• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2009

This paper describes an implementation of the analog front end (AFE) incorporated with the image signal processing (ISP) unit in the SoC, dominating the performance of the CCD image sensor system. New schemes are exploited in the high-frequency sampling to reduce the sampling uncertainty apparently as the frequency increases, in the structure for the wide-range variable gain amplifier (VGA) capable of $0{\sim}36\;dB$ exponential gain control to meet the needed bandwidth and accuracy by adopting a new parasitic insensitive capacitor array. Moreover, the double cancellation of the black-level noise was efficiently achieved both in the analog and the digital domain. The proposed topology fabricated in a $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process was proved in a full CCD camera system of 10-bit accuracy, dissipating 80 mA at 15 MHz with a 3.3 V supply voltage.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• summer
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• pp.77-81
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• 2004

In this paper, we propose a analog front-end (AFE) for noncoherent On-Off Keying (OOK) Ultra Wide Band (UWB) system based on power detection. The proposed AFE are designed using 0.18 micron CMOS technology and verified by simulation using SPICE. The proposed AFE consist of Sample-and-Hold block, Analog-to-Digital converter, synchronizer, delayed clock generator and impulse generator. The time resolution of 1ns is obtained with 100MHz system clocks and the synchronized 10-bit digital outputs are delivered to the baseband. The impulse generator produces 1ns width pulse using digital CMOS gates. The simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed UWB AFE systems.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.34-39
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• 2016

A low-voltage, low-power analog front-end IC for neural recording implant devices is presented. The proposed IC consists of a low-noise neural amplifier and a programmable active bandpass filter to process neural signals residing in the band of 1 Hz to 5 kHz. The neural amplifier is based on a source-degenerated folded-cascode operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) for good noise performance while the following bandpass filter utilizes a low-power current-mirror based OTA with programmable high-pass cutoff frequencies from 1 Hz to 300 Hz and low-pass cutoff frequencies from 300 Hz to 8 kHz. The total recording analog front-end provides 53.1 dB of voltage gain, $4.68{\mu}Vrms$ of integrated input referred noise within 1 Hz to 10 kHz, and noise efficiency factor of 3.67. The IC is designed using $18-{\mu}m$ CMOS process and consumes a total of $3.2{\mu}W$ at 1-V supply voltage. The layout area of the IC is $0.19 mm^2$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.130-137
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• 2013

This paper presents analog front-end(AFE) circuits for bio-potential measurement. The proposed AFE is composed of IA(instrument amplifier), BPF(band-pass filter), VGA(variable gain amplifier) and SAR(successive approximation register) type ADC. The low gm(LGM) circuits with current division technique and Miller capacitance with high gain amplifier enable IA to implement on-chip AC-coupling without external passive components. Spilt capacitor array with capacitor division technique and asynchronous control make the 12-b ADC with low power consumption and small die area. The total current consumption of proposed AFE is 6.3uA at 1.8V.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.148-153
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• 2003

In this paper, the low voltage 3V Sigma-Delta Digital Analog Converter(DAC) is designed for using in the transmitter of ADSL analog front-end. We have developed the CMOS DAC according to ANSI T1.413-2(DMT) standard specifications of the chip. The designed 4th-order DAC is composed of three block which are 1-bit DAC, 1st-order Switched-Capacitor filter and analog active 2nd-order Resistor-Capacitor(RC) filter. The HSPICE simulation of the designed DAC showing 65db SNR, is connected with 1.1MHz continuous lowpass filter. And also, we have performed the circuits verification and layout verification(ERC, DRC, LVS) followed by fabrication using TSMC 2-poly 5-metal p-substrate CMOS $0.35{\mu}m$ processing parameter. Finally, the chip testing has been performed and presented in the results.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.300-311
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• 2016

The analog-to-digital-converter-based (ADC-based) backplane receivers that consist of a front-end ADC followed by a digital equalizer are gaining more popularity in recent years, as they support more sophisticated equalization required for high data rates, scale better with fabrication technology, and are more immune to PVT variations. Unfortunately, designing an ADC-based receiver that meets tight power and performance budgets of high-speed backplane link systems is non-trivial as both front-end ADC and digital equalizer can be power consuming and complex when running at high speed. This paper reviews the state of art designs for the front-end ADC and digital equalizers to suggest implementation choices that can achieve high speed while maintaining low power consumption and complexity. Design-space exploration using system-level models of the ADC-based receiver allows through analysis on the impact of design parameters, providing useful information in optimizing the power and performance of the receiver at the early stage of design. The system-level simulation results with newer device parameters reveal that, although the power consumption of the ADC-based receiver may not comparable to the receivers with analog equalizers yet, they will become more attractive as the fabrication technology continues to scale as power consumption of digital equalizer scales well with process.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.20-23
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• 2010

The analog front end (AFE) of a radio frequency identification transponder using the ISO 14443 type A standard with a 100% amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation is proposed in this paper and verified by circuit simulations and measurements. This AFE circuit, using a 13.56 MHz carrier frequency, consists of a rectifier, a modulator, a demodulator, a regulator, a power on reset, and a dynamically enabled digital phase locked loop (DPLL). The DPLL, with a charge pump enable circuit, was used to recover the clock of a 100% modulated ASK signal during the pause period. A high voltage lateral double diffused metal-oxide semiconductor transistor was used to protect the rectifier and the clock recovery circuit from high voltages. The proposed AFE was fabricated using the $0.18\;{\mu}m$ standard CMOS process, with an AFE core size of $350\;{\mu}m\;{\times}\;230\;{\mu}m$. The measurement results show that the DPLL, using a demodulator output signal, generates a constant 1.695 MHz clock during the pause period of the 100% ASK signal.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

This paper presents a design of the successive approximation ADC(SA-ADC) applicable to a midium-low speed analog-front end(AFE) for the maximum 15MS/s CCD image processing. SA-ADC is effective in applications ranging widely between low and mid data rates due to the large power scaling effect on the operating frequency variations in some other way of pipelined ADCs. The proposed design exhibits some distinctive features. The "differential capacitor-coupling scheme" segregates the input sampling behavior from the sub-DAC incorporating the differential input and the sub-DAC output, which prominently reduces the loading throughout the signal path. Determining the MSB(sign bit) from the held input data in advance of the data conversion period, a kind of the signed successive approximation, leads to the reduction of the sub-DAC hardware overhead by 1 bit and the conversion period by 1 cycle. Characterizing the proposed design in a 3.3 V $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process by Spectre simulations verified its validity of the application to CCD analog front-ends.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-119
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• 2022

A readout circuit for a mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT)-amplified mid-wave infrared (IR) photodetector was realized and applied to noncontact chemical agent detectors based on a quantum cascade laser (QCL). The QCL emitted 250 times for each wavelength in 0.2-㎛ steps from 8 to 12 ㎛ with a frequency of 100 kHz and duty ratio of 10%. Because of the nonconstant QCL emission power during on-duty, averaging the photodetector signals is essential. Averaging can be performed in digital back-end processing through a high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or in analog front-end processing through an integrator circuit. In addition, it should be considered that the 250 IR data points should be completely transferred to a PC during each wavelength tuning period of the QCL. To average and minimize the IR data, we designed a readout circuit using the analog front-end processing method. The proposed readout circuit consisted of a switched-capacitor integrator, voltage level shifter, relatively low-speed analog-to-digital converter, and micro-control unit. We confirmed that the MCT photodetector signal according to the QCL source can be accurately read and transferred to the PC without omissions.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2010

In case of sensorineural hearing loss, auditory perception can be activated by electrical stimulation of the nervous system via electrode implanted into the cochlea or auditory nerve. Since the tonotopic map of the human auditory nerve has not been definitively identified, the recording of auditory nerve signal with microelectrode is desirable for determining the tonotopic map. This paper proposes the multi-channel analog front-end for auditory nerve signal detection. A channel of the proposed analog front-end consists of an AC coupling circuit, a low-power 4th-order Gm-C LPF, and a single-slope ADC. The AC coupling circuit transfers only AC signal while it blocks DC signal level. Considering the bandwidth of the auditory signal, the Gm-C LPF is designed with OTAs adopting floating-gate technique. For the channel-parallel ADC structure, the single-slope ADC is used because it occupies the small silicon area. Experimental results shows that the AC coupling circuit and LPF have the bandwidth of 100 Hz - 6.95 kHz and the ADC has the effective resolution of 7.7 bits. The power consumption per a channel is $12\;{\mu}W$, the power supply is 3.0 V, and the core area is $2.6\;mm\;{\times}\;3.7\;mm$. The proposed analog front-end was fabricated in a 1-poly 4-metal $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process.