• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.62-71
• /
• 2017

This paper presents a low-power voltage converter based on a reconfigurable capacitor array. Its energy recycling capacitor array stores the energy during a charge stage and supplies the voltage during an energy recycle stage even after the power source is disconnected. The converter reconfigures the capacitor array step-wise to boost the lost voltage level during the energy recycle stage. Its energy saving is particularly effective when most of the energy remaining in the charge capacitors is wasted by the leakage current during a longer sleep period. Simulations have been conducted using a voltage source of 500 mV to supply a $V_{DD}$ of around 800 mV to a load circuit consisting of four 32-bit adders in a 65-nm CMOS process. Results demonstrate energy recycling efficiency of 85.86% and overall energy saving of 40.14% compared to a conventional converter, when the load circuit is shortly active followed by a long sleep period.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.387-400
• /
• 2017

A new junction-splitting based SAR ADC with a redundant searching capacitor array structure in $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS process to alleviate capacitor mismatch effects, is presented. The normalized average power has a factor of 0.35 to the conventional SAR ADC at 10-bit conversion accuracy. Statistical experiments show the number of missing codes resulting from the mismatch reduces by 95% for 3% unit-capacitor mismatch ratio, while keeping the conversion energy to that of the conventional JS capacitor array.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.172-180
• /
• 2012

Z-source inverters (ZSI) are used to realize both DC voltage boost and DC-AC inversion in single stage with a reduced number of power switching devices. A traditional MPPT control algorithm provides a shoot-through interval which should be inserted in the switching waveforms of the inverter to output the maximum power to the Z-network. At this instant, the voltage across the Z-source capacitor is equal to the output voltage of a PV array at the maximum power point (MPP). The control of the Z-source capacitor voltage beyond the MPP voltage of a PV array is not facilitated in traditional MPPT algorithms. This paper presents a unified MPPT control algorithm to simultaneously achieve MPPT as well as Z-source capacitor voltage control. Development and implementation of the proposed algorithm and a comparison with traditional results are discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed unified MPPT control strategy is implemented in Matlab/Simulink software and verified by experimental results.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.594-602
• /
• 2013

This paper proposes printed organic one-time programmable read-only memory (PROM). The organic PROM cell consists of a capacitor and an organic p-type metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor. Initially, all organic PROM cells with unbroken capacitors store "0." Some organic PROM cells are programmed to "1" by electrically breaking each capacitor with a high voltage. After the capacitor breaking, the current flowing through the PROM cell significantly increases. The memory data is read out by sensing the current in the PROM cell. 16-bit organic PROM cell arrays are fabricated with the printed organic PMOS transistor and capacitor process. The organic PROM cells are programmed with -50 V, and they are read out with -20 V. The area of the 16-bit organic PROM array is 70.6 $mm^2$.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.30-38
• /
• 1984

In this paper, we designed the programmable 2nd order switched capacitor filter that the center frequency can be varied linearly with the clock frequency, and that the peak gaion and the selectivity can be controlled with digital signal by the capacitor array. In addition, speech synthesizer system was constructed with this filter, korean consonants being synthesized. Therefore, this filter shows the possibility that most Korean language sounds can be synthesized in the real time mode.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.579-587
• /
• 2014

This paper presents a variable gain amplifier (VGA) for an analog front-end (AFE) of ultrasound medical imaging. This VGA has a closed-loop topology and shows a 37-dB-linear characteristic with a single-stage amplifier. It consists of an op-amp, a non-binary-weighted capacitor array, and a gain-control block. This non-binary-weighted capacitor array reduces the required number of capacitors and the complexity of the gain-control block. The VGA has been fabricated in a 0.35-mm CMOS process. This work gives the largest gain range of 37 dB per stage, the largest P1 dB of 9.5 dBm at the 3.3-V among the recent VGA circuits available in the literature. The voltage gain is controlled in the range of [-10, 27] dB in a linear-in-dB scale with 16 steps by a 4-bit digital code. The VGA has a bandpass characteristic with a passband of [20 kHz, 8 MHz].

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.108-113
• /
• 2013

This paper describes a low power asynchronous successive approximation register (SAR) type 12b analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for biomedical applications in a 0.35 ${\mu}m$ CMOS technology. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) uses a capacitive split-arrays consisting of 6-b main array, an attenuation capacitor C and a 5-b sub array for low power consumption and small die area. Moreover, splitting the MSB capacitor into sub-capacitors and an asynchronous SAR reduce power consumption. The measurement results show that the proposed ADC achieved the SNDR of 68.32 dB, the SFDR of 79 dB, and the ENOB (effective number of bits) of 11.05 bits. The measured INL and DNL were 1.9LSB and 1.5LSB, respectively. The power consumption including all the digital circuits is 6.7 ${\mu}W$ at the sampling frequency of 100 KHz under 3.3 V supply voltage and the FoM (figure of merit) is 49 fJ/conversion-step.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.137-146
• /
• 2009

We present a micromechanical digital-to-analog (DA) variable capacitor using a parallel digital actuator array, capable of accomplishing high-Q tuning. The present DA variable capacitor uses a parallel interconnection of digital actuators, thus achieving a low resistive structure. Based on the criteria for capacitance range ($0.348{\sim}1.932$ pF) and the actuation voltage (25 V), the present parallel DA variable capacitor is estimated to have a quality factor 2.0 times higher than the previous serial-parallel DA variable capacitor. In the experimental study, the parallel DA variable capacitor changes the total capacitance from 2.268 to 3.973 pF (0.5 GHz), 2.384 to 4.197 pF (1.0 GHz), and 2.773 to 4.826 pF (2.5 GHz), thus achieving tuning ratios of 75.2%, 76.1%, and 74.0%, respectively. The capacitance precisions are measured to be $6.16{\pm}4.24$ fF (0.5 GHz), $7.42{\pm}5.48$ fF (1.0 GHz), and $9.56{\pm}5.63$ fF (2.5 GHz). The parallel DA variable capacitor shows the total resistance of $2.97{\pm}0.29\;{\Omega}$ (0.5 GHz), $3.01{\pm}0.42\;{\Omega}$ (1.0 GHz), and $4.32{\pm}0.66\;{\Omega}$ (2.5 GHz), resulting in high quality factors which are measured to be $33.7{\pm}7.8$ (0.5 GHz), $18.5{\pm}4.9$ (1.0 GHz), and $4.3{\pm}1.4$ (2.5 GHz) for large capacitance values ($2.268{\sim}4.826$ pF). We experimentally verify the high-Q tuning capability of the present parallel DA variable capacitor, while achieving high-precision capacitance adjustments.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.139-145
• /
• 2024

This paper presents the design of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) which is one of the key building blocks in modern wireless communication systems with small VCO gain (K_vco) variation. To compensate conventional large K_vco variation, a series varactor bank has been added to the conventional LC-tank with parallel capacitor bank array. And also, in order to achieve excellent phase noise performance while maintaining wide tuning range, a mixed coarse/fine tuning scheme(series varactor array and parallel capacitor array) is chosen. The switched varactor array bank is controlled by the same digital code for switched capacitor array without additional digital circuits. For use at a low voltage of 1.2V, the proposed current reference circuit in this paper used a current reference circuit for safety with the common gate removed more safely. Implemented in a TSMC 0.13㎛ CMOS RF technology, the proposed VCO can be tuned from 4.4GH to 5.3GHz with the K_vco (VCO gain ) variation of less than 9.6%. While consuming 3.1mA from a 1.2V supply, the VCO has -120dBc/Hz phase noise at 1MHz offset from the carrier of the 5.3 GHz.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.9
• /
• pp.1755-1762
• /
• 2016

In this paper, a small areal dual-output SC(switched capacitor) DC-DC converter with a improved range of an input voltage is presented. The conventional SC DC-DC converter has an advantage of low cost and small chip area. But, it has a narrow input voltage range to convert efficiently. Also, it has a lager chip area and a lower power efficiency from multiple outputs. The proposed SC DC-DC converter improves the power efficiency by using the capacitor array structure which efficiently converts the voltage according to the input voltage. By sharing two switch array, it reduces the number of switches and capacitors from 32 to 25. The proposed SC DC-DC converter was manufactured in a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. In the simulation, the range of the input voltage is 0.7~ 1.8V, the max. power efficiency is 90%, and the chip area is $0.255mm^2$.