A precision low-power analog front end in 180 nm CMOS for wireless implantable capacitive pressure sensors

This paper presents a new capacitance to voltage analog-front end (AFE) designed in 180 nm CMOS technology for wireless implantable applications. This AFE consists of a Low-dropout regulator (LDO), bandgap reference (BGR), switched-capacitor (SC) sampler, SC op-amp and oscillator. The LDO regulates the wireless power supply coming from an off-chip rectifier and provides a stable and accurate DC voltage. Capacitance is converted to a discrete voltage by a SC sampling circuit and then amplified by a SC op-amp. Both of SC sampling and SC op amp circuits form a correlated double sampling scheme. This AFE is designed to sense a capacitance range from 6 pF to 7 pF (300–1000 mmHg) corresponding to a 0.68 V–1.07 V discrete output voltage with a sampling frequency of 1.63 KHz. This AFE has a sensitivity of 0.39 mV/fF, average power consumption of 201 μW and 3.25% accuracy operating over a 2.1 V–3.3 V rectified wireless supply voltage and −40 °C ~125 °C temperature range.     

一种低压CMOS LDO稳压电源电路

提出了一种低压CMOS LDO稳压电源电路。与常规CMOS LDO稳压电源电路相比,该电路有两个主要特点:引入了低压带隙基准电路;将带隙基准电路置于串联稳压管后端。通过上述设计,提出的稳压电源电路能在输出电压较低的情况下提供较稳定的输出,同时也能提供稳定的偏置电压及具有较高PSRR的基准输出。对电路进行了仿真,并给出了仿真结果。     

Enhanced active feedback technique with dynamic compensation for low-dropout voltage regulator

This paper presents a novel frequency compensation technique for a low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulator. Enhanced active feedback frequency compensation is employed to improve the frequency response. The proposed LDO is capable of providing high stability for current loads up to 150 mA with or without loading capacitors. The proposed LDO voltage regulator provides a loop bandwidth of 7.8 MHz under light loads and 6.5 MHz under heavy loads. The maximum undershoot and overshoot are 59 and 90 mV, respectively, for changes in load current within a 200-ns edge time, while the compensation capacitors only require a total value of 7 pF. This enables easy integration of the compensation capacitors within the LDO chip. The proposed LDO regulator was designed using TSMC 0.35-μm CMOS technology. With an active area of 0.14 mm² (including feedback resistors), the quiescent current is only 40 μA. The input voltage ranges from 1.73 to 5 V for a loading current of 150 mA and an output voltage of 1.5 V. The main advantage of this approach is the stability of the LDO circuit when external load capacitors are connected, or even without load capacitors.     

A robust low quiescent current power receiver for inductive power transmission in bio implants

In this paper, a robust low quiescent current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) power receiver for wireless power transmission is presented. This power receiver consists of three main parts including rectifier, switch capacitor DC–DC converter and low-dropout regulator (LDO) without output capacitor. The switch capacitor DC–DC converter has variable conversion ratios and synchronous controller that lets the DC–DC converter to switch among five different conversion ratios to prevent output voltage drop and LDO regulator efficiency reduction. For all ranges of output current (0–10 mA), the voltage regulator is compensated and is stable. Voltage regulator stabilisation does not need the off-chip capacitor. In addition, a novel adaptive biasing frequency compensation method for low dropout voltage regulator is proposed in this paper. This method provides essential minimum current for compensation and reduces the quiescent current more effectively. The power receiver was designed in a 180-nm industrial CMOS technology, and the voltage range of the input is from 0.8 to 2 V, while the voltage range of the output is from 1.2 to 1.75 V, with a maximum load current of 10 mA, the unregulated efficiency of 79.2%, and the regulated efficiency of 64.4%.     

基于LDO电压调整器的带隙基准电压源设计

设计一款应用于电压调整器（LDO）的带隙基准电压源。电压基准是模拟电路设计必不可缺少的一个单元模块,带隙基准电压源为LDO提供一个精确的参考电压,是LDO系统设计关键模块之一。本文设计的带隙基准电压源采用0.5μm标准的CMOS工艺实现。为了提高电压抑制性,采用了低压共源共栅的电流镜结构,并且在基准内部设计了一个运算放大器,合理的运放设计进一步提高了电源抑制性。基于Cadence的Spectre进行前仿真验证,结果表明该带隙基准电压源具有较低的变化率、较小的温漂系数和较高的电源抑制比,其对抗电源变化和温度变化特性较好。     

A high voltage LDO with dynamic compensation network

A high voltage, low-dropout regulator (LDO) with dynamic compensation network is implemented in Nuvoton 0.6 μm BCD technology. The proposed HVLDO makes use of high voltage tolerance DMOS transistors to take most of the voltage press in each path, thus satisfying the requirement for wide input range. Besides, the proposed dynamic compensation network can achieve a great stability performance for the HVLDO structure under different load and input supply conditions. In addition, different output voltage is also implemented in this work and the transient response in each situation is also improved. Experimental result verifies that the proposed LDO is stable for a capacitive load of 1 μF and with a load capability of 30 mA. Moreover, the load transient measurements show that the maximum overshoot and undershoot voltage under a relative low supply are smaller than 83 and 103 mV, respectively; while the line transient measurements show that the output variation are within 50 mV among all circumstances. Besides, the measured quiescent current is only 8 μA under a 4 V supply.     

A high-PSR transient-enhanced output-capacitorless CMOS low-dropout regulator for SoC applications

A transient-enhanced output-capacitorless CMOS low-dropout voltage regulator (LDO) with high power supply rejection (PSR) is introduced for system-on-chip applications. In order to reduce external pin count and device area and be amenable to full integration, the large external capacitor used in the classical LDO design is eliminated and replaced with a much smaller 5.7?pF on-chip capacitor. High-gain folded-cascode stage, wideband common source stage, voltage subtractor stage and transient-enhanced circuit are designed altogether to realise circuit compensation and achieve good frequency and transient performances. A current-sensing and transient-enhanced circuit is utilised to reduce transient voltage dips effectively and efficiently drive different kinds of load capacitances. The active chip area of the proposed regulator is only 200?×?280?µm². The simulation results under mixed-signal 0.18?µm 1P6M process show that this novel LDO's output voltage can recover within 1.7?µs (rising) and 2.41?µs (falling) under full load-current changes. The input voltage is ranged from 2 to 5?V for a load current 50?mA and an output voltage of 1.8?V. This novel LDO has wide unity-gain frequency stability and is stable for estimated equivalent parasitic capacitive loads from 0 to 100?pF. Moreover, it can achieve a PSR of ?78.5 and ?73?dB at 1 and 10?kHz, respectively.     

基于LDO稳压器的带隙基准电压源的设计

基准模块是LDO线性稳压器的核心部分,它是影响稳压器精度的关键因素之一。本文针对LDO线性稳压器对基准模块一方面有较高的精度要求,另一方面又有较低静态电流要求的矛盾设计了一款简单实用的电压基准电路。仿真结果表明该电路在-40~140℃的温度系数为7.7′10-6℃,低频时的电源抑制比可达-76dB,基准源电路的供电电压范围为2~4.5V。     

Design and fabrication of 2.4 GHz pre-biased rectifier

A 2.4 GHz rectifier operating in a region of low RF input power was developed. The rectifier has a cross-coupled bridge configuration and is driven by a differential RF input signal. Since a rectifier needs an RF signal higher than the threshold voltage of transistors, we introduced a pre-biasing circuit to compensate for the threshold voltage. A low-voltage digital circuit, subthreshold voltage regulator, and low-power level shifter were introduced for reducing the power consumption of the pre-biasing circuit and increasing the driving voltage for the switches at the same time. The circuit simulations revealed that the pre-biasing circuit was effective in a low RF input power region. However, the output voltage was degraded in a high power region. Then, we combined the pre-biased rectifier in parallel with a non-biased rectifier. Three types of rectifiers consisting of LC matching circuits, three-stage rectifier cells, and biasing circuits were designed and fabricated using a 0.18-μm mixed signal/RF CMOS process with one poly and six metal layers. The fabricated pre-biased rectifier operated in a region of RF input power of less than ?15 dBm, while the non-biased rectifier could not operate in this region. The parallel combination of pre-biased and non-biased rectifiers effectively solved the drawback of the pre-biased rectifier in a high RF input power region.     

An Ultra-Low-Power Integrated RF Energy Harvesting System in 65-nm CMOS Process

In recent years, radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting systems have gained significant interest as inexhaustible replacements for traditional batteries in RF identification and wireless sensor network nodes. This paper presents an ultra-low-power integrated RF energy harvesting circuit in a SMIC 65-nm standard CMOS process. The presented circuit mainly consists of an impedance-matching network, a 10-stage rectifier with order-2 threshold compensation and an ultra-low-power power manager unit (PMU). The PMU consists of a voltage sensor, a voltage limiter and a capacitor-less low-dropout regulator. In the charge mode, the power consumption of the proposed energy harvesting circuit is only 97 nA, and the RF input power can be as low as \(-\)21.4 dBm \((7.24\,\upmu \hbox {W})\). In the burst mode, the device can supply a 1.0-V DC output voltage with a maximum 10-mA load current. The simulated results demonstrate that the modified RF rectifier can obtain a maximum efficiency of 12 % with a 915-MHz RF input. The circuit can operate over a temperature range from \(-40\hbox { to }125\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) which exceeds the achievable temperature performance of previous RF energy harvesters in standard CMOS process.     

一种用于LDO稳压器的共享预稳压电路

提出了一种用于LDO稳压器的共享预稳压电路.该共享预稳压电路中包含一个电源抑制减法电路以提高基准源的电源抑制,应用电流负反馈结构以降低基准源的温度系数和电源抑制随工艺阈值电压变化的敏感度,还可以降低LDO稳压器的输出噪声.仿真结果表明在阈值电压发生士20％变化的情况下,基准源的温度系数变化只有0.11×10-6/℃,电...     

A fast-transient high-PSR output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator for low-power embedded systems

A low-power fast-transient output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator (LDO) with high power-supply rejection (PSR) is presented in this paper. The proposed LDO utilizes a non-symmetrical class-AB amplifier as the input stage to improve the transient performances. Meanwhile, PSR enhancement circuit, which only consumes 0.2-µA quiescent current at light load, is utilized to form a feedforward cancellation path for improving PSR over wide frequency range. The LDO has been designed and simulated in a mixed signal 0.13-µm CMOS process. From the post simulation results, the LDO is capable of delivering 100-mA output current at 0.2-V dropout voltage, with 3.8-µA quiescent current at light load. The undershoot, the overshoot and the 1 % settling time of the proposed LDO with load current switching from 50 µA to 100 mA in 300 ns are about 100 mV, 100 mV and 1 µs, respectively. With the help of proposed PSR enhancement technique, the LDO achieves a PSR of ?69 dB at 100 kHz frequency for a 100-mA load current.     

LDO线性稳压器结构的改进

通过改进传统电路结构,设计出了一种低压差线性稳压器。通过解决系统上电所带来的一些问题,达到了低功耗的设计目的。给出了带隙基准源和误差放大器等关键电路的设计方法,采用和舰0．35μ mCMOS工艺模型Spice进行了仿真,验证了设计的正确性。     

A fully on-chip 1-μW capacitor-free low-dropout regulator with adaptive output stage

A fully on-chip 1-μW fast-transient response capacitor-free low-dropout regulator (LDO) using adaptive output stage (AOS) is presented in this paper in standard 0.13-μm CMOS process. The AOS circuit is proposed to deliver extra four times of output current of the operational amplifier at medium to heavy load to extend the bandwidth of the LDO and enhance the slew rate at the gate of the power transistor. And the AOS circuit is shut off at light load to reduce the quiescent current and maintain the stability without requiring area-consuming on-chip capacitor. Meanwhile, the proposed AOS circuit introduces V_OUT offset at medium to heavy load to counteract the V_OUT drop, which is caused by I_LOAD increase. Hence, transient performances of LDO and V_OUT drop between light load and full load are improved significantly with 1.1-μA quiescent current at light load. From the post simulation results, the LDO regulates the output voltage at 0.7 V from a 0.9-V supply voltage with a 100-mA maximum load current. The undershoot, the overshoot and the recovery time of the proposed LDO with I_LOAD switching from 50 μA to 100 mA in 1 μs are about 130 mV, 130 mV and 1.5 μs, respectively. And the V_OUT drop between light load and full load reduces to 0.16 mV.     

SKA用低频高效率整流电源的研制

平方公里阵列天文望远镜(Square Kilometer Array,SKA)是我国作为正式成员参加第二个国际大科学工程的项目。为了保证SKA系统中天线的信号检测精度,要求其供电电源采用工频工作方式。SKA天线要求供电电源的工作频率为50 Hz,交流输入为240 V,输出为4.5 V和80 A,对高效、低纹波以及高功率因数电源的研制提出了极大的挑战。采用隔离式低频数字驱动全波同步整流方式有效降低了整流损耗,提高了整机效率。设计了无源功率因数补偿电路提高了输入功率因数,同时利用晶闸管调压技术结合单片机控制实现了输出电压闭环调节。最后研制了一台工作频率为50 Hz,输出为4.5 V/80 A,整机效率为80.4%,输出电压纹波为137 mV,功率因数为0.937的样机,达到SKA天线用电源的供电要求。     

一种具有过温和短路保护的低压LDO设计

在分析各种低压LDO结构的基础上,设计了一款新型的基于0.18 μm CMOS工艺的LDO低压降线性电压调整器。该LDO电路采用了折叠低压带隙和折叠共源共栅结构的运放,采用密勒补偿以保证整体LDO的稳定性。具有很低的输入/输出电压差、超低的静态电流,良好的负载调整能力、线性调整能力和良好的电源抑制特性,此外,还具有过温保护和短路保护电路,保证电路的安全工作。该电路配以简单外部设备即可为各种电子产品提供灵活、高效、可靠的电源解决方案,大大降低了设计成本。     

一种高电源抑制比带隙基准源的设计

带隙基准源是LDO中的重要模块,其性能的好坏直接影响到LDO整个系统的性能,为此本文针对以上问题进行相关研究,设计一种具有较高的PSRR和较低的稳定输出电压的带隙基准电压源。文中结合工程实际的要求设计了一款具有高的电源抑制比（PSRR）、低的输出基准电压的带隙基准电压源。本设计采用SMIC公司的0.18μm工艺进行仿真,Hspice的仿真结果表明该基准源在电源抑制比（PSRR）、温度特性等方面有良好的性能。     

带新解调结构的UHF RFID标签低功耗模拟前端设计

基于ISO/IEC 18000-6C协议,对UHF无源电子标签模拟前端中的ASK解调电路、整流器、稳压电路等进行低功耗设计。解调电路中微分电路的加入扩大了解调电路工作范围,在解调电路近距离工作时,可以更有效地解调。整流电路采用了零阈值MOS管代替肖特基二极管,降低芯片成本。整流稳压电路可稳定地为芯片供电,供电电压2 V,建立时间仅为25μs。电路采用SMIC 0.18μm 2P4M CMOS工艺进行流片,芯片面积720μm×390μm。测试得到模拟前端整体工作电流仅2.4μA,标签工作距离大于7 m。     

Power harvesting with PZT ceramics and circuits design

Power generated from a piezoelectric material usually comes with poor characteristics such as high voltage, low current and high impedance. In order to drive the embedded sensor circuit, piezoelectric power needs to be characterized and regulated. In this paper, we present an analysis on the power generation characteristics and the efficiency of power conversion of the stiff lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics. Moreover, a power circuit design is put forward in the application where PZT elements are used for power generation in a TKR implant. A hybrid direct current (DC)–DC, comprising a switched capacitor (SC) DC–DC converter and a low dropout (LDO) linear voltage regulator, is presented. The variable ratio SC converter has been taped out with 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The test results show that the SC converter can transfer the input voltage that ranges from 5 to 14 V from the PZT ceramics into the voltage ranging from 2 to 2.5 V which will be dealt with by LDO circuit whose efficiency can reach 80%.     

一款采用超前相位补偿技术的低压差线性稳压器

设计了一种具有高稳定性、能够驱动较大负载电流的低压差线性稳压器(LDO)电路,输入电压为3.0~6.0 V,输出电压为2.8 V。采用超前相位补偿技术,产生一组零极点对,零点补偿前面环路中的极点,使得LDO电路具有稳定的环路结构,得到稳定的输出电压。基于CSMC 0.25μm EN BCDMOS工艺完成电路和版图的设计。电路仿真结果表明电路的负载调整率为0.03%/A,线性调整率为0.13%/V,最大驱动的负载电流为10 mA。在不同负载条件下,LDO环路的最差相位裕度能够达到64.1°。