Motivated by consumer demand for smaller, more portable electronic devices that offer more features and operate for longer on their existing battery packs, cutting edge electronic circuits need to be ever more power efficient. For the circuit designer, this requires an understanding of the latest low voltage and low power (LV/LP) techniques, one of the most promising of which makes use of the floating gate MOS (FGMOS) transistor.
Based on the work of MIT graduate students Alice Wang and Benton Calhoun, this book surveys the field of sub-threshold and low-voltage design and explores such aspects of sub-threshold circuit design as modeling, logic and memory circuit design. One important chapter of the book is dedicated to optimizing energy dissipation - a key metric for energy constrained designs. This book also includes invited chapters on the subject of analog sub-threshold circuits.
Este libro contiene las presentaciones de la XVII Conferencia de Diseño de Circuitos y Sistemas Integrados celebrado en el Palacio de la Magdalena, Santander, en noviembre de 2002. Esta Conferencia ha alcanzado un alto nivel de calidad, como consecuencia de su tradición y madurez, que lo convierte en uno de los acontecimientos más importantes para los circuitos de microelectrónica y la comunidad de diseño de sistemas en el sur de Europa. Desde su origen tiene una gran contribución de Universidades españolas, aunque hoy los autores participan desde catorce países
Low-Voltage CMOS Log Companding Analog Design presents in detail state-of-the-art analog circuit techniques for the very low-voltage and low-power design of systems-on-chip in CMOS technologies. The proposed strategy is mainly based on two bases: the Instantaneous Log Companding Theory, and the MOSFET operating in the subthreshold region. The former allows inner compression of the voltage dynamic-range for very low-voltage operation, while the latter is compatible with CMOS technologies and suitable for low-power circuits. The required background on the specific modeling of the MOS transistor for Companding is supplied at the beginning. Following this general approach, a complete set of CMOS basic building blocks is proposed and analyzed for a wide variety of analog signal processing. In particular, the covered areas include: amplification and AGC, arbitrary filtering, PTAT generation, and pulse duration modulation (PDM). For each topic, several case studies are considered to illustrate the design methodology. Also, integrated examples in 1.2um and 0.35um CMOS technologies are reported to verify the good agreement between design equations and experimental data. The resulting analog circuit topologies exhibit very low-voltage (i.e. 1V) and low-power (few tenths of uA) capabilities. Apart from these specific design examples, a real industrial application in the field of hearing aids is also presented as the main demonstrator of all the proposed basic building blocks. This system-on-chip exhibits true 1V operation, high flexibility through digital programmability and very low-power consumption (about 300uA including the Class-D amplifier). As a result, the reported ASIC can meet the specifications of a complete family of common hearing aid models. In conclusion, this book is addressed to both industry ASIC designers who can apply its contents to the synthesis of very low-power systems-on-chip in standard CMOS technologies, as well as to the teachers of modern circuit design in electronic engineering.
The area of analog integrated circuits is facing some serious challenges due to the ongoing trends towards low supply voltages, low power consumption and high-frequency operation. The situation is becoming even more complicated by the fact that many transfer functions have to be tunable or controllable. A promising approach to facing these challenges is given by the class of dynamic translinear circuits, which are, as a consequence, receiving increasing interest. Several different names are used in literature: log-domain, exponential state-space, current-mode companding, instantaneous companding, tanh-domain, sinh-domain, polynomial state-space, square-root domain and translinear filters. In fact, all these groups are (overlapping) subclasses of the overall class of dynamic translinear circuits. Research Perspectives on Dynamic Translinear and Log-Domain Circuits is a compilation of research findings in this growing field. It comprises ten contributions, coming from recognized `dynamic-translinear' researchers in Europe and North America. Research Perspectives on Dynamic Translinear and Log-Domain Circuits is an edited volume of original research.
Dynamic Translinear and Log-Domain Circuits: Analysis and Synthesis covers both the analysis and synthesis of translinear circuits. The theory is presented using one unifying framework for both static and dynamic translinear networks, which is based on a current-mode approach. General analysis methods are presented, including the large-signal and non-stationary analysis of noise. A well-structured synthesis method is described greatly enhancing the designability of log-domain and translinear circuits. Comparisons are made with respect to alternative analysis and synthesis methods presented in the literature. The theory is illustrated and verified by various examples and realizations.
An introduction to the design of analog VLSI circuits. Neuromorphic engineers work to improve the performance of artificial systems through the development of chips and systems that process information collectively using primarily analog circuits. This book presents the central concepts required for the creative and successful design of analog VLSI circuits. The discussion is weighted toward novel circuits that emulate natural signal processing. Unlike most circuits in commercial or industrial applications, these circuits operate mainly in the subthreshold or weak inversion region. Moreover, their functionality is not limited to linear operations, but also encompasses many interesting nonlinear operations similar to those occurring in natural systems. Topics include device physics, linear and nonlinear circuit forms, translinear circuits, photodetectors, floating-gate devices, noise analysis, and process technology.
