Educational Sessions

 

Chairperson: Laurence Nagel, Omega Enterprises

 

Educational Session 1 –

Mixed-Signal SOC Design Methodology

Oak Ballroom, Sunday, September 16

 

Organizer: Laurence Nagel, Omega Enterprises
Co-Organizer: Henry Chang, Designer’s Guide Consulting

 

8:00 – 9:50

E1-1 Top-down Design Methodology
Scott Shelton, Cadence Analog Design Services

 

Mixed-signal design at the SOC level necessitates a top-down mixed signal design methodology to meet today's project schedules with successful end products.  This technical discussion examines methods for successfully handling the analog and digital domain interactions in large complex ICs with today's tools; crafting and executing a simulation strategy which efficiently verifies functionality and performance; and efficiently modeling at appropriate levels of abstraction. The discussion is presented within the context of actual designs by some of Cadence's internal design teams, and examines how they have shaped and melded the methodologies as presented. Given the diverse skill sets and multiple IP vendors garnered for SOCs, the structure and management of these design teams throughout the various project stages is explored as well. The session covers these topics through the complete design cycle, from project kickoff to IP block delivery for integration or SOC tapeout.

 

10:10 – 12:00

E1-2 High-Performance Energy-Efficient Digital Design Technologies for Nanoscale SOC
Ram Krishnamurthy, Intel

 

This presentation examines some of the prominent barriers to high-performance and energy-efficient digital design in the sub-65nm CMOS regime and outlines new paradigm shifts necessary for next-generation SOC digital design and methodologies. Emerging trends in SOC industry including special-purpose multimedia/communication accelerators, networks-on-chip, co-processor arrays, and reconfigurable DSP and their associated power-performance trade-offs are reviewed. Energy-efficient data-path and interconnect circuit techniques, variation-tolerant design methods, static/dynamic supply scaling, ultra-low-voltage circuits, and multi-supply/multi-threshold design and supply gating methodologies for switching and leakage energy reduction are described. Special purpose hardware accelerators and SOC building blocks for enabling high performance-per-Watt on specialized DSP tasks such as encryption and media processing are presented. Many chip design examples and their results will be discussed as part of this presentation.

 

1:00 – 2:50

E1-3 Top-down Design of RF Transceivers using VHDL
Khurram Waheed, Texas Instruments

 

RF transceivers comprise a particularly difficult challenge in SOC design because their proper operation requires correct interoperability of RF subsystems, analog subsystems, and digital subsystems.  This presentation describes the numerous challenges in the top-down design of a RF transceiver SOC and describes how VHDL simulation is in the design flow.  Case studies of RF transceiver chips designed at Texas Instruments are used to illustrate how the design challenges were overcome to produce working SOCs.

 

3:10 – 5:00

E1-4 Analog Verification

Ken Kundert, Designer’s Guide Consulting

 

Verification is becoming recognized as one of the most important issues when designing large analog circuits, and as a result design methodologies are starting to change. This change mirrors a change that occurred in digital design 10-15 years ago. In this presentation I will show why the problem has become so significant, and what people are doing to control the problem.

 

 

 

 

Educational Session 2
High-Speed Serial I/O Design Techniques
Fir Ballroom, Sunday, September 16

 

Organizer: Ramesh Harjani, University of Minnesota
Co-Organizer: Gordon Roberts, McGill University

 

8:00 – 9:30

E2-1 Introduction to High-speed I/O
Randy Mooney, Intel

 

I'll discuss the constraints of the design space for microprocessor platforms, then take a look at the state of the technologies required to deliver bandwidth in these platforms. These technologies include analysis tools, interconnect components, modulation and equalization choices that fit the constraints, and the various circuits required in silicon. I'll then take a look at future platform requirements, and the potential solution space to meet those needs.

 

9:30 – 11:00

E2-2 Introduction to Signal Integrity
Bob Sainati, 3M

 

The demand for ever increasing data rates in today’s electronic systems requires the use of shorter rise time signals and faster clock speeds. Both data and clock signals are conveyed using interconnects to carry signals on-chip, on a multilayer pc board, through backplanes or via cables. This tutorial focuses on the impact of interconnects on high speed digital signals. Here the term interconnect refers not only signal traces but packaging, connectors, vias, etc. Shorter rise times, of course, imply wider frequency bandwidths. Many traditional interconnect design techniques focus on factors such as routing efficiency, mechanical and thermal issues. Because of this, many interconnect schemes lack the bandwidth necessary to distribute high speed signals faithfully. Likewise faster rise times increase the probability of significant crosstalk between multiple nets. Similar issues exist with power distribution networks. Short rise time signals can require the supplying of large amounts of current within a very short time. Improper design of power distribution networks can create distortion producing supply voltage drops. Finally, the higher frequencies of short rise time signals are much more easily radiated thus resulting in potential EMI/EMC problems.

 

Techniques such as the use of microwave measurement techniques (e.g., network analyzers), transmission line theory, microwave scattering parameter analysis and electromagnetic simulators have been adopted in order to design improved interconnects and power distribution networks. These techniques all have at least some basis in electromagnetic theory, that is, Maxwell’s equations. Although it is common to think of digital signals in terms of voltages and currents, ultimately they are a set of (coupled) electric and magnetic fields surrounding the metallization of signal traces, connector and package pins, via metallization, etc. Many of the issues associated with signal integrity are a result of the finite velocity of the fields when guided by traces, the propensity of fields to locally store energy in regions where abrupt changes in geometry, direction, etc. are encountered and the fact that crosstalk and radiation increase because a fixed physical size becomes electrically larger as the wavelength decreases. The intent of this course is to link the physics of electromagnetic fields to the signal behavior observed on an interconnect. For instance, quantities such as inductance and capacitance are fundamentally described in terms of fields. Also guided electromagnetic waves are the foundation of transmission line theory and scattering parameters. This course will not be a detailed exposition of electromagnetic theory but rather a review of concepts and an application of them to high speed digital signal interconnect behavior.   

 

11:00 – 12:00 and 1:00 – 2:00

E2-3 Jitter Analysis
Mike Li, Wavecrest

 

In this tutorial presentation, we will first review where the technology is heading to for the multiple Gbps high-speed links and I/O buses for devices and systems in networks and computers. Second, we will discuss why jitter and signal integrity have become the major challenges, as well as limiting factors for developing those high-speed, high performance, and more increasingly, high volume link devices and systems. Third, we will discuss the jitter and signal integrity modeling, simulation, verification and characterization methodologies for jitter and signal integrity within the context of a serial link. We will cover these ever evolving cutting edge topics from generic perspective, as well as practical application perspective, with real-world examples from multiple Gbps link technologies of PCI Express, FB DIMM, and Serial ATA in computer I/Os, and Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet in networks.   

 

2:00 – 3:30

E2-4 Circuit/System Aspects of I/O Equalization
Vladimir Stojanovic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Today’s high-speed interfaces are limited by the bandwidth of the communication channel, tight power constraints and noise sources that differ from those in standard communication systems. The wire bandwidth limitations make straight circuit solutions inefficient, and the power and area constraints make standard digital communication approaches infeasible. Efficient solutions require bridging the fields of digital communications, optimization, statistical and dynamic system modeling, with system architecture, mixed-signal and digital circuit design.

 

This tutorial covers the circuit and system design of equalized high-speed I/Os. We start by introducing the basics of channel properties, modeling, measurements, and communications techniques. We then focus on different link equalization techniques, comparing them both from system perspective and from the performance of resulting circuit implementations. Some examples will cover trade-offs between transmit pre-emphasis and decision-feedback equalization, linear analog receiver equalization as well as joint modulation/equalization and equalization/coding techniques (like PAM4, duobinary and multitone signaling). Implementations of transmitter FIR equalizers, several DFE receiver topologies and peaking amplifiers will be discussed in detail. Several adaptive techniques for equalizer tuning and link monitoring will also be presented.

 

3:30 – 5:00

E2-5 Clocking and CDRs
Jafar Savoj,  Rambus

 

High-purity clock generation enables longer reach in wired communication systems. Optical and copper standards set an upper bound on the noise and distortion that can be added to the signal at the source. This tutorial describes means of efficient clock generation and distribution in high-performance chips to satisfy requirements imposed by the standards. Clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits are an integral part of wired communication systems. With the accelerated rate of device scaling in recent decades, CDR architectures have transitioned from fully analog into mixed-mode and digital implementations. The tutorial later addresses the evolution of CDR architectures, as well as the design of its building blocks.   

 

 

 

 

 

Educational Session 3
Low Power Embedded ADC Design
Pine Ballroom, Sunday, September 16

Organizer: Sang-Soo Lee, Pixelplus
Co-Organizer: Shahriar Mirabbasi, University of British Columbia

 

8:00 – 9:50

E3-1 System Aspects
Thomas Cho, Marvell

 

Aggressive CMOS scaling in the last couple of decades has enabled powerful DSP engines for many digital communication systems in both wireless and wired-line applications. But the world is still analog, and the requirements for the analog-to-digital interface circuits are becoming increasingly stringent not to limit the overall system performance. In addition, A/D converters, which used to be discrete components on the board in the past, are now being integrated onto an IC together with many other functions for smaller form factors, bringing new challenges to analog circuit designers. This tutorial will give an overview of both circuit and system level requirements for the embedded A/D converters used in various wireless/wired-line applications. Practical considerations for system-on-chip environments, such as on-chip reference generation, noise isolation, low-power/low-voltage designs, testing, and other challenges will also be discussed.

 

10:10 – 12:00

E3-2 Pipeline ADC Design
Boris Murmann, Stanford University

 

Pipelined analog-to-digital converters have evolved as a popular architecture for broadband quantization in applications requiring 8-14 bit resolution and sampling rates up to several hundred MS/s. This lecture discusses the design and implementation of pipelined ADCs using a top-down approach, ranging from an architecture level analysis to transistor level implementation details. Specific topics include: (1) Basic operation principle, (2) Redundancy and digital calibration techniques, (3) Error and noise budgeting; pipeline stage scaling and choice of per-stage resolution, (4) Transistor level circuit implementation; low power techniques such as OTA sharing and SHA-less front-ends, and (5) Performance survey; recent trends and developments in research.

 

 

1:00 – 2:50

E3-3 Sigma Delta ADC
Katelijn Vleugels, H-Stream Wireless

 

In this talk, we will look at the various aspects of Sigma-Delta Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) design. We begin with a review of the basic concepts of Sigma-Delta data converters, followed by an overview of state-of-the art Sigma-Delta ADC implementations. Several architectures exist, and the optimal architecture heavily depends on the system requirements imposed by the application. The advantages and challenges of various architectures are discussed next. We then look at the impact of circuit implementation non-idealities on the overall ADC performance.  The talk will conclude with an example of a Sigma-Delta ADC design.

 

3:10 – 5:00

E3-4 Case Study
Stacy Ho, Analog Devices

This talk will present case studies on embedded ADC design for mobile handsets.  Factors that influence the selection of ADC architecture, such as power dissipation, wireless standards requirements, and cost, will be discussed.  Issues due to the system level integration of ADCs will be addressed, such as: coexistence with digital baseband and power management blocks, architectural tradeoffs, reference and clock requirements.  The talk will also review published embedded ADCs for wireless applications. 

 

Technical Sessions

Monday, September 17 – Wednesday, September 19

 

Session 1 – Keynote Presentation

Oak Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

8:15 am            Welcome and Opening Remarks

Awards Presentations

Keynote Speaker Introduction

   Larry Wissel, General Chairman

 

8:30 am            Keynote Presentation

 

The Wireless Revolution Continues:

Can Technology Keep Up with the Challenge?”

 

Dr. Bill Krenik, Chief Technical Officer for Texas Instruments' Wireless Terminals Business Unit

 

The exploding market for consumer electronics is creating diverse product opportunities, with many products demanding unique technology features to enable successful performance, power-efficiency, size and cost. The wireless market is a high-growth market, and a critical driver of technology innovations. Whether creating a cutting-edge mobile phone with the hottest features or a modest handset required for high-growth emerging economies, a mobile designer is increasingly more challenged to satisfy product goals with existing technology. From the perspective of the industry-leading semiconductor provider entrenched in the wireless space, Bill Krenik, Chief Technical Officer for TI’s Wireless Terminals Business Unit, will address the critical technology, process and packaging challenges and solutions required to meet mobile market requirements for today and tomorrow.

 

 

 

Session 2 –3D and SiP

Oak Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Rakesh Patel

Co-Chair :  Ann Rincon

 

Two invited papers on 3D wireless high performance interchip communications using capacitive and inductive interconnect techniques are presented.  In addition, resonant clocking in CMOS is explored for active jitter deskewing.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

2.1

10:05 am

3D Capacitive Interconnections for High Speed Interchip Communication (INVITED PAPER),  R. Canegallo, L. Ciccarelli, P.L. Rolandi, STMicroelectonics, A. Fazzi,  L. Magagni, F. Natali, R. Guerrieri University of Bologna, E. Jung, IZM Fraunhofer, L. Di Cioccio, CEA-LETI

 

A 3D Interconnection scheme based on capacitive coupling for high speed chip to chip communication has been implemented in a 0.13 µm  CMOS process. This work shows, with a synchronous approach data transmission at 900MHz with electrodes 15x15 µm2 and energy consumption of 41fJ/bit. With asynchronous approach we demonstrate with electrodes 8x8 µm2 a propagation of clock at 1.7GHz and a propagation delay of 420ps for general purpose signal with energy consumption of 80fJ/bit.

 

2.2

10:55 am

Low-Jitter Active Deskewing Through Injection-Locked Resonant Clocking,  Z. Xu and K. Shepard, Columbia University

 

Active deskewing is an important technique for managing variability in clock distributions but introduces latency and power-supply-noise sensitivity to the resulting networks. In this paper, we demonstrate how active deskewing can be achieved with resonant distributions without introducing significant jitter. The prototype network operates at a nominal 2-GHz frequency in a 0.18µm CMOS technology with more than 25 pF/mm2 of clock loading.

 

2.3

11:20 am

Wideband Inductive-coupling Interface for High-performance Portable System (INVITED PAPER),  H. Ishikuro, N. Miura and T. Kuroda, Keio University

 

This paper presents a wideband, low power, and low cost pulse-based inductive-coupling interface for wireless data transfer in high performance portable devices.  General aspects of wireless links are discussed to understand the position of inductive-coupling technique.  Two applications of the inductive-coupling links are introduced   One is a 0.14pJ/b inter-chip link for System-in-a-Package.  The other is a detachable wireless interface for chip monitoring through LSI package.  Circuit design techniques for power reduction and an extension of communication range are presented.

 

 

Session 3 – Extreme SRAMs

Fir Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Takashi Akioka

Co-Chair:  Tom Andre

 

These papers explore state-of-the-art SRAMs as well as new structures and analysis techniques to enable SRAM scaling into future technology generations.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

 

3.1

10:05 am

A 550ps Access-Time Compilable SRAM in 65nm CMOS Technology,  L. Wissel, H. Pilo, C. LeBlanc, X. Wang, S. Lamphier and M. Fragano, IBM

 

A fixed-configuration custom SRAM macro with a highly-scalable architecture was used as the basis for an ASIC SRAM compiler. The 256Kb fixed-configuration uses dynamic circuitry [1] and other design techniques, and has been demonstrated in silicon to have an access time of 550ps. The compilable SRAM extends the column mux options, and can be compiled from 2Kb to 1.1Mb. Novel circuitry is used for efficient redundancy implementation in both the row and column dimensions.

 

3.2

10:30 am

A Disturb Decoupled Column Select 8T SRAM Cell,  V. Ramadurai, R. Joshi and R. Kanj, IBM

 

This paper presents a novel 8T SRAM cell that provides a way to eliminate the column select read disturb scenario. The 8T cell is then used in conjunction with a sense-amp based architecure that minimizes read disturb to selected cells.  Fabricated hardware resuls and simulation of this architecture show improvements of cell Vddmin over traditional 6T cells by more than 150mV for 90nm PD/SOI technology.

 

3.3

10:55 am

Canary Replica Feedback for Near-DRV Standby VDD Scaling in a 90nm SRAM,  J. Wang and B. Calhoun, University of Virginia

 

Canary bitcells act as monitors in a feedback architecture to sense the proximity to the Data Retention Voltage (DRV) for SRAM bitcells during standby voltage scaling. This approach implements aggressive standby VDD scaling by tracking PVT variations and gives the flexibility to tradeoff between reliability and leakage power savings. A 90nm SRAM test chip confirms the function of this closed-loop approach. Power savings improve by up to 30x compared with the conventional guard-banding approach.

 

3.4

11:20 am

Flex-Pass-Gate SRAM Design for Static Noise Margin Enhancement Using FinFET-Based Technology, S. O'uchi, M. Masahara, K. Sakamoto, K. Endo, Y.X. Liu, T. Matsukawa, T. Sekigawa, H. Koike and E. Suzuki, National Insititute of AIST

 

We propose a flex-pass-gate SRAM (Flex-PG SRAM), i.e., a FinFET-based SRAM to enhance both the read and write static noise margins (SNMs) independently. The flip-flop in the Flex-PG SRAM consists of usual FinFETs while its pass gates consist of double-“independent”-gate FinFETs, four-terminal-FinFETs. A TCAD simulation revealed that the Flex-PG SRAM increases the read SNM by 70 mV even when its 6-sigma tolerance is ensured, without the cell size penalty and decrease in the write SNM.

 

3.5

11:45 am

Simple Statistical Analysis Techniques to Determine Minimum Sense Amp Set Times,  R. Houle, IBM

 

Simple statistical analysis techniques are described, involving a relatively small number of actual circuit simulations, to accurately determine the minimum required sense amp set time for memory designs. Techniques to generate and evaluate the statistical distributions for signal development, leakage and sense amp asymmetry are discussed with important implications to sense amp design.

 

 

 

Session 4 – Compact Models for Advanced

CMOS Technologies

Pine Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Brian Chen

Co-Chair :  Hidetoshi Onodera

 

Two invited papers present next-generation compact models of advanced SOI and multiple gate MOSFETs, followed by a regular paper on characterization and modeling of 65nm copper interconnect resistance.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

4.1

10:05 am

PSP-SOI: A Surface Potential Based Compact Model of Partially Depleted SOI MOSFETs (INVITED PAPER),  W. Wu, X. Li, G. Gildenblat, Arizona State University, G. Workman, S. Veeraraghavan, C. McAndrew, Freescale Semiconductor, R. van Langevelde, Philips, G. Smit, D. Klaassen, A. Scholten NXP Semiconductors and J. Watts, IBM

 

This paper reports recent progress on partially depleted (PD) SOI modeling using a surface potential based approach. The new model, called PSP-SOI, is formulated within the framework of the latest industry standard bulk MOSFET model PSP. In addition to its physics-based formulation and scalability inherited from PSP, PSP-SOI captures SOI specific effects by including a floating body simulation capability, a parasitic bipolar model, and self-heating. A nonlinear body resistance is included for modeling body-contacted SOI devices. The PSP-SOI model has been extensively tested on several PD/SOI technologies.

 

4.2

10:55 am

Charge-Based Compact Modeling of Multiple-Gate MOSFET (INVITED PAPER),  B. Iniguez, A. Lazaro, H. Abd El Hamid, O. Moldovan, B. Nae, URV, J. Roig, LAAS and D. Jimenez, UAB

 

We present new compact modeling techniques which have been applied for different types of multiple-gate MOSFETs. Long channel models are obtained by deriving a unified charge control model from the solution the 1-D Poisson’s equation. Scalable models for the short-channel effects have been developed by solving the 2-D or 3-D Poisson’s equation. We observed a very good agreement with numerical simulations of the characteristics of different multiple-gate devices. We also extended our compact models to the high frequency operation.

 

4.3

11:45 am

Characterization, Modeling and Extraction of Cu Wire Resistance for 65 nm Technology,  N. Lu, M. Angyal, G. Matusiewicz, V. McGahay and T. Standaert, IBM

 

We present an innovative and comprehensive approach to characterize and model interconnect resistance. We measured and analyzed Cu wire resistance data for multiple wire widths on 10 BEOL levels at multiple temperatures and, with SEM cross-section data, extracted all model parameters in IBM 65nm technology. The extracted SPICE wire resistance model includes the congregated effects of surface scattering, grain boundary scattering and surface roughness. New behavior of wire resistance is reported for the first time.

 

 

 

Session 5 – Oversampling A/D Converters

Cedar Ballroom, Monday Morning, September 17

 

Chair:  Jennifer Lloyd

Co-Chair:  Un-Ku Moon

 

This session highlights recent advances in oversampling ADCs including dynamic range improvements for both bandpass and lowpass modulators and improved tolerance for analog imperfections.

 

10:00 am

Introduction

 

5.1

10:05 am

A 63-mA 112/94-dB DR IF Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator with Direct Feed-forward and Double Sampling,  T. Yamamoto, M. Kasahara and T. Matsuura, Renesas Technology Corp.

 

We developed a 10.7-MHz IF bandpass discrete-time 4th-order 4-bit delta-sigma modulator for AM/FM car radio tuners. Using direct feed-forward and double sampling, we have achieved a dynamic range (DR) of 112 dB in the 3-kHz AM bandwidth (BW) and a DR of 94 dB in the 200-kHz FM BW. The modulator occupies 3 mm2, in 0.15 µm CMOS technology, and draws 63 mA of current.

 

5.2

10:30 am

A Delta-Sigma Modulator with a Widely Programmable Center Frequency and 82-dB Peak SNDR,  K. Yamamoto, A. Chan Carusone and F. Dawson, University of Toronto

 

A 4-bit fourth-order delta-sigma modulator with a widely programmable center frequency is presented. Novel methods for quantizing and implementing the digitally programmable modulator coefficients enable performance comparable to state-of-the-art discrete-time fixed-frequency modulators at any center frequency from dc to 0.31fs in steps of 0.0052fs. The 0.18-µm 1.8-V CMOS prototype consumes 115 mW at a sampling frequency of 40 MHz. The peak SNDR and SNR over a 310-kHz bandwidth are 82 dB and 86 dB respectively.

 

5.3

10:55 am

A 94dB SFDR 78dB DR 2.2MHz BW Multi-bit Delta-Sigma Modulator with Noise Shaping DAC,  J. Chen and Y.P. Xu, National University of Singapore

 

A 5th-order multi-bit lowpass delta-sigma modulator employs a proposed noise shaping dynamic element matching (NSDEM) technique to remove DAC non-linearity error. Unlike most existing DEMs trading SNR for SFDR, the proposed technique improves both SFDR and SNR. The noise shaping is incorporated in the first integrator of the loop filter without any additional analog circuitry. The fabricated modulator chip achieves 94dB SFDR and 78dB DR in 2.2MHz BW and meets the ADSL2+ specifications.

 

5.4

11:20 am

A 18mW CT Sigma-Delta Modulator with 25MHz Bandwidth for Next Generation Wireless Applications,  X. Chen, Y. Wang, G. Temes, Oregon State University, Y. Fujimoto, P. Lo Ré, Y. Kanazawa, Sharp Corp., J. Steensgaard, Esion LLC

 

The design of a wideband low-power continuous-time (CT) Delta-Sigma modulator is presented in this paper. A modified feed-forward architecture is proposed to realize the low-power loop filter as well as cancel the out-of-band peaking in the signal transfer function. Several high-speed low-power design techniques are used in the circuits. The modulator achieves 60 dB dynamic range (DR) within 20 MHz signal bandwidth, and 55 dB DR within 25 MHz signal bandwidth. Clocked at 400 MHz, the modulator consumes only 10 mA current from a 1.8 V supply.

 

5.5

11:45 am

Multi-Bit Sigma Delta ADC with Reduced Feedback Levels, Extended Dynamic Range and Increased Tolerance for Analog Imperfections,  J.-Y. Wu, R. Subramoniam, Z. Zhang, A. Djabbari, P. Holloway,  M. Yousefi, M. Aslan, H. Hong and A. Bahai, National Semiconductor, F. Maloberti, University of Pavia

 

A novel second order sigma delta modulator (SDM) with 5-bit quantizer has been  proposed with simplified DAC arrays, high-order truncation noise shaping for increased tolerance to analog imperfections, and extended dynamic range for a maximum input signal swing of up to -0.45dBFS.  With truncation filter and pseudo SDM in the DSP, the truncation and saturation errors are compensated through the DAC arrays and the DSP.  The design was fabricated in 0.18µ Dual Gate Oxide (DGO) process.  A SNDR (Signal-to-Noise-and–Distortion Ratio) of 98.4 dB and a SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) of 108-dB were measured for a 31.25-KHz signal bandwidth at 8-MHz sampling frequency with a power consumption of about 14.7 mW.

 

 

 

Session 6 – Advances in Programmable Devices

Oak Ballroom, Monday Afternoon, September 17

 

Chair:  Raj Amirtharajah

Co-Chair:  Steve Wilton

 

Programmable devices are everywhere: from consumer products to high-security applications.  This session highlights novel architectures, new CAD techniques, and innovative technologies that make these systems possible.

 

1:30 pm

Introduction

 

6.1

1:35 pm

Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Image Stream Processor for Digital Still Cameras and Camcorders,  J. C. Chen, S.-Y. Chien, National Taiwan University, C.-F. Shen, VIVOTEK

 

A 345Mpixels/s coarse-grained reconfigurable image stream processor (CRISP) is proposed and implemented with 5mm2 area in 0.18µm CMOS technology for the image pipelines of digital still cameras and video camcoders. The novel CRISP architecture with scalable reconfigurable stage processing elements and reconfigurable interconnection could achieve high processing speed at low cost, while satisfying the flexibility and performance requirements of high-end image preprocessing for 10M-pixel scale still cameras and 1920x1080 camcorders.

 

6.2

2:00 pm

CAD Techniques for Power Optimization in Virtex-5 FPGAs,  S. Gupta, J. Anderson, L. Farragher and Q. Wang, Xilinx, Inc.

 

We consider dynamic power dissipation in FPGAs and present CAD techniques for dynamic power reduction. The proposed techniques, comprising power-aware placement, routing, and a novel post-routing transformation, are applied to optimize the power consumed by industrial designs implemented in the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA.  Board-level power measurements on a suite of industrial designs show that the techniques reduce power by 10%, on average.

 

6.3

2:25 pm

Flash-based Field Programmable Gate Array Technology with Deep Trench Isolation,  K.J. Han, N. Chan, S. Kim, B. Leung, V. Hecht, B. Cronquist, Actel, D. Shum, A. Tilke, L. Pescini, M. Stiftinger and R. Kakoschke, Infineon

 

A highly scalable flash-based Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology has been achieved with Deep Trench Isolation (DTI).  The DTI allows for a reduced cell size and enables Independent Pwell (IPW) operation.  The IPW allows the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) Uniform Channel Program and Erase (UCPE) with less than ±10V.  Additionally, the IPW approach allows a greater flexibility in the array bias scheme reducing the gate disturb during programming and eliminating all Gate-Induced Drain Leakage (GIDL) conditions.  Characterization of a FPGA cell and 0.5 Mbit array with 90nm design rules is demonstrated with excellent electrical characteristics.

 

6.4

2:50 pm

Analysis of Data Remanence in a 90nm FPGA,  T. Tuan, T. Strader and S. Trimberger, Xilinx, Inc.

 

FPGAs are increasingly used in military applications where security is paramount. In this paper, we study data remanence in modern FPGAs using a custom 90nm FPGA designed for this test. The effects of temperatures, architecture, memory topology, and power off methods are analyzed. We find remanence properties in FPGAs to depend on architecture and data content. To our knowledge, this is the first study of data remanence in FPGAs and in deep-submicron ICs.

 

3:15 pm - Break

 

 

 

Session 7 – Emerging Wireless Applications

Fir Ballroom, Monday Afternoon, September 17

 

Chair :  Stefan Drude

Co-Chair :  Earl McCune

 

Progress in achieving high levels of integration is presented for single chip solutions in satellite TV, WiMax-WiBRO, GPS, and RFID applications, using a variety of process technologies.

 

1:30 pm

Introduction

 

7.1

1:35 pm

A Single-Conversion SiGe BiCMOS Satellite TV LNB Front-End Using an Image Reject Mixer and a Calibrated Full-Rate VCO,  A. Maxim, M. Gheorghe, D. Smith, Maxim, Inc.

 

A fully-integrated satellite TV down-converter was realized in a 0.18 µm  SiGe BiCMOS process that provides both 70GHz fT NPN HBTs used for the main signal path and 0.18 µm  CMOS FETs used for the frequency synthesizer reference clock path and LC-VCO frequency calibration circuitry. A low phase-noise, low tuning gain 10GHz LC-VCO that covers both low and high Ku-bands was realized by combining a 30% discrete steps frequency calibration with a 2% continuous frequency tuning. Offset-biased accumulation MOS varactors provide a virtually constant tuning gain by summing shifted C(V) curves that are uniformly distributed over the entire control voltage range. The on-chip synthesizer loop filter eliminates the sensitivity to off-chip noise and spur coupling. Mixer’s noise was reduced by using an image-reject architecture that attenuates the thermal noise contribution from the image frequency. The LNB performance includes: <6dB noise figure, 18dBm output IP3, -106dBc/Hz phase noise at 100KHz offset, <0.4 rms total integrated phase noise, 1.7x1.5mm2 die area and 125mA bias current from a 3.3V supply.

 

7.2

2:00 pm

A Low Power, High Performance BiCMOS MIMO/Diversity Direct Conversion Transceiver IC For WiBro/WiMAX (802.16e) (INVITED PAPER),  M. Locher, M. Tomesen, J. Kuenen, A. Daanen, H. Visser, B. Essink, P.P. Vervoort, M. Nijrolder, R. Kopmeiners, W. Redman-White, R. Balmford, R. El Waffaoui, NXP Semiconductors

 

This paper describes a MIMO, low power, high performance direct conversion WiBro/WiMAX 802.16e radio transceiver optimized for mobile applications and coexistence with on-board Cellular and ISM-band systems. It is fabricated in a SiGe BiCMOS process and achieves a receiver NF of less than 2.5dB aover an operation frequency of 2.3-2.7GHz. The transmit gain can be digitally tuned over a 75dB range. The transceiver consumes 65/103mA at a 2.8V supply in OFDMA Rx/Tx modes respectively.

 

7.3