Session 12 – Nyquist A/D Converters

Oak Ballroom, Tuesday Morning, September 18

 

Chair:  George La Rue

Co-Chair :  Yusuf Haque

 

The first four papers present pipelined A/D converters with resolution of 10 to 14 bits and conversion rates below 210 MS/s.  These are followed by higher conversion rate circuits up to 4 GS/s.

 

8:25 am

Introduction

 

12.1

8:30 am

A 14-b 30MS/s 0.75mm2 Pipelined ADC with On-Chip Digital Self-Calibration,  H.-Y. Lee, T.-H. Oh, H.-J. Park, J.-W. Kim, Samsung Electronics, H.-S. Lee, M. Spaeth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

A 14-b 30MS/s CMOS pipelined ADC is presented.  To facilitate digital calibration, a simple 1-b per stage architecture with redundancy is used.  The ADC fully integrates digital self-calibration, which performs overall sequence by one flag signal.  Implemented in a 90nm digital CMOS process, the prototype ADC achieves 83.7dB SFDR and 69.3dB SNDR with calibration.  Its active area is 0.75mm2 including the on-chip calibration logic and the total power consumes 106mW with 3.3V and 1.0V supply.

 

12.2

8:55 am

A 1.8V 10b 210MS/s CMOS Pipelined ADC Featuring 86dB SFDR without Calibration,  J. Li, R. Leboeuf, M. Courcy and G. Manganaro, National Semiconductor Corporation

 

A 1.8V 10b 210MS/s CMOS pipelined ADC in 0.18µm CMOS process is presented. The low power consumption at high sampling rate is achieved by using an opamp-sharing technique in 2.5b/stage pipelined ADC architecture. The opamp settling behavior is well controlled through a regulated switch driving scheme.  With a 20MHz input signal, the ADC achieves 85.9dB SFDR and 9.57ENOB at 210MS/s. Better than 76dB SFDR and 9.5ENOB performance is maintained for input frequency up to 100MHz. The ADC consumes 140mW at 1.8V. The die area is about 1.5mm2.

 

12.3

9:20 am

Low-Power and High-Speed Pipelined ADC Using Time-Aligned CDS Technique,  Y.-J. Kook, U.-K. Moon, Oregon State University and J. Li, B. Lee  National Semiconductor

 

Time-aligned Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) technique, which overcomes the error accumulation problem found in the time-shifted CDS technique [4], is proposed. This technique allows low gain opamp based switched-capacitor operation to achieve the equivalent accuracy that is traditionally possible only in high gain opamp based switched-capacitor operation. This allows simple single stage opamps to be used, leading to low-power and high-speed performance. As a proof of concept, a prototype pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is fabricated in a 0.18um CMOS process. Measured results demonstrate 1.8V 10b 100MS/s 50mW ADC.

 

12.4

9:45 am

A 1V 10b 30MSPS Switched-RC Pipelined ADC,  G.-C. Ahn, M.G. Kim, P. Hanumolu and U.-K. Moon, Oregon State University

 

A 10b 30MS/s pipelined ADC using fully-differential switched-RC multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) is presented. It utilizes a resistive loop to reset the feedback capacitor in the MDAC without using the floating switch.  The measured differential and integral nonlinearities of the prototype IC fabricated in a 0.13µm MOS process are less than 0.54 LSB and 1.75 LSB respectively. The prototype ADC achieves 51.6dB SNDR and 65.9dB SFDR with 1V supply while consuming 17mW power.

 

10:10 am - Break

 

12.5

10:25 am

A Time-Interleaved Track & Hold in 0.13µm CMOS sub-sampling a 4 GHz Signal with 43dB SNDR,  S. Louwsma, E. van Tuijl, B. Nauta, University of Twente, and M. Vertregt, NXP Semiconductor

 

A 16-channel time-interleaved Track and Hold is presented. Three techniques are introduced enabling a high bandwidth and linearity and good timing alignment.  Integrated ADCs are used to evaluate the performance of the T/H. Single channel performance is 43 dB SNDR at an input frequency of 4 GHz. Multi-channel performance is 48 dB SNDR at 1.35 GS/s with an ERBW of 1 GHz. The power consumption of the T/H including clock-driver and buffers is 74 mW.

 

12.6

10:50 am

A 43mW Single-Channel 4GS/s 4-Bit Flash ADC in 0.18µm CMOS,  S. Sheikhaei, S. Mirabbasi and A. Ivanov, University of British Columbia

 

A low-power small-area single-channel 4GS/s 4-bit flash ADC in 0.18µm CMOS is presented. The entire ADC is implemented using CML blocks. To enhance the speed, both analog (comparators) and digital (encoder) parts of the ADC are fully pipelined. Furthermore, a reformulation for the encoder logic functions is introduced to reduce the wiring delay in the layout. The ADC achieves a figure of merit of 2.14pJ/conversion-step. The ADC area including the resistor ladder is 0.06mm2 and the power consumption is 43mW when supplied with 1.8V.

 

12.7

11:15 am

A 57dB SFDR Digitally Calibrated 500MS/s Folding ADC in 0.18µm  Digital CMOS,  I. Bogue and M. Flynn, University of Michigan

 

A digitally calibrated 8-bit folding ADC incorporating redundancy and reassignment is described. Small, redundant folder and comparator circuits generate 1024 available zero-crossings. An entirely self-contained calibration engine selects 255 zero-crossings from the available set. Unselected circuits are powered down. The calibration breaks the link between ADC performance and analog accuracy, allowing small transistors to be used in the signal path.  Fabricated in 0.18µm  digital CMOS, the DNL of the uncalibrated ADC is 6.7LSB and 0.8LSB, before and after calibration, respectively. SFDR remains above 55dB up to a sampling rate of 550MS/s. The total die area is 1.2mm2.

 

12.8

11:40 am

A Sample-Time Error Compensation Technique for Time-Interleaved ADC Systems,  A. Haftbaradaran and K. W. Martin, University of Toronto

 

Sample-time error among different channels of a time-interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is a factor in significant degradation of the ADC performance, especially in high frequencies. A two-channel, time-interleaved ADC structure with a background sample-time error compensation technique has been implemented. The sample-time error detection technique uses random data and has been implemented in the digital domain at a low level of complexity. The error correction is performed by adjusting the delay of the clock path of one channel, using a 6-bit Digitally-Controlled Delay Element (DCDE). At a sampling rate of 400 MSamples/s, the experimental results show that the Spurious-Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) of the ADC system is improved to 58.8 dB at 190 MHz. The ADC system achieves a Signal-to-Noise-and-Distortion Ratio (SNDR) of 59.6 dB at 5 MHz and 55.2 dB at 190 MHz after compensation.  This error compensation method is especially suitable for time-interleaved ADCs used in digital data communication systems.

 

 

 

Session 13 – Clocking and CDRs

Fir Ballroom, Tuesday Morning, September 18

 

Chair :  Jafar Savoj

Co-Chair:  Kimo Tam

 

This session explores modern clocking techniques with an emphasis on digital enhancement along with new CDR implementations.

 

8:25 am

Introduction

 

13.1

8:30 am

Low-Jitter and Large-EMI-Reduction Spread-Spectrum Clock Generator with Auto-Calibration for Serial-ATA Application,  T. Kawamoto, Hitachi Ltd., T. Takahashi, H. Inada and T. Noto, Renesas Technology

 

A low jitter VCO with high-frequency-limiter and an auto-calibration technique was developed for a spread-spectrum clock generator (SSCG) by using a 0.13-µm CMOS process for Serial-ATA applications. The limiter prevents the SSCG from going into an unlocked state, and the auto-calibration technique optimizes the performance by controlling VCO gain and maximum output frequency. Rms-jitter variation at 1.5 GHz is improved from 2.1-7.8 ps to 1.9-3.3 ps and the EMI reduction of 10.0 dB is achieved.

 

13.2

8:55 am

Wide Lock-Range, Low Phase-Noise PLL using Interpolative Ring-VCO with Coarse Frequency Tuning and Frequency Linearization,  H. Kodama, H. Okada, H. Ishikawa and A. Tanaka, NEC Corporation

 

To relax the trade-off relationship between tuning range and phase noise, we have developed a new interpolative ring-VCO having a wide control voltage range over which frequency variation is linear.  A wide lock-range, low phase noise PLL incorporating this VCO has been fabricated in a 90 nm CMOS process.  It successfully offers between 3.432–4.488 and 6.600–9.240 GHz, as well as low integrated phase noise, less than 4 degrees.

 

13.3

9:20 am

A 3.2Gb/s Oversampling CDR with Improved Jitter Tolerance,  M. Brownlee, P. Hanumolu and U.-K. Moon, Oregon State University

 

A 3.2Gbps CDR circuit employs an oversampling architecture to decouple the tradeoff between jitter generation and jitter tolerance. The test chip fabricated in a 0.13µm CMOS process achieves a 30x increase in the jitter tolerance corner without increasing recovered clock jitter. Power consumption is 19.5mW from a 1.4V supply at 3.2Gbps and die area is 0.081mm2.

 

13.4

9:45 am

A 2.5Gb/s Burst-Mode CDR based on a 1/8th Rate Dual Pulse Ring Oscillator,  S. Gierkink, Conexant

 

A 2.5Gb/s burst-mode CDR uses a 1/8th rate ring oscillator with two phase independent pulses running simultaneously. One pulse sets the ring delay by phase locking it to a reference, the other tracks the data. Phase acquisition is instantaneous. CID tolerance is > 72 bits. The 0.6mm2 0.13µm CMOS chip includes a CML input buffer, PLL, PRBS checker and 1:8 demux. It has 2.7UIpp jitter tolerance at 100kHz and consumes 42mW from a 1.2V supply.

 

10:10 am - Break

 

13.5

10:25 am

Digitally-Enhanced Phase-Locking Circuits (INVITED PAPER),  P. Hanumolu, U.-K. Moon and K. Mayaram, Oregon State University, G.-Y. Wei, Harvard University

 

In this paper, we present an overview of digital techniques that can overcome the drawbacks of analog phase-looked loops (PLLs) implemented in deep-submicron CMOS processes. The design of key building blocks of digital PLLs such as the time-to-digital converter and digital-to-frequency converters are discussed in detail. The implementation and measured results of two digital PLL architectures, (1) based on a digitally controlled oscillator and (2) based on a digital phase accumulator, are presented. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of using digital PLLs in digital systems requiring high-performance PLLs.

 

13.6

11:15 am

A Low-Jitter Open-Loop All-Digital Clock Generator with 2 Cycle Lock-Time,  M.-Y. Kim, D. Shin, H. Chae, S. Ok and C. Kim, Korea University

 

A portable multiphase clock generator, independent of input duty ratio, has been developed. The proposed open-loop and full-digital architecture has a fast lock time of two clock cycles and is a simple, robust and portable IP.  In addition, the complementary delay line is implemented to achieve high phase resolution at a wide frequency range. The generator has been implemented in a 0.18um CMOS process and operates at variable input frequencies ranging from 800MHz to 1.6GHz.

 

13.7

11:40 am

An All-Digital 90-Degree Phase-Shift DLL with Loop-Embedded DCC for 1.6Gbps DDR Interface,  J.-H. Bae, J.-Y. Sim, H.-J. Park, POSTECH and J.-H. Seo, H.-S. Yeo, J.-W. Kim,Samsung Electronics

 

An all-digital 90º phase-shift DLL is proposed for 1.6Gbps DDR interface by using a loop-embedded DCC and a binary phase detector with the lock range extended to 0~4π radians. The DCC has a small delay and the fixed rising-edge property for loop-embedding. The chip fabricated with a 0.13µm CMOS process gives the DLL data rate of 667Mbps~1.6Gbps and the output duty cycle of 47.8%~49% for the input duty cycle of 23%~76%, at 1.6Gbps and 1.2V.

 

 

 

Session 14 – Power Management Techniques

Pine Ballroom, Tuesday Morning, September 18

 

Chair:  Steve Garverick

Co-Chair:  Makoto Takamiya

 

This session addresses issues in power management, including ac-dc and dc-dc converters, regulators, controllers, timers, and low-power drivers.

 

8:25 am

Introduction

 

14.1

8:30 am

A Low Noise Buck Converter with a Fully Integrated Continuous Time Sigma Delta Modulated Feedback Controller,  M. Wong, Freescale Semiconductors, B. Bakkaloglu and S. Kiaei, ASU

 

A low noise synchronous buck converter with a fully integrated second order single-bit continuous time sigma delta modulator (CT-sigma delta M) based controller is presented. The converter is designed and fabricated on a 0.18 µm  SiGe process. The feedback CT-sigma deltaM is sampled at 10MHz with a single-bit non-return-to-zero (NRZ) output.  Compared to a traditional PWM controller, the CT-sigma delta M controlled converter shapes the out-of-band noise and suppresses the in-band noise at the switching node by 25dB with 92% efficiency.

 

14.2

8:55 am

A Compact Pulse-Based Charge Pump in 0.13um CMOS,  J. Holleman, B. Otis and C. Diorio, University of Washington

 

In this paper, we present a new class of charge pump capable of generating voltages 3.75 times greater than the supply in a single clock cycle.  It occupies .005 mm2 in a 0.13um CMOS process and can operate with a supply voltage between 0.4V and 1.2V, or as low as 0.2V with some pulse-shape distortion.  Our charge pump can provide output voltages of up to 3.9V with less than 10nW of standby power dissipation.

 

14.3

9:20 am

An Efficiency-Enhanced Integrated CMOS Rectifier with Comparator-Controlled Switches for Transcutaneous Powered Implants,  S. Guo and H. Lee, University of Texas

 

This paper presents a high-efficient rectifier for high-current transcutaneous power transmission in biomedical implants.  By using comparators to control power nMOS transistors functioning as switches with unidirectional current flow, the rectifier dropout voltage is decreased to improve the power efficiency.  The unbalanced biasing scheme in the comparator also minimizes the reverse leakage current.  Implemented in a standard 0.35µm CMOS, the rectifier operates at 1.5MHz, achieves the peak conversion ratio of 95% and can deliver up to 20mA output current.

 

14.4

9:45 am

Integrated Regulation for Energy-Efficient Digital Circuits,  E. Alon, University of California Berkeley, and M. Horowitz, Stanford University

 

Linear regulation can reduce the effective supply impedance of digital circuits without increasing their total power dissipation.  This can be achieved with a push-pull regulator topology that uses a second, higher-than-nominal supply, comparator-based feedback, and a switched-source follower output stage.  Measured results from a 65nm SOI test-chip verify that by using these techniques, regulation reduces supply noise by ~30% while also enabling a slight decrease (~1.4%) in total power.

 

10:10 am – Break

 

14.5

10:25 am

An EEPROM Programming Controller for Passive UHF RFID Transponders with Gated Clock Regulation Loop and Current Surge Control,  R. Barnett, Texas Instruments, and J. Liu, University of Texas Dallas

 

This paper describes an EEPROM programming controller for a RFID IC. A gated clock regulation loop is proposed to regulate the programming voltage over a wide range of RF input power. A current surge limiting architecture prevents a collapse of the rectified supply during startup of the charge pump and a switched bandgap reference is proposed for reducing power and area. The 0.35µm CMOS IC provides 14V from a 2V rectified supply and consumes 7µW.

 

14.6

10:50 am

A Sub-pW Timer Using Gate Leakage for Ultra Low-Power Sub-Hz Monitoring Systems,  Y.-S. Lin, D. Sylvester and D. Blaauw, University of Michigan

 

In this work, we presented a novel ultra low power timer designed using the gate leakage of MOS capacitors. The test chip was fabricated with 0.13µm CMOS technology with area of 480µm2. Measurement results show that the circuit functions correctly at a wide range of supply voltage from 300mV to 1.2V. The temperature sensitivity is 0.16%/°C at 600mV and 0.6%/°C at 300mV. The power dissipation is less than 1pW running at 20C and 300mV.

 

14.7

11:15 am

CMOS-Based MEMS Mirror Driver for Maskless Lithography Systems,  J. Lee, J. Weiner, Y. Baeyens, V. Aksyuk, Y.-K. Chen, Alcatel-Lucent, H.-H. Chen, Mediatek

 

This paper presents a low-power MEMS mirror driver for maskless lithography systems. The CMOS driver consists of a 512x128 analog memory cell array to drive the position of 512x128 MEMS mirror array. The row driver employs an analog de-multiplexing architecture, which eliminates the need for precise matching among multiple row driver characteristics. It uses two parallel high-speed 8-b DACs with 128 sample-and-hold amplifiers (SHAs) to write a multilevel data into memory cells. The driver chip is implemented in a 0.35 µm  digital CMOS process. It consumes a 120mA power with 3/3.6 V supplies.

 

 

 

Session 15 – CMOS Scaling and Technology Implications

Cedar Ballroom, Tuesday Morning, September 18

 

Chair:  David Sunderland

Co-Chair:  Jordan Lai

 

This session of invited papers addresses important issues related to maintaining Moore’s Law scaling beyond 45nm, focusing on device technology, package technology, reliability and physical analysis.

 

8:25 am

Introduction

 

15.1

8:30 am

Reliability Trends with Advanced CMOS Scaling and the Implications for Design (INVITED PAPER),  J. McPherson, Texas Instruments

 

Scaling has pushed existing CMOS materials much closer to their intrinsic reliability limits.  With the expected introduction of new materials (metal gate electrodes, high-k gate dielectrics, strained silicon, and ultra-low interconnect dielectrics) legacy-based design rules should be challenged as to their validity when designing with these new materials. This work will focus on several key reliability issues: TDDB, NBTI, HCI, Electromigration, and Stress Migration as we continue to scale with the new materials.

 

15.2

9:20 am

Evolution of CMOS Technology at 32 nm and Beyond (INVITED PAPER),  G. Shahidi, IBM

 

Over the last 15 years, there has been a new CMOS technology node approximately every two years. The key feature of every node has been 2X density shrink and ~35% performance gain per technology node.  Chip power has been increasing rapidly, approaching air cool limit.   Power limit is transforming CMOS scaling to more of a density driver.  As we move to 32 nm node and beyond a number of additional fundamental challenges are faced, which may force additional rethinking of how scaling has been done. This paper is an overview of some upcoming challenges and possible ways of addressing them.

 

15.3

9:45 am

High-K/Metal Gate Technology: A New Horizon (INVITED PAPER),  M. Khare, IBM

 

High-K/Metal Gate technology represents a fundamental change in transistor structure that restarts gate length scaling, enables performance improvement and offers chip power reduction. The gate stack presented is compatible with conventional high temperature CMOS processing and existing performance enhancement elements. A new knob in the form of metal gate work function promises separate and better optimization for High Performance and Low Power applications. This technology introduces a unique PBTI reliability mechanism for N-FET that is now well understood and modeled.

 

10:10 am - Break

 

15.4

10:25 am

Revolutionary NanoSilicon Ancillary Technologies for Ultimate-Performance Gigascale Systems (INVITED PAPER),  M. Bakir, B. Dang and J. Meindl, Georgia Institute of Technology

 

This paper describes electrical, optical, and fluidic (or ‘trimodal’) chip I/O interconnect networks for gigascale systems to meet and exceed end-of-roadmap projections in the areas of power delivery, off-chip bandwidth, and heat removal, respectively. The trimodal I/O technology is proposed to overcome the adverse effects of conventional silicon ancillary technologies on the performance of a gigascale system. We describe trimodal I/O interconnect configurations, fabrication, assembly, and testing.

 

15.5

11:15 am

Reverse Engineering in the Semiconductor Industry (INVITED PAPER),  R. Torrance and D. James, Chipworks, Inc.

 

This paper covers the place of reverse engineering in the semiconductor industry, and the techniques used to obtain information from semiconductor products.  The paper covers product teardowns; system-level analysis, both hardware and software; circuit extraction, from the transistor level up; and process analysis, looking at how a chip is made, and what it is made of.  Examples are also given of each type of reverse engineering.