A transimpedance CMOS multichannel amplifier with a 50 Ω-wideoutput range buffer for high counting rate applications

A fast transimpedance multichannel amplifier has been designed, fabricated in CMOS 1.2-μm technology and tested. Each channel consists of a current sensitive preamplifier followed by a voltage amplification stage and an on-chip buffer able to drive 50 Ω loads with an output range of ±800 mV. Measured peaking time at the output is 40 ns and the circuit recovers to baseline in 90 ns. This results in a counting capability of more than 10⁷ hits/s, Signals of both polarities can be handled. The first two stages consume a total of 2 mW per channel and the 50 Ω buffer consumes another 17 mW. The equivalent noise charge (ENC) is 1100 e^- rms with a slope of 40e^-/pF. The IC is intended for use in gas and solid-state detectors with high particle rate and extensive charge release as in high energy calorimetry     

A single-chip digitally calibrated 5.15-5.825-GHz 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS transceiver for 802.11a wireless LAN

The drive for cost reduction has led to the use of CMOS technology in the implementation of highly integrated radios. This paper presents a single-chip 5-GHz fully integrated direct conversion transceiver for IEEE 802.11a WLAN systems, manufactured in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS. The IC features an innovative system architecture which takes advantage of the computing resources of the digital companion chip in order to eliminate I/Q mismatch and achieve accurately matched baseband filters. The integrated voltage-controlled oscillator and synthesizer achieve an integrated phase noise of less than 0.8/spl deg/ rms. The receiver has an overall noise figure of 5.2 dB and achieves sensitivity of -75 dBm at 54-Mb/s operation, both referred to the IC input. The transmit error vector magnitude is -33 dB at -5-dBm output power from the integrated power-amplifier driver amplifier. The transceiver occupies an area of 18.5 mm/sup 2/.     

CMOS tuners for mobile TV

Digital video reception is emerging as the latest feature toward multimedia-enriched handheld devices. Mobile battery-operated devices require small-size tuners that consume low power and are amenable to single-chip integration with the baseband demodulator. Following an overview of the system and circuit-level implementation challenges of mobile TV standards such as DVB-H and T-DMB, this article presents a dual-band direct conversion tuner for DVB-H. Architecture and circuit trade-offs are discussed, and detailed measurements are presented. The tuner occupies 9.7 mm² and achieves a 4 dB NF at both UHF and L-band, eliminating the need for an external LNA. By using a fractional-TV synthesizer both 470-890 MHz and 1.4-1.8 GHz bands are supported, while achieving an integrated phase noise of less than -41 dBc. Sixth-order low-pass filters support channel bandwidths from 4 to 10 MHz     

A dual-band 5.15-5.35-GHz, 2.4-2.5-GHz 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS transceiver for 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN

A single-chip dual-band 5.15-5.35-GHz and 2.4-2.5-GHz zero-IF transceiver for IEEE 802.11a/b/g WLAN systems is fabricated on a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. It utilizes an innovative architecture including feedback paths that enable digital calibration to help eliminate analog circuit imperfections such as transmit and receive I/Q mismatch. The dual-band receive paths feature a 4.8-dB (3.5-dB) noise figure at 5.25 GHz (2.45 GHz). The corresponding sensitivity at 54 Mb/s operation is -76 dBm for 802.11a and -77 dBm for 802.11g, both referred at the input of the chip. The transmit chain achieves output 1-dB compression at 6 dBm (9 dBm) at 5 GHz (2.4 GHz) operation. Digital calibration helps achieve an error vector magnitude (EVM) of -33 dB (-31 dB) at 5 GHz (2.4 GHz) while transmitting -4 dBm at 54Mb/s. The die size is 19.3 mm/sup 2/ and the power consumption is 260 mW for the receiver and 320 mW (270 mW) for the transmitter at 5 GHz (2.4 GHz) operation.     

A 65 nm CMOS Multistandard, Multiband TV Tuner for Mobile and Multimedia Applications

This paper presents a direct conversion, multistandard TV tuner implemented on a 65 nm digital CMOS process occupying less than 7 . The tuner is compliant with several digital terrestrial, fixed and mobile TV standards, including DVB-T, DVB-H, T-DMB, and ISDB-T. It achieves a 3/3.2/3.5 dB noise figure at VHF, UHF, and L-band, respectively, while the measured sensitivity at UHF for the QPSK-frac12 DVB-T mode is at the PCB connector. The implemented RF front-ends support both single-ended and differential inputs. An integrated - fractional-N synthesizer operating from 1.2 to 1.8 GHz achieves less than 1 integrated phase error, thus enabling a maximum SNR in excess of 37 dB for VHF and UHF. Multistandard capability is also enabled by programmable channel-select filters. Power consumption is less than 140 mW in DVB-T mode for all three bands.     

A Small Area Charge Sensitive Readout Chain with a Dual Mode of Operation

A charge sensitive readout chain has been designed and fabricated in acommercially available 0.8 m CMOS technology. The readout chain is optimizedfor pixel detectors measuring soft X-ray energies up to 20 KeV. In the first modean analog signal proportional to input charge is generated and processed in realtime. In the second mode a peak-and-hold operation is enabled and therelevant signal is processed in later time. This dual mode of operation iscontrolled by an external digital signal. The readout chain consists of a chargeamplifier, a shaper, an operational amplifier which can either operate as avoltage amplifier or a peak detector and an output buffer. Its area is . The gain at the shaper output is 378 mv/fC, theENC is 16 rms at 160 nsec shaping time. The overall gainis 557 mV/fC, the ENC is rms with 240 nsec peaking timeand 1.4 sec recovery time. The overall power dissipation is 1.5 mWatt with aload capacitance of 25 pF.     

Simulated Performance Evaluation of a MAC-Layer Hybrid Protocol for Multi-Channel Control Networks (MITION)

In this paper an efficient hybrid MAC-layer protocol for multi-channel networking structures is presented and evaluated. This protocol, named MITION, is suitable for control applications, where high operational reliability is required and strict performance criteria exist, due to the need of critical-time response for time-constrained information packets. The MITION protocol uses a channel selection procedure, which provides an efficient switching operation for the selection of the available communication channels. This procedure is combined with a hybrid channel access procedure, which exploits the 1-persistent CSMA/CD and the virtual token passing mechanisms. Additionally, a mechanism for the insertion and deletion procedures of stations is proposed. The MITION protocol, due to its hybrid and multi-channel nature, offers (a) bounded packet delay and stable operation under heavy traffic conditions, (b) high throughput vs. mean packet delay performance, (c) efficient handling of mixed (aperiodic/periodic) channel traffic, and (d) high operational reliability.     

Skylight Color Shifts due to Variations of Urban-Industrial Aerosol Properties: Observer Color Difference Sensitivity Compared to a Digital Camera

Simulations of the sky dome color shifts of a cloudless sky have been performed, assuming three urban-industrial tropospheric aerosol cases. Each of these aerosols is represented by the bimodal lognormal volume distribution (Dubovik et al. 2002 Dubovik, O., Holben, B., Eck, T. F., Smirnov, A., Kaufman, Y. J., King, M. D., Tanré, D. and Slutsker, I. 2002. Variability of Absorption and Optical Properties of Key Aerosol Types Observed in Worldwide Locations. J. Atm. Sci., 59: 590–608. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). A total of ten parameters are used to control the aerosol characteristics. These ten parameters are perturbed and the resulting sky color shifts are estimated. All simulations have been performed relative to the reference cases that represent the time-averaged state of each aerosol case. We have simulated the sensitivity of the theoretical CIE (Commission Internationale de l′ Eclairage) standard human observer to discriminate sky color changes, due to changes of the aerosol control parameters. A Digital color Camera Model (DCM) has also been incorporated in the simulation scheme. The DCM simulates the performance of a camera-colorimeter created specifically to measure sky color. The DCM has been used to investigate whether a color digital camera can replicate the behavior of the CIE standard observer, with respect to sky color shifts. The standard observer is most sensitive to perturbations of the parameters of the aerosol fine mode, which are particles with diameters less than 0.6 μ m. However his sensitivity is highly variable, depending on the parameter varied, on the aerosol case and on the direction of the observation. The DCM was in excellent agreement with the behavior of the CIE standard observer. The camera simulated sky color measurement accuracy was high. The results show that the camera sensitivity in discriminating color differences is much better than that of the observer.     

Realistic end-to-end simulation of the optoelectronic links andcomparison with the electrical interconnections for system-on-chipapplications

A detailed comparison of optoelectronic versus electrical interconnections for system-on-chip applications is performed in terms of signal latency and power consumption. Realistic end-to-end models of both interconnection schemes are employed in order to evaluate critical performance parameters. A variety of electrical and optoelectronic interconnection configurations are implemented and simulated using accurate optical device and electronic circuit models integrated under an integrated circuit (IC) design computer-aided design tool. Two commercial complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies (0.8 μm and 0.25 μm) are used for the estimation of the signal latency and the power consumption as a function of the interconnection length for the different link configurations. It was found that optoelectronic interconnects outperform their electrical counterparts, under certain conditions, especially for relatively long lines and multichannel data links