A 5.8 GHz Low Noise Amplifier for Wireless LAN Applications in Silicon Bipolar Technology

A monolithic integrated low-noise amplifier for operation in the 5.8-GHzband is described. Two different versions have been implemented where the biasing wasadapted to allow operation over a different range of supply voltage. At 5-V, theamplifiers gain is about 17-dB, with a noise figure of 4.2-dB and 1-dB compressionpoint at –15-dBm input power. The circuits have been designed utilizing a0.6-micron silicon bipolar production technology, featuring npn transistors with and of about20-GHz.     

The Design of a 2-V 900-MHz CMOS Bandpass Amplifier

A 900 MHz low-power CMOS bandpassamplifier suitable for the applications of RFfront-end in wireless communication receiversis proposed and analyzed. In this design, thetemperature compensation circuit is used tostabilize the amplifier gain so that theoverall amplifier has a good temperaturestability. Moreover, the compact tunablepositive-feedback circuit is connected to theintegrated spiral inductor to generate thenegative resistance and enhance its value. The simple diode varactor circuit isadopted for center-frequency tuning. These twoimproved circuits can reduce the powerdissipation of the amplifier. An experimentalchip fabricated by 0.5 mdouble-poly-double-metal CMOS technologyoccupies a chip area of ; chip area. The measuredresults have verified the performance of thefabricated CMOS bandpass amplifier. Under a2-V supply voltage, the measured quality factoris tunable between 4.5 and 50 and the tunablefrequency range is between 845 MHz and 915 MHz. At , the measured is 20 dB whereas thenoise figure is 5.2 dB in the passband. Thegain variation is less than 4 dB in the rangeof 0–80^°C. The dc powerdissipation is 35 mW. Suitable amplifier gain,low power dissipation, and good temperaturestability make the proposed bandpass amplifierquite feasible in RF front-endapplications.     

A Fully Integrated, Low Noise and Low Power BiCMOS Front-end Readout System for Capacitive Detectors

Bipolar transistors are interesting for low noise front-end readout systems when high speed and low power consumption are required. This paper presents a fully integrated, low noise front-end design for the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments using the radiation hard SOI BiCMOS process. In the present prototype, the input-referred Equivalent Noise Charge (ENC) of 990 electrons (rms) for 12 pF detector capacitance with a shaping time of 25 ns and power consumption of 1.4 mW/channel has been measured. The gain of this front-end is 90 mV/MIP (Minimum Ionisation Particle: 1 fC) with non-linearity of less than 3% and linear input dynamic range is MIP. These results are obtained at room temperature and before irradiation. The measurements after irradiations by high intensity pion beam with an integrated flux of pions/cm² are also presented in this paper.     

Optimizing CMOS Transconductor-C Filters for Low Power Wide Band Operation

A novel figure of merit to describe the bandwidth power efficiency of CMOS transconductors— is proposed and optimized for cross-coupled differential pair transconductor structures. The optimization is done in two different ways: univariable unconstrained and multivariable constrained. It is revealed that not only dc biases but also ac input phases can affect the bandwidth power efficiency of the transconductor. The bias voltages which can lead to best ratio at different ac phase combinations are obtained and presented in the article. HSPICE simulations are conducted to verify the theoretical predictions. On the basis of the cross-coupled differential pair transconductor, a biquadratic transconductor-C filter configuration is implemented. The frequency vs. power characteristic of the filter is studied for both optimally- and non-optimally-biased transconductor. It is shown that the optimization of the transconductor structure can result in performance improvement of the transconductor-C filter. The deviation of the optimal bias condition between the transconductor alone and the transconductor-C filter due to the inclusion of peripheray circuitries in the filter is discussed in the article.     

A Symbolic Circuit Analysis-Oriented Algorithm for Finding a Common Tree of the Current and Voltage Graphs

A fundamental problem of symbolic analysis of electric networks when using the signal-flow (SFG) graph method is to find the common tree of the current and voltage graph ( and , respectively). In this paper we introduce a novel method in order to determine a common tree of both graphs, which may be used to obtain the symbolic network transfer function when carrying out the small-signal analysis of linear(ised) circuits.     

Statistical Design of the Four-MOSFET Structure

The statistical design of the four-MOSFET structure is presented in this paper. The quantitative measure of the effect of mismatch between the four transistors on nonlinearity and offset current is provided through contours. Statistical optimization of the transistor and values is demonstrated. The four-MOSFET structure was fabricated through the MOSIS 2 m process using MOS transistor Level-3 model parameters. Experimental results are included in the paper.     

Finite-Memory Systems

Let K be a field, k and n positive integers and let matrices with coefficients in K. For any function

A CMOS Monolithic Image-Reject Filter

A CMOS inductorless image-reject filter based on active RLC circuitry is discussed and designed with the emphasis on low-noise, low-power, and gigahertz-range circuits. Two -enhancement techniques are utilized to circumvent the low characteristics inherent in the simple feedback circuit. The frequency tuning is almost independent of tuning, facilitating the design of the automatic tuning circuitry. The stability and the tuning scheme of the filter are also discussed. Simulations using 0.6 m CMOS technology demonstrate the feasibility of the tunable image-reject filter for GSM wireless applications. Simulation results show 4.75 dB voltage gain, 9.5 dB noise figure, and –20 dBm IIP3 at a passband centered at 947 MHz. The image signal suppression is 60 dB at 1089 MHz and the power consumption is 27 mW.     

Planar defects and double-domain epitaxy in epitaxial YSi<Subscript>2−x</Subscript> and ErSi<Subscript>2−x</Subscript> thin films on Si substrates

Interfacial reactions of Y and Er thin films on both (111)Si and (001)Si have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Epitaxial rare-earth (RE) silicide films were grown on (111)Si. Planar defects, identified to be stacking faults on planes with 1/6 displacement vectors, were formed as a result of the coalescence of epitaxial silicide islands. Double-domain epitaxy was found to form in RE silicides on (001)Si samples resulting from a large lattice mismatch along one direction and symmetry conditions at the silicide/(001)Si interfaces. The orientation relationships are [0001]RESi_2−x// Si, RESi_2−x//(001)Si and [0001]RESi_2−x/ Si, RESi_2−x//(001)Si. The density of staking faults in (111) samples and the domain size in (001) samples were found to decrease and increase with annealing temperature, respectively.     

A DDS Synthesizer with Digital Time Domain Interpolator

A DDS type circuit structure for producing numericallyprogrammable square wave clock signal is presented. The high speed D/Aconverter needed in conventional DDS systems is replaced by an tap delay line time domain interpolator thateffectively increases the sampling rate by a factor of . Thus the circuit can be used up to full clock rate withoutimage filtering. A prototype IC with clock frequency of 30 MHz, 5 bitinterpolator and SFDR of –40 dBc up to 10 MHz and –33 dBcup to 15 MHz has been designed and tested.     

Current-Mode High Output Impedance Multifunction Filters Employing Minimum Number of FTFNs

In this study, five current-mode FTFN-based multifunction filters are proposed, which realize the same transfer functions in ideal case. All circuits employ two capacitors and three resistors. For each circuit R-C:C-R transformation increases the number of realization possibilities to ten. The proposed topologies simultaneously realize three basic filtering functions using minimum number of FTFNs and provide high output impedances that enable easy cascading in current mode. Sensitivity analysis of the filters show that they have low passive sensitivities, and of the filters are insensitive to current tracking errors, furthermore of the filters are insensitive to voltage tracking errors of the FTFNs. The proposed circuits do not require component matching condition except for notch and allpass responses and permit independent adjustment of without disturbing . Experimental and simulation results are given to verify the theoretical analyses.     

On the Use of Symbolic Analyzers in Circuit Synthesis

In this paper several examples of circuits obtained with an automatic synthesis algorithm will be shown. The algorithm, described in a companion paper [1] and outlined here for clarity, has been implemented in the Mathematica language. We applied the new algorithm to classical problems of inmittance synthesis, obtaining well known topologies and also non-reported structures. When the algorithm is applied to challenging new problems, novel and practically useful inmittances are synthesized.     

A Low-Power 100 MHz Analog FIR Filter for PRML Equalization

This paper presents design of a low-power 100 MHz analog FIR filter for PRML equalization used in the read channel of hard disk drives. The chip consists of 16 channels to provide 15-tap FIR filter operation. By using rotating clocks for sample/hold operation with one dummy channel, timing constraints can be relieved, which results in low-power consumption. The chip incorporates the parallel array of sample-and-hold amplifiers for analog delay line. The sample-and-hold amplifier includes the open-loop unity-gain amplifier with gain-control circuit using replica-biasing scheme, which also improves uniformity among amplifiers. It was fabricated in a 0.8-m CMOS technology and consumes power of 200 mW for V power supply voltage.     

A Sub-Micron CMOS Programmable Charge Pump for Implantable Pacemaker

In pacemaker design the mainconcerns are reliability, functionality,operating life and miniaturization. Afundamental role in miniaturization is dueto the increased circuit integration; hencelow power circuit solutions that can beintegrated in sub-micron CMOS technology arehighly desirable. This work proposes avoltage multiplier suitable for pulse outputgeneration in an implantable pacemaker,implemented in a standard, low-cost CMOS 0.8 m technology. The circuit can operatewithin a supply voltage range of 2.8 V to 2V, corresponding to the voltage capabilityprovided by the single lithium iodine cell,ubiquitously used in pacemaker. Fineprogrammability of the output has beenachieved, thus allowing the choice of theoptimum tradeoff between stimulationefficacy and battery longevity. Moreover theproposed solution takes care of minimizingthe parasitic coupling and disturbancesbetween the charge pump and other blocks inthe system. Finally the measured steady statecurrent consumption is smaller than .     

BIBO Stability of D-Dimensional Filters

Consider the class of d-dimensional causal filters characterized by a d-variate rational function analytic on the polydisk . The BIBO stability of such filters has been the subject of much research over the past two decades. In this paper we analyze the BIBO stability of such functions and prove necessary and sufficient conditions for BIBO stability of a d-dimensional filter. In particular, we prove if a d-variate filter H(z) analytic on has a Fourier expansion that converges uniformly on the closure of , then H(z) is BIBO stable. This result proves a long standing conjecture set forth by Bose in [3].     

On the Scalability of 2-D Discrete Wavelet Transform Algorithms

The ability of a parallel algorithm to make efficient use of increasing computational resources is known as its scalability. In this paper, we develop four parallel algorithms for the 2-dimensional Discrete Wavelet Transform algorithm (2-D DWT), and derive their scalability properties on Mesh and Hypercube interconnection networks. We consider two versions of the 2-D DWT algorithm, known as the Standard (S) and Non-standard (NS) forms, mapped onto P processors under two data partitioning schemes, namely checkerboard (CP) and stripped (SP) partitioning. The two checkerboard partitioned algorithms (Non-standard form, NS-CP), and as (Standard form, S-CP); while on the store-and-forward-routed (SF-routed) Mesh and Hypercube they are scalable as (NS-CP), and as (S-CP), respectively, where M ² is the number of elements in the input matrix, and (0,1) is a parameter relating M to the number of desired octaves J as . On the CT-routed Hypercube, scalability of the NS-form algorithms shows similar behavior as on the CT-routed Mesh. The Standard form algorithm with stripped partitioning (S-SP) is scalable on the CT-routed Hypercube as M ² = (P ²), and it is unscalable on the CT-routed Mesh. Although asymptotically the stripped partitioned algorithm S-SP on the CT-routed Hypercube would appear to be inferior to its checkerboard counterpart S-CP, detailed analysis based on the proportionality constants of the isoefficiency function shows that S-SP is actually more efficient than S-CP over a realistic range of machine and problem sizes. A milder form of this result holds on the CT- and SF-routed Mesh, where S-SP would, asymptotically, appear to be altogether unscalable.     

A kinetic study of structured surface relief patterning of GaP (\bar 1\bar 1\bar 1)

Orientation dependent etching of photolithographically patterned GaP was investigated using solutions of HCl:CH₃COOH:H₂O₂. The pattern was prepared using standard ultraviolet lithography and was a two-dimensional grid with an 18 μm repeat, consisting of 15 μm squares separated by 3 μm spaces. The mask sides were aligned along the and directions. Under appropriate etching conditions, high quality arrays of pyramids were prepared. These pyramids were defined by , and facets. It was shown that the etching process depended on the degree of solution aging after initial mixing. For a freshly prepared solution, the etching rate showed an inverse dependence on time. For short etching times (below 5 min), an intermediate etching profile was followed, while for long times (greater than 5 min) etching was kinetically controlled. We demonstrated that controlled etching at extremely low rates (0.1–0.5 μm/min) is feasible with this new approach.     

Generalization of a Theorem for Replacing CCIIs by CFOAs in Current-Mode Circuits

A current feedback op-amp (CFOA) has the advantage that feedback structures in current-mode circuits are more easily devised because the voltage buffer at the output of the CFOA does not load the output of the integral positive, second-generation current conveyor (CCII⁺) that constitutes part of the CFOA. In this paper, the changes on the current mode transfer function of a linear circuit composed of a subnetwork connected to a CCII⁺ are determined when the CCII⁺ is replaced by a CFOA and a feedback component is connected from the output of the CFOA to an independent node of . Two applications of the results are provided. A new theorem is then presented which generalizes the results. This theorem should be useful for the comparison, synthesis, and improvement of linear current-mode signal processing circuits.     

Effect of off-orientation of seed crystal on silicon carbide (SiC) single-crystal growth on the (11 $$\bar 2$$ 0) surface0) surface

The effect of off-orientation growth has been investigated in terms of stacking fault formation during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals on the (11 0) seed crystal surface. Occurrence of stacking fault formation is largely dependent on the direction of off-orientation, and basal plane stacking fault density is significantly reduced by growing the crystals on a (11 0) seed crystal off-oriented toward 〈0001〉. The density of the basal plane stacking faults rapidly decreases from 100–150 cm⁻¹ to ∼10 cm⁻¹ as the degree of off-orientation is increased from 0 to 10 deg. The results are interpreted in the framework of microscopic facet formation during PVT growth, and the introduction of off-orientation of seed crystal is assumed to prevent (01 0) and (10 0) microfacet formation on the (11 0) growing surface through modification of the surface growth kinetics and to suppress the stacking fault formation. An erratum to this article is available at .