technique     

A mixed-signal approach to high-performance low-power linearfilters

We present a new approach to the design of high-performance low-power linear filters. We use p-channel synapse transistors as analog memory cells, and mixed-signal circuits for fast low-power arithmetic. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we have built a 16-tap 7-b 200-MHz mixed-signal finite-impulse response (FIR) filter that consumes 3 mW at 3.3 V. The filter uses synapse pFETs to store the analog tap coefficients, electron tunneling and hot-electron injection to modify the coefficient values, digital registers for the delay line, and multiplying digital-to-analog converters to multiply the digital delay-line values with the analog tap coefficients. The measured maximum clock speed is 225 MHz; the measured tap-multiplier resolution is 7 b at 200 MHz. The total die area is 0.13 mm². We can readily scale our design to longer delay lines     

A low-power transponder IC for high-performance identificationsystems

A novel CMOS integrated circuit for a batteryless transponder system is presented. Batteryless transponders require contactless transmission of both the information and power between a mobile data carrier and a stationary or handheld reader unit. The operating principle of this system gives a superior performance in reading distance due to separation of the powering and data transmission phases-compared to systems with continuous powering and damping modulation. This paper describes the function of the transponder IC and the circuit design techniques used for the various building blocks     

A low-power SRAM using hierarchical bit line and local sense amplifiers

This paper proposes a low power SRAM using hierarchical bit line and local sense amplifiers (HBLSA-SRAM). It reduces both capacitance and write swing voltage of bit lines by using the hierarchical bit line composed of a bit line and sub-bit lines with local sense amplifiers. The HBLSA-SRAM reduces the write power consumption in bit lines without noise margin degradation by applying a low swing signal to the high capacitive bit line and by applying a full swing signal to the low capacitive sub-bit line. The HBLSA-SRAM reduces the swing voltage of bit lines to V/sub DD//10 for both read and write. It saves 34% of the write power compared to the conventional SRAM. An SRAM chip with 8 K/spl times/32 bits is fabricated in a 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS process. It consumes 26 mW read power and 28 mW write power at 200 MHz with 2.5 V.     

A new low-power 10T SRAM cell with improved read SNM

This paper describes the characteristics of a new 10T structure for SRAM cell that works quite well in the sub-threshold region. This new architecture has good characteristics in write and read delay and energy compared with other new structures. This new 10T topology improves read static noise margin (SNM) and write operation speed with respect to other topologies in the same or even lower power consumption. The new topology has at least 13% lower power consumption compared with the best of recent architectures. Its write characteristics also are similar to those of 6T-SRAM, which has improved write delay and energy. The new 10T SRAM cell also consumes lower power compared with other cells. The stacking is used to suppress the standby leakage through the read path. The simulations were performed using HSPICE 2011 in a 16 nm bulk CMOS Berkeley predictive technology model (BPTM).     

A robust and low-power near-threshold SRAM in 10-nm FinFET technology

This paper presents a robust and low-power single-ended robust 11T near-threshold SRAM cell in 10-nm FinFET technology. The proposed cell eliminates write disturbance and enhances write performance by disconnecting the path between cross-coupled inverters during the write operation. FinFETs suffer from width quantization, and SRAM performance is highly dependent to transistors sizing. The proposed structure with minimum sized tri-gate FinFETs operates without failure under major process variations. In addition, read disturbance is reduced by isolating the storage nodes during the read operations. To reduce power consumption this cell uses only one bit-line for both read and write operations. The proposed SRAM cell reduces write delay, average power and PDP by 20, 78 and 62%, respectively as compared to the 9T single-ended SRAM cell. Moreover, the proposed cell enhances write static noise margin by 33% under process variation.     

HMOS-CMOS-a low-power high-performance technology

HMOS-CMOS, a new high-performance bulk CMOS technology, is described. This technology builds on HMOS II, and features high resistivity p-substrate, diffused n-well and scaled n- and p-channel devices of 2-/spl mu/m channel length and 400-/spl Aring/ gate oxide thickness. The aggressive scaling of n and p devices results in 350-ps minimum gate delay and 0.04-pJ power delay product. HMOS-CMOS is a single poly technology suitable for microprocessor and static RAM applications. A 4K static RAM test vehicle is described featuring fully CMOS six-transistor memory cell, a chip size of 19600 mil/SUP 2/, 75 /spl mu/W standby power, data retention down to a V/SUB cc/ voltage of 1.5 V and a minimum chip select and address access time of 25 ns.     

Widely tunable low-power high-linearity current-mode integrator built using DG-MOSFETs

A novel tunable current-mode integrator for low-voltage low-power applications is presented using mixed-mode TCAD simulations. The design is based on independently driven double-gate (IDDG) MOSFETs, a nano-scale four-terminal device, where one gate can be used to change the characteristics of the other. Using current-mirrors built with IDDG-MOSFETs, we show that the number of active devices in the tunable current-mode integrator, 16 in bulk CMOS design, may be halved, i.e. considerable savings in both total area and power dissipation. The integrator operates with single supply voltage of 1 V and a wide range of tunable bandwidth (~2 decades) and gain (~30 dB). This linear circuit has third-order harmonic distortion as low as ?70 dB in appropriate bias conditions, which can be set via the back-gates. The impact of tuning on the IDDG integrator and conventional design using symmetrically driven (SDDG) MOSFETs is comparatively studied. The proposed design is a good example for performance leverage through IDDG MOSFET architectures in analog circuits integral to future mixed-signal systems.     

A high-performance low-power CMOS AGC for GPS application

In this paper, a wide tuning range, low power CMOS automatic gain control (AGC) with a simple architecture is proposed. The proposed AGC is composed of variable gain amplifier (VGA), comparator and charge pump, and the dB-linear gain is controlled by charge pump. The AGC was implemented in a 0.18um CMOS technology. The dynamic range of the VGA is more than 55dB, the bandwidth is 30MHz and the gain error lower than ±1.5dB over the full temperature and gain ranges. It is designed for GPS application and is fed from a single 1.8V power supply. The AGC power consumption is less than 5mW and area of the AGC is 700*450um2.     

A high-performance, low-power complementary coupled BiCMOS circuit

Reported is a new complementary technique of full-swing BiCMOS circuit design which, though employs a p-n-p, allows the use of n-p-n-only drivers. The simulated results of this new circuit compare favorably among several representative BiCMOS circuits     

A high-performance low-power CMOS AGC for GPS application

A wide tuning range, low power CMOS automatic gain control (AGC) with a simple architecture is proposed. The proposed AGC is composed of a variable gain amplifier (VGA), a comparator and a charge pump, and the dB-linear gain is controlled by the charge pump. The AGC was implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The dynamic range of the VGA is more than 55 dB, the bandwidth is 30 MHz, and the gain error is lower than ±1.5 dB over the full temperature and gain ranges. It is designed for GPS application and is fed from a single 1.8 V power supply.The AGC power consumption is less than 5 mW, and the area of the AGC is 700 × 450 μm~2.     

NBTI product level reliability for a low-power SRAM technology

We present a methodology to investigate product level NBTI reliability for the 90 nm technology node including the correlation between transistor, circuit, and product level NBTI reliability. NBTI reliability lifetime, dielectric breakdown, and gate leakage currents pose an important limitation to the maximum applicable supply voltage across the gate oxide. Product standby currents and regulator design are highly influenced by transistor reliability. We will present product reliability data ensuring sufficient product level reliability as well as their correlation attempts to transistor level reliability data.     

A current-mode bit-block circuit applicable to low-voltage, low-power pipeline video-speed A/D converters

This paper describes a study to determine if a current-mode circuit is useful as an analog circuit technique for realizing submicron mixed analog-and-digital MOS LSIs. To examine this, we designed and circuit simulated a new current-mode ADC bit-block for a 3 V, 10-bit level, 20 MHz ADC with a pipeline architecture and with full current-mode approach. A new precision current-mode sample-and-hold circuit which enables operation of a bit block at a clock speed of 20 MHz was developed. Current mismatches caused by the poor output impedance of a device were also decreased by adopting a cascode configuration throughout the design. Operation with a 3 V power supply and a 20 MHz clock speed in a 3-bit A/D configuration was verified through circuit simulation using standard CMOS 0.6 m device parameters. Gain error, mismatch of current, and linearity of the bit block with changing threshold voltage of a device were carefully examined. The bit block has a gain error of 0.2% (10-bit level), a linearity error of less than 0.1% (more than 10-bit level), and a current mismatch of DAC current sources in a bit cell of 0.2 to 0.4% (more than 8-bit level) with a 3 V power supply and 20 MHz clock speed. An 8-to 9-bit video-speed pipeline ADC can be realized without calibration. This confirms that the current-mode approach is effective.     

A low-power high-performance digital predistorter for wideband power amplifiers

In this paper, we present a low-power high-performance digital predistorter (DPD) for the linearization of wideband RF power amplifiers (PAs). It is based on the novel FIR memory polynomial (FIR-MP) predistorter model, which significantly augments the performance of the conventional memory polynomial predistorter with the use of complex baseband digital FIR filter prior to the memory polynomial. The adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) performance comparison between the conventional MP and the proposed FIR-MP is done based on simulations with multi-carrier modulated signals of 20 and 80 MHz bandwidths. The PA models used for the simulations are extracted from the measurements of a commercial \(1\,\hbox {W}\) GaAs HBT PA. At the ideal system-level simulations, the improvements in ACLR over the conventional MP are 7.2  and 15.6 dB, respectively, for 20 and 80 MHz signals. The choice of selection of various parameters of the predistorter along with the subsequent digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented. The impact of fixed-point representation is assessed using ACLR metrics, which shows that a wordlength of 14 bits is sufficient to obtain ACLR beyond \(45\,\hbox {dBc}\) with a margin of \(10\,\hbox {dB}\). The proposed predistorter is synthesized in \(28\,\hbox {nm}\) fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) CMOS process. It is shown that with a fraction of the power and die area of that of the MP a huge improvement in ACLR is attained. With an overall power consumption of 8.2 and 88.8 mW, respectively, for 20 and 80 MHz signals, the FIR-MP DPD proves to be a suitable candidate for small-cell base station PA linearization.     

A low-power, high-performance, 1024-point FFT processor

This paper presents an energy-efficient, single-chip, 1024-point fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor. The 460000-transistor design has been fabricated in a standard 0.7 μm (L_poly=0.6 μm) CMOS process and is fully functional on first-pass silicon. At a supply voltage of 1.1 V, it calculates a 1024-point complex FFT in 330 μs while consuming 9.5 mW, resulting in an adjusted energy efficiency more than 16 times greater than the previously most efficient known FFT processor. At 3.3 V, it operates at 173 MHz-which is a clock rate 2.6 times greater than the previously fastest rate