• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2018

In this paper, an energy-efficient 11.49-bit successive approximation register (SAR) capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) for capacitive sensors with a figure of merit (FoM) of 31.6 pJ/conversion-step is presented. The CDC employs a SAR algorithm to obtain low power consumption and a simplified structure. The proposed circuit uses a capacitive sensing amplifier (CSA) and a dynamic latch comparator to achieve parasitic capacitance-insensitive operation. The CSA adopts a correlated double sampling (CDS) technique to reduce flicker (1/f) noise to achieve low-noise characteristics. The SAR algorithm is implemented in dual operating mode, using an 8-bit coarse programmable capacitor array in the capacitance-domain and an 8-bit R-2R digital-to-analog converter (DAC) in the charge-domain. The proposed CDC achieves a wide input capacitance range of 29.4 pF and a high resolution of 0.449 fF. The CDC is fabricated in a $0.18-{\mu}m$ 1P6M complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process with an active area of 0.55 mm2. The total power consumption of the CDC is $86.4{\mu}W$ with a 1.8-V supply. The SAR CDC achieves a measured 11.49-bit resolution within a conversion time of 1.025 ms and an energy-efficiency FoM of 31.6 pJ/step.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.97-105
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• 2016

Microcontrollers (MCUs) for endpoint smart sensor devices of internet-of-thing (IoT) are being implemented as system-on-chip (SoC) with on-chip instruction flash memory, in which user firmware is embedded. MCUs directly fetch binary code-based instructions through bit-line sense amplifier (S/A) integrated with on-chip flash memory. The S/A compares bit cell current with reference current to identify which data are programmed. The S/A in reading '0' (erased) cell data consumes a large sink current, which is greater than off-current for '1' (programmed) cell data. The main motivation of our approach is to reduce the number of accesses of erased cells by binary code level transformation. This paper proposes a built-in write/read path architecture using binary code inversion method based on hot-spot region detection of instruction code access to reduce sensing current in S/A. From the profiling result of instruction access patterns, hot-spot region of an original compiled binary code is conditionally inverted with the proposed bit-inversion techniques. The de-inversion hardware only consumes small logic current instead of analog sink current in S/A and it is integrated with the conventional S/A to restore original binary instructions. The proposed techniques are applied to the fully-custom designed MCU with ARM Cortex-M0$^{TM}$ using 0.18um Magnachip Flash-embedded CMOS process and the benefits in terms of power consumption reduction are evaluated for Dhrystone$^{TM}$ benchmark. The profiling environment of instruction code executions is implemented by extending commercial ARM KEIL$^{TM}$ MDK (MCU Development Kit) with our custom-designed access analyzer.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2010

In this paper, we proposed the adaptive local sigma filter reducing noises generated by an image sensor. The small noises generated by the image sensor are amplified by increased an analog gain and an exposure time of the image sensor together with information. And the goal of this work was the system design that is reduce the these amplified noises. Edge data are extracted by Flatness Index Map algorithm. We made the threshold adaptively changeable by the luminance average in this algorithm that extracts the edge data not in high luminance, but just low luminance. The Local Sigma Filter performed only about the edge pixel that were extracted by Flatness Index Map algorithm. To verify the performance of the designed filter, we made the Window test program. The hardware was designed with HDL language. We verified the hardware performance of Local Sigma Filter system using FPGA Demonstration board and HD image sensor, $1280{\times}720$ image size and 30 frames per second.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.861-862
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• 2015

In this paper we present a low area 12-bit SAR ADC (Successive Approximation Register Analog-to-Digital Converter). The proposed circuit is fabricated using Magnachip/SK Hynix 1-Poly 6-Metal $0.18-{\mu}m$ CMOS process, and it is powered by a 1.8-V supply. Total chip area is reduced by replacing the MIM capacitors with MOS capacitors instead of the capacitors consisting of overall part in chip area. The proposed circuit showed improved power dissipation of 1.9mW, and chip area of $0.45mm^2$ as compared to conventional research results at the power supply of 1.8V. The designed circuit also showed high SNDR (Signal-to-Noise Distortion Ratio) of 70.51dB, and excellent effective number of bits of 11.4bits.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.58-67
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• 2009

This paper presents a fully digital gain control system with a new high bandwidth and wide dynamic range power detector for DVB-S2 application. Because the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of DVB-S2 system is so high and the settling time requirement is so stringent, the conventional closed-loop analog gain control scheme cannot be used. The digital gain control is necessary for the robust gain control and the direct digital interface with the baseband modem. Also, it has several advantages over the analog gain control in terms of the settling time and insensitivity to the process, voltage and temperature variation. In order to have a wide gain range with fine step resolution, a new AGC system is proposed. The system is composed of high-bandwidth digital VGAs, wide dynamic range power detectors with RMS detector, low power SAR type ADC, and a digital gain controller. To reduce the power consumption and chip area, only one SAR type ADC is used, and its input is time-interleaved based on four power detectors. Simulation and measurement results show that the new AGC system converges with gain error less than 0.25 dB to the desired level within $10{\mu}s$. It is implemented in a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The measurement results of the proposed IF AGC system exhibit 80-dB gain range with 0.25-dB resolution, 8 nV/$\sqrt{Hz}$ input referred noise, and 5-dBm $IIP_3$ at 60-mW power consumption. The power detector shows the 35dB dynamic range for 100 MHz input.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.63-73
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• 2015

This work proposes a 2-channel time-interleaved (T-I) 10b 120MS/s pipeline SAR ADC minimizing offset mismatch between channels without any calibration scheme. The proposed ADC employs a 2-channel SAR and T-I topology based on a 2-step pipeline ADC with 4b and 7b in the first and second stage for high conversion rate and low power consumption. Analog circuits such as comparator and residue amplifier are shared between channels to minimize power consumption, chip area, and offset mismatch which limits the ADC linearity in the conventional T-I architecture, without any calibration scheme. The TSPC D flip-flop with a short propagation delay and a small number of transistors is used in the SAR logic instead of the conventional static D flip-flop to achieve high-speed SAR operation as well as low power consumption and chip area. Three separate reference voltage drivers for 4b SAR, 7b SAR circuits and a single residue amplifier prevent undesirable disturbance among the reference voltages due to each different switching operation and minimize gain mismatch between channels. High-frequency clocks with a controllable duty cycle are generated on chip to eliminate the need of external complicated high-frequency clocks for SAR operation. The prototype ADC in a 45nm CMOS technology demonstrates a measured DNL and INL within 0.69LSB and 0.77LSB, with a maximum SNDR and SFDR of 50.9dB and 59.7dB at 120MS/s, respectively. The proposed ADC occupies an active die area of 0.36mm2 and consumes 8.8mW at a 1.1V supply voltage.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.87-97
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• 2016

This work proposes a time-shared 10b DAC based on a two-step resistor string to minimize the effective area of a DAC channel for driving each AMOLED display column. The proposed DAC shows a lower effective DAC area per unit column driver and a faster conversion speed than the conventional DACs by employing a time-shared DEMUX and a ROM-based two-step decoder of 6b and 4b in the first and second resistor string. In the second-stage 4b floating resistor string, a simple current source rather than a unity-gain buffer decreases the loading effect and chip area of a DAC channel and eliminates offset mismatch between channels caused by buffer amplifiers. The proposed 1-to-24 DEMUX enables a single DAC channel to drive 24 columns sequentially with a single-phase clock and a 5b binary counter. A 0.9pF sampling capacitor and a small-sized source follower in the input stage of each column-driving buffer amplifier decrease the effect due to channel charge injection and improve the output settling accuracy of the buffer amplifier while using the top-plate sampling scheme in the proposed DAC. The proposed DAC in a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS shows a signal settling time of 62.5ns during code transitions from '$000_{16}$' to '$3FF_{16}$'. The prototype DAC occupies a unit channel area of $0.058mm^2$ and an effective unit channel area of $0.002mm^2$ while consuming 6.08mW with analog and digital power supplies of 3.3V and 1.8V, respectively.