Session 25 – Advanced Oscillator Concepts

Oak Ballroom, Wednesday Afternoon, September 19

 

Chair:  Trudy Stetzler

Co-Chair:  Nobuyuki Itoh

 

Oscillators form the fundamental building blocks of all wireless transceivers. Oscillators also play an important role in power efficient frequency dividers.  The papers in this session examine the basic trade-offs in oscillator performance and novel low phase noise topologies.

 

1:30 pm

Introduction

 

25.1

1:35 pm

Advanced Design Techniques for Integrated Voltage Controlled LC Oscillators (Invited Paper), P. Kinget, B. Soltanian, S. Xu, S.-A. Yu and F. Zhang, Columbia University

 

25.2

2:25 pm

A 0.5-V 16GHz-20GHz Differential Injection-Locked Divider in 0.18-µm CMOS Process,  H. Zheng and H. Luong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

 

An ultra-low-voltage (ULV) differential injection-locked (IL) divider topology is presented. By making use of a double-balanced active mixer with transformer feedback (TF) and a TF-VCO, the proposed ULV-IL divider features double-balanced differential-input differential-output, an ultra-low supply voltage comparable to the device threshold voltage, and low power consumption.  Fabricated in a standard 0.18-µm CMOS process and operated at 0.5-V supply, the ULV-IL divider measures an input frequency range from 16.1 GHz to 20 GHz while consuming a total power from 2.75 mW to 4.35 mW. Moreover, two identical proposed ULV-IL dividers with differential inputs are implemented to achieve quadrature outputs with measured IQ sideband rejection of better than -35 dBc.

 

25.3

2:50 pm

A 1V 4GHz-and-10GHz Transformer-Based Dual-Band Quadrature VCO in 0.18µm CMOS,  S. Rong and H. C. Luong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

 

A notch-peak cancellation concept is introduced in transformer-based LC tanks to achieve a dual-band quadrature VCO. Fabricated in 0.18µm CMOS process and operated at 1V supply, the QVCO prototype measures a stable dual-band operation from 3.27GHz to 5.02GHz and from 9.48GHz to 11.36GHz. At 4.2GHz and 10GHz, the QVCO measures phase noise at 1MHz offset of -116.3dBc/Hz and -112dBc/Hz, and sideband rejection ratios of 49dB and 47dB while drawing 6mA and 10mA, respectively.

 

 

 

Session 26 – Imagers and MEMS

Fir Ballroom, Wednesday Afternoon, September 19

 

Chair:  Sang-Soo Lee

Co-Chair:  Makoto Nagata

 

This session presents CMOS image sensors for DNA microarrays, electrochemical and fluorescence detection, as well as a high frame rate imager and a MEMs-based system for

in-vivo neural imaging.

 

1:30 pm

Introduction

 

26.1

1:35 pm

A CMOS Image Sensor for DNA Microarrays,  S. Parikh, G. Gulak and P. Chow, The University of Toronto

 

An image sensor designed with standard 0.18 µm  CMOS technology is used to construct a DNA microarray scanner. The detection limit of 4590 fluorophores/µm2 is compared with 4.49 fluorophores/µm2 of a commercial photomultiplier-tube-based microarray scanner. The performance gap can be reduced by improving optical coupling, mechanical alignment, laser power supply noise, improved circuit noise and an increase in the conversion gain.  The CMOS sensor offers multiple-pixels for reduced scan time and an integrated analog-to-digital converter.

 

26.2

2:00 pm

Active CMOS Array for Electrochemical Sensing of Biomolecules,  P. Levine, P. Gong, K.  Shepard, Columbia University, and R. Levicky, Polytechnic University

 

We describe the design of a 4x4 active sensor array for multiplexed electrochemical biomolecular detection in a 0.25- µm -CMOS process.  Integrated potentiostats sense the current flowing through the on-chip Au electrodes that result from reactions occurring at the chip surface.  Preliminary experimental results include cyclic voltammetry of several redox species and application to DNA probe coverage characterization.

 

26.3

2:25 pm

A CMOS Array Sensor for Sub-800-ps Time-Resolved Fluorescence Detection,  T.-C. Huang, K. Shepard, P. Gong, Columbia University, and R. Levicky, Polytechnic University

 

This paper describes the design of an active CMOS sensor array for fluorescence applications which enables time-gated, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The 64 x 64 array is sensitive to photon densities as low as 8 x 106 pho-ton/cm2 with 64-point averaging and, through a differential pixel design, has a measured impulse response of better than 800 ps. Applications include both active microarrays and high-frame-rate imagers for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

 

26.4

2:50 pm

A High-Speed CMOS Image Sensor with On-chip Parallel Image Compression Circuits,  Y. Nishikawa, S. Kawahito, M. Furuta, Shizuoka University, and T. Tamura, Photron Ltd.

 

This paper presents a high-speed CMOS image sensor with on-chip parallel image compression circuits. The chip consists of a pixel array, an A/D converter array with noise canceling function and an image compression processing element array and buffer memories. The image compression processing element is implemented with a 4x4 point Discreate Cosine Transform(DCT) and a modified zigzag scanner with 4 blocks. A prototype high-speed CMOS image sensor integrating the image compression circuits is implemented based on 1-poly 5-metal 0.25-µm CMOS technology. Image encoding using the implemented parallel image compression circuits to the image captured by the high-speed image sensor is successfully performed at 3,000[frame/s].

 

26.5

3:15 pm

Integration of CMOS and MEMS Technologies in the Development of a Neural Imaging and Interface Device: Showcase of an Emerging Bioimaging Technique,  D. Ng, T. Mizuno, T. Tokuda, M. Nunoshita, H. Tamura, Y. Ishikawa, S. Shiosaka and J. Ohta, Nara Institute of Science and Technology

 

We combine MEMS technology and CMOS image sensors to develop a neural imaging and interface device.  Pt electrodes are embedded onto strategic sites on the image sensor for electrical stimulus and recording.  On-chip fluorescence imaging is realized by integrating LED chips and coating the device with an excitation light filter.  The fully-packaged device demonstrated simultaneous imaging and stimulation inside the brain.  We also verified physiologically that the brain is not impaired by the implanted device.

 

 

 

Session 27 – Substrate Noise Modeling; Behavioral Models

Pine Ballroom, Wednesday Afternoon, September 19

 

Chair:  Laurence Nagel

Co-Chair:  Gennady Gildenblat

 

Recent substrate noise models are the subject of the first part of the session.  The second part includes applications of behavioral modeling to advanced integrated circuit design.

 

1:30 pm

Introduction

 

27.1

1:35 pm

Physical Model for Power Supply Noise and Chip/Package Co-Design in Gigascale Systems with the Consideration of Hot Spots,  G. Huang, D. Sekar, A. Naeemi, J. Meindl, Georgia Institute of Technology, K. Shakeri, Cypress Semiconductor

 

An analytical physical model is derived to predict the first droop SSN noise for non-uniform current switching conditions. The model not only captures the impact of package parameters and the distributed nature of power grid and decap but also addresses the non-uniform current distribution brought by hot spots. A case study shows that both the frequency domain power noise model and the projected peak noise value have less than 1% error comparing with SPICE simulation.

 

27.2

2:00 pm

Simulation and Modeling of Substrate Noise Generation from Synchronous and Asynchronous Digital Logic Circuits,  C. Hanken, J. Le, T. Fiez and K. Mayaram, Oregon State University

 

An efficient methodology for simulating the substrate noise generated by complex synchronous and asynchronous digital logic circuits is presented. By simulating digital logic at the gate level, the substrate noise generated is used in a transistor level simulation of the sensitive analog blocks. This approach is shown to be accurate for both traditional CMOS logic and NULL Convention Logic (NCL) by correctly modeling critical gate characteristics. Simulations with different implementations of an 8051 processor core are in good agreement with measurements from a 0.25µm CMOS test chip.

 

27.3

2:25 pm

Chip-Level Substrate Noise Analysis with Emphasis of Vertical Impurity Profile for Isolation,  D. Kosaka, M. Nagata, Kobe University, Y. Murasaka, A. Iwata, A-R-Tec

 

Slice-and-stack representation of a vertical substrate impurity profile in F-matrix computation captures isolation effects of deep N-wells as well as guard rings in chip-level substrate coupling. It is elucidated that the models of substrate coupling in twin-tub and triple-well designs are dominated by the leakage of Vss noise and capacitive coupling from Vdd noise, respectively, from measurements and analysis of a reference test chip in a 0.18- µm  CMOS p-type bulk technology.

 

27.4

2:50 pm

Automated Extraction of Model Parameters for Noise Coupling Analysis in Silicon Substrates,  B. Peterson, K. Mayaram and T. Fiez, Oregon State University

 

An automated process, requiring the fabrication of only a few simple test structures, can efficiently characterize a silicon substrate by extracting the  process constants of a Z-parameter based macromodel. The resulting model is used to generate a resistive substrate network that can be used in noise coupling simulations. This process has been integrated into the Cadence DFII environment to provide a seamless substrate noise simulation package which alleviates the need for pre-characterized libraries.

 

27.5

3:15 pm

Modeling and Simulation of Noise in Closed-Loop All-Digital PLLs using Verilog-A, W. Fergusson, R. Patel and W. Bereza, Altera Corp.

 

The modeling and simulation of an all-digital PLL is presented. Verilog-A, owing to its flexibility, is used to create both behavioral and gate-level models used in system-level and circuit-based simulation. The methodology presented allows us to simulate the PLL closed-loop and accurately take into account reference phase noise, DCO phase noise, quantization noise and any excess of it, allowing us to validate our jitter budget for any given application.

 

3:40 pm – Break

 

27.6

3:50 pm

Time-Domain Modeling of a Phase-Domain All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop for RF Applications,  I. Syllaios, P. Balsara, University of Texas, and R. Staszewski, Texas Instruments

 

A new all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) for RF wireless applications has recently been proposed and commercially demonstrated. It replaces conventional phase/frequency detector and charge pump with a time-to-digital converter (TDC). Analog frequency tuning of a VCO is replaced with an all-digital tuning of a digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO). In this paper, we present novel time-domain modeling and simulation techniques of the ADPLL phase detection mechanism. The modeling principles are validated through experimental results.

 

27.7

4:15 pm

Accurate Modeling of RF Circuit Blocks: Weakly-Nonlinear Narrowband LNAs,  J. Croon, D. Leenaerts and D. Klaassen, NXP Semiconductors

 

An extensive behavioral model is presented for weakly-nonlinear narrowband LNAs. The electrical transfer, intermodulation, and noise properties are all well described. Performance figures can be predicted for varying source and load conditions. A Verilog-A implementation facilitates cross-platform simulations. The model is compared to transistor-level simulations of a simple textbook LNA and of a state-of-the-art 65nm CMOS LNA in combination with a mixer. Excellent agreements are achieved.

 

27.8

4:40 pm

Analytical Eye-diagram Model for On-chip Distortionless Transmission Lines and Its Application to Design Space Exploration,  M. Hashimoto, J. Siriporn, Osaka University, A. Tsuchiya, Kyoto University, H. Zhu and C.-K. Cheng, University of California, San Diego

 

This paper proposes a closed-form eye-diagram model for on-chip distortionless transmission lines with intentionally inserted shunt conductance. We derive expressions of eye-opening both in voltage and time, by assuming a piece-wise linear waveform model. The model is experimentally verified. We also apply the  proposed model to design trade-off analysis.