Modelling and mitigation of single-event upset in CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator

Single-event effects (SEEs) have been the primary concern in study of radiation effects since late 1970s with the discovery of soft errors in terrestrial and space environments. The interaction of a single ionized particle with electronic devices leads to SEEs. In this paper, single-event upset (SEU) on CMOS devices in designing of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is analysed. Further, mitigation approaches of SEU are also discussed. To observe the impact of radiation, a VCO was designed in Cadence Virtuoso, and GDSII file of one ring oscillator stage was extracted to incorporate the same design in Silvaco MaskViews. With the help of layer map information file, masks were identified and used to design the CMOS inverter structure file for simulation of SEU condition. The input parameters for SEU simulation were evaluated from linear energy transfer (LET) graph of heavy ion under space conditions. The current profile of CMOS inverter was extracted under influence of a high-energy particle with the help of LET graph of that particle. This current profile was applied to different nodes of VCO and upset conditions were identified. Further, the impact of upset conditions on lock stage of phase-locked loop (PLL) is discussed. Results show that the SEU has significant impact on the logic state of inverters used in ring oscillator stage compared with current starving/biasing stage. The current profile of CMOS device has strong dependence on the energy of ion, its track, angle of incidence and the material. When angle of incidence is very less (\(7^{\circ }-14^{\circ }\)) the channel will be occupied by a funnel of charge and it leads to the maximum degradation of device. This work shows that a device operating at high frequency is more susceptible to SEU. Triple modular redundancy (TMR) and Radiation Hardened By Design (RHBD) can be used to mitigate SEU. TMR consumes more power and is less accurate compared with the RHBD approach.     

Circuit co-simulation and measurement techniques applied to voltage-controlled oscillator design

A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) was designed for operation in C-band for use in a microwave pointto- point radio system. Microstrip technology was chosen for resonator implementation since it offers ease of manufacturing and frequency adjustment. The design was performed using an electromagnetic harmonic balance co-design technique in conjunction with linear analysis in order to achieve first pass success. Emphasis in this work is the ability to use multiple design approaches and test techniques while validating in advance with co-simulation. The measured frequency against tune voltage data shows excellent agreement with simulation. Maximum deviation of 2% between the two was observed. The VCO tuned from 4.3 to 5.4 GHz as the tuning voltage was varied from 0 to 9 V representing a tuning bandwidth in excess of 20%. Power dissipation is 150 mW. Phase noise over the tune range was better than 2108 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. The oscillator design efficiency, applicable to wider tune range designs, is greater than 2%. The hybrid oscillator figure-of-merit functions evaluated in this work exceeded comparable silicon-integrated implementations.     

Tunable metallic conductance in ferroelectric nanodomains

Metallic conductance in charged ferroelectric domain walls was predicted more than 40 years ago as the first example of an electronically active homointerface in a nonconductive material. Despite decades of research on oxide interfaces and ferroic systems, the metal-insulator transition induced solely by polarization charges without any additional chemical modification has consistently eluded the experimental realm. Here we show that a localized insulator-metal transition can be repeatedly induced within an insulating ferroelectric lead-zirconate titanate, merely by switching its polarization at the nanoscale. This surprising effect is traced to tilted boundaries of ferroelectric nanodomains, that act as localized homointerfaces within the perovskite lattice, with inherently tunable carrier density. Metallic conductance is unique to nanodomains, while the conductivity of extended domain walls and domain surfaces is thermally activated. Foreseeing future applications, we demonstrate that a continuum of nonvolatile metallic states across decades of conductance can be encoded in the size of ferroelectric nanodomains using electric field.     

Tunable microwave filters with controlled ferroelectric capacitors

Microwave microstrip resonators and filters controlled by ferroelectric capacitors have been simulated and experimentally studied. Control at room temperature and under cryogenic conditions has been ensured by capacitors based on BSTO and STO films, respectively. Cooled devices based on YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ high-temperature superconducting films have been fabricated. The developed filters are efficiently tuned by applying a control voltage, are small, and have a low level of introduced losses.     

Low power design of CMOS 5-GHz voltage-controlled oscillator from narrowband to wideband with switching capacitor module

In this study, we demonstrated low power and low phase noise of the complementary cross-coupled voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). Two chips are implemented by TSMC standard 0.18-mum complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The first one that employed a memory reduction tail transistor technique is operated from 5.17 to 5.85 GHz at a supply voltage of 1.2 V whereas its tuning range is 12.3%. The power consumption is 1.8 mW whereas the measured phase noise is -126.6 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz frequency offset from 5.17 GHz. The other employed switching capacitor modules to achieve wide tuning range and minimise phase noise, it operated from 3.64 to 5.37 GHz with 38% tuning range. The power consumption is 13.7 mW by a 1.8 V supply voltage and the measured phase noise in all tuning ranges is less than -122 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz frequency offset.     

A capacitor-based device for the measurement of shaft torque

This paper describes a capacitor technique for the measurement of torque in a rotating shaft. The passive rotating part incorporates a capacitor bridge which is connected capacitively to the static part. This device is simple in operation and is relatively easy to manufacture     

Tunable optical oscillator based on a DFB-MQW laser and a fiber loop reflector

In this paper, we report experimental results on the frequency control of an optical oscillator based on a single-cavity DFB-MQW laser and a fiber loop reflector. Self-pulsation frequency can be controlled by changing the step amplitude of the laser bias current.     

2.45 GHz 0.8 mW voltage-controlled ring oscillator (VCRO) in 28 nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) technology

MOS bulk transistor is reaching its limits: sub-threshold slope (SS), drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL), threshold voltage (VT) and VDD scaling slowing down, more power dissipation, less speed gain, less accuracy, variability and reliability issues. Fully depleted devices are mandatory to continue the technology roadmap. FDSOI technology relies on a thin layer of silicon that is over a buried oxide (BOx). Called ultra thin body and buried oxide (UTBB) transistor, FDSOI transistors correspond to a simple evolution from conventional MOS bulk transistor. The capability to bias the back-gate allows us to implement calibration techniques without adding transistors in critical blocks. We have illustrated this technique on a very low power voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) based on a ring oscillator (RO) designed in 28 nm FDSOI technology. Despite the fact that such VCO topology exhibits a larger phase noise, this design will address aggressively the size and power consumption reduction. Indeed we are using the efficient back-gate biasing offered by the FDSOI MOS transistor to compensate the mismatches between the different inverters of the ring oscillator to decrease jitter and phase noise. We will present the reasons which led us to use the FDSOI technology to reach the specifications of this PLL. The VCRO exhibits a 0.8 mW power consumption, with a phase noise about --94 dBc/Hz@1 MHz.     

Tunable single-mode operation of a pulsed optical parametric oscillator pumped by a multimode laser

High-quality single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) tunable signal radiation is generated by a pulsed optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a compact, inexpensive multimode laser. The OPO is based on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) in a ring cavity that is injection seeded at its resonated signal wavelength by a single-mode tunable diode laser. Accurate control of the OPO cavity length and crystal temperature ensures a continuously tunable SLM signal output frequency range of >7.5 THz (>250 cm(-1)); the corresponding idler output remains multimode. High-resolution molecular spectra are recorded to verify OPO performance at wavelengths of ~1.55 mum. The observed signal optical bandwidth of 相似文献   

Molecularly inherent voltage-controlled conductance switching

Molecular electronics has been proposed as a pathway for high-density nanoelectronic devices. This pathway involves the development of a molecular memory device based on reversible switching of a molecule between two conducting states in response to a trigger, such as an applied voltage. Here we demonstrate that voltage-triggered switching is indeed a molecular phenomenon by carrying out studies on the same molecule using three different experimental configurations-scanning tunnelling microscopy, crossed-wire junction, and magnetic-bead junction. We also demonstrate that voltage-triggered switching is distinctly different from stochastic switching, essentially a transient (time-dependent) phenomenon that is independent of the applied voltage.     

Tunable continuous-wave doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator by use of a semimonolithic KTP crystal

A temperature-tuned continuous-wave doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) consisting of a semimonolithic KTP crystal and a concave mirror has been designed and built. Under single-axial-mode-pair operation, we obtained a combined output power of the signal and idler light fields up to 365 mW at a pump power of 680 mW. The output wavelength of the OPO can be temperature tuned by as much as 9 nm. We achieved 2.8-GHz continuous frequency tuning of the OPO by tuning the pump laser frequency.     

应力对铁电薄膜电滞回线及蝶形曲线的影响

应用与时间有关的Ginzburg- Landau方程(time dependent Ginzburg-Landau,简称TDGL方程),在考虑表面效应的条件下分析了应力对外延铁电薄膜铁电性能的影响.计算结果显示剩余极化强度值随着压应力的增加而增加,随着张应力的增加而减小.场致应变值随着压应力的增加而增加,随着张应力的增加而减小.这种变化趋势与实验结果是一致的.考虑表面效应计算得到的剩余极化强度值小于不考虑表面效应时计算得到的数值(当外推长度＞0时).     

Magnetic ferroelectric materials

In the form of a succinct overview the structure and symmetry requirements of magnetic ferroelectrics are discussed. Boracites are the best-studied examples and have phases being simultaneously ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and ferroelastic. One of the salient features of such materials is the obligatory occurrence of the linear and bilinear magnetoelectric effects. They represent an invaluable auxiliary information for magnetic symmetry determination by neutron diffraction. Owing to the complexity of property combinations, work with single crystals and polarized light microscopy is obligatory. Key references of the field are given.     

Numerical analysis of ferroelectric/ferroelastic domain switching in ferroelectric ceramics

A numerical approach predicting the behavior of ferroelectric ceramics under electric field and mechanical loading is proposed in this paper. In the model, macroscopic properties of ferroelectric ceramics are determined by microscopic structures. Ferroelectric ceramics are seen to be composed of many domains with different orientations, and domain switching is the source of the nonlinear constitutive behavior of the ferroelectric ceramics. Numerical calculations based on the model were carried out, and the computational results are compared with the experimental results, which shows the two sets of results consist with each other. The calculation approach can provide a guidance for the ceramics component design.     

From normal ferroelectric transition to relaxor behavior in Aurivillius ferroelectric ceramics

The influence of the barium concentration on the dielectric response of Sr_1?x Ba _x Bi₂Nb₂O₉ system, with x = 0, 15, 30, 50, 70, 85, 100 at.%, has been studied. The barium concentration dependence of T _m, as well as the temperature of the corresponding maximum for the real part of the dielectric permittivity, has suggested a cation site mixing among atomic positions, which has been supported by the structural analysis. A transition from normal ferroelectric–paraelectric phase transition to a relaxor behavior has been observed in the studied samples, when the barium concentration has increased. The relaxor behavior has been discussed.     

Tunable superconducting nanoinductors

We characterize inductors fabricated from ultra-thin, approximately 100 nm wide strips of niobium (Nb) and niobium nitride (NbN). These nanowires have a large kinetic inductance in the superconducting state. The kinetic inductance scales linearly with the nanowire length, with a typical value of 1 nH μm(-1) for NbN and 44 pH μm(-1) for Nb at a temperature of 2.5 K. We measure the temperature and current dependence of the kinetic inductance and compare our results to theoretical predictions. We also simulate the self-resonant frequencies of these nanowires in a compact meander geometry. These nanowire inductive elements have applications in a variety of microwave frequency superconducting circuits.     

Tunable microfluidic microlenses

A novel type of liquid microlens, bounded by a microfabricated, distensible membrane and activated by a microfluidic liquid-handling system, is presented. By use of an elastomer membrane fabricated by spin coating onto a dry-etched silicon substrate, the liquid-filled cavity acts as a lens whereby applied pressure changes the membrane distension and thus the focal length. Both plano-convex and plano-concave lenses, individual elements as well as arrays, were fabricated and tested. The lens surface roughness was seen to be approximately 9 nm rms, and the focal length could be tuned from 1 to 18 mm. This lens represents a robust, self-contained tunable optical structure suitable for use in, for example, a medical environment.