Inductive effect becomes important for on-chip global interconnects, like the power/ground (P/G) grid. Because of the locality property of partial reluctance, the inverse of partial inductance, the window-based partial reluctance extraction has been applied for large-scale interconnect structures. In this paper, an efficient method of partial reluctance extraction is proposed for large-scale regular P/G grid structures. With a block reuse technique, the proposed method makes full use of the structural regularity of the P/G grid. Numerical results demonstrate the proposed method is able to efficiently handle a P/G grid with up to one hundred thousands wire segments. It is several tens times faster than the window-based method, while generating accurate frequency-dependent partial reluctance and resistance.

A novel DC-to-960 MHz impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transceiver based on threshold detection technique is developed. It features a digital pulse-shaping transmitter, a DC power-free pulse discriminator and an error-recovery phase-frequency detector. The developed transceiver in 90 nm CMOS achieves the lowest energy consumption of 2.2 pJ/bit transmitter and 1.9 pJ/bit receiver at 100 Mbps in the UWB transceivers.

Frequency-domain equalization (FDE) based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion can provide better downlink bit error rate (BER) performance of direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) than the conventional rake combining in a frequency-selective fading channel. FDE requires accurate channel estimation. In this paper, we propose a new 2-step maximum likelihood channel estimation (MLCE) for DS-CDMA with FDE in a very slow frequency-selective fading environment. The 1st step uses the conventional pilot-assisted MMSE-CE and the 2nd step carries out the MLCE using decision feedback from the 1st step. The BER performance improvement achieved by 2-step MLCE over pilot assisted MMSE-CE is confirmed by computer simulation.

In this letter, a pilot-less sampling frequency offset estimation scheme is presented for ultra-wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (UWB-OFDM) systems. This scheme is based on the fact that two consecutive symbols convey the same information in the UWB-OFDM system, thus removing the need of pilot symbols. The performance of mean square error has been evaluated through simulation to verify the usefulness of the proposed scheme.

In this letter, we propose a simple but accurate calculation method, that is, an approximate closed-form equation of average bit error rate in DPSK/OFDM systems with post-detection diversity reception over both time- and frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. The validity of the proposed method is verified by the fact that BER performances given by the derived equation coincide with those by Monte Carlo simulation.

The use of frequency-domain interleaving on a frame-by-frame basis for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) combined with time division multiplexing (OFDM/TDM) is presented. In conventional OFDM, FDE is not designed to exploit the channel frequency-selectivity and consequently, the frequency diversity gain cannot be obtained. To further improve the bit error rate (BER) performance of conventional OFDM an interleaving technique may be applied, but FDE cannot be fully exploited. In this letter, the OFDM/TDM signal (i.e., several concatenated OFDM signals) frequency components are interleaved at the transmitter and then, minimum mean square error frequency-domain equalization (MMSE-FDE) is applied at the receiver to obtain a larger frequency diversity gain. It is shown that frequency-domain interleaving on a frame-by-frame basis for OFDM/TDM using MMSE-FDE achieves improved BER performance in comparison with conventional OFDM due to enhanced frequency diversity gain.

Frequency-domain equalization (FDE) based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion can provide a better bit error rate (BER) performance than rake combining. To further improve the BER performance, cyclic delay transmit diversity (CDTD) can be used. CDTD simultaneously transmits the same signal from different antennas after adding different cyclic delays to increase the number of equivalent propagation paths. Although a joint use of CDTD and MMSE-FDE for direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) achieves larger frequency diversity gain, the BER performance improvement is limited by the residual inter-chip interference (ICI) after FDE. In this paper, we propose joint FDE and despreading for DS-CDMA using CDTD. Equalization and despreading are simultaneously performed in the frequency-domain to suppress the residual ICI after FDE. A theoretical conditional BER analysis is presented for the given channel condition. The BER analysis is confirmed by computer simulation.

Single-carrier (SC) multiple access is a promising uplink multiple access technique because of its low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) property and high frequency diversity gain that is achievable through simple one-tap frequency-domain equalization (FDE) in a strong frequency-selective channel. The multiple access capability can be obtained by combining either frequency division multiple access (FDMA) or code division multiple access (CDMA) with SC transmission. In this article, we review the recent research on the SC multiple access techniques with one-tap FDE. After introducing the principle of joint FDE/antenna diversity combining, we review various SC multiple access techniques with one-tap FDE, i.e., SC-FDMA, SC-CDMA, block spread CDMA, and delay-time/CDMA.

This paper investigates the best cell-common reference signal (RS) structure and transmit diversity scheme for Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) signals considering frequency diversity in a single-frequency network (SFN) in the OFDM based Evolved UTRA downlink. Link-level simulation results show that cyclic delay diversity (CDD) is the most promising transmit diversity scheme for the MBMS signals considering the RS overhead. It is also elucidated that the required average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) using CDD is reduced by approximately 0.5 dB even though the MBMS signal obtains a sufficient frequency diversity gain in SFN operation. Furthermore, we clarify the achievable data rate for the MBMS signal at the cell edge of the centered MBMS cell that satisfies the required block error rate (BLER) using two-antenna transmit CDD and diversity reception by system-level simulation. Then, the simulation results show that the offered data rates with the required BLER of less than 10-2 at 95% coverage are 0.211 (0.17), 0.243 (0.196), 1.168 (1.084), and 2.754 (2.754) bps/Hz with the number of cells providing MBMS, NMBMS = 1, 3, 21, and 57, respectively, employing transmit CDD with two antennas (single-antenna transmission) for ISD = 500 m.

In the Evolved UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) downlink, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based radio access was adopted because of its inherent immunity to multipath interference and flexible accommodation of different spectrum arrangements. This paper presents the optimum adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) scheme when resource blocks (RBs) is simultaneously assigned to the same user when frequency and time domain channel-dependent scheduling is assumed in the downlink OFDMA radio access with single-antenna transmission. We start by presenting selection methods for the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) employing mutual information both for RB-common and RB-dependent modulation schemes. Simulation results show that, irrespective of the application of power adaptation to RB-dependent modulation, the improvement in the achievable throughput of the RB-dependent modulation scheme compared to that for the RB-common modulation scheme is slight, i.e., 4 to 5%. In addition, the number of required control signaling bits in the RB-dependent modulation scheme becomes greater than that for the RB-common modulation scheme. Therefore, we conclude that the RB-common modulation and channel coding rate scheme is preferred, when multiple RBs of the same coded stream are assigned to one user in the case of single-antenna transmission.

Frequency-domain equalization (FDE) based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion can increase the downlink bit error rate (BER) performance of DS-CDMA beyond that possible with conventional rake combining in a frequency-selective fading channel. FDE requires accurate channel estimation. Recently, we proposed a pilot-assisted channel estimation (CE) based on the MMSE criterion. Using MMSE-CE, the channel estimation accuracy is almost insensitive to the pilot chip sequence, and a good BER performance is achieved. In this paper, we propose a channel estimation scheme using one-tap recursive least square (RLS) algorithm, where the forgetting factor is adapted to the changing channel condition by the least mean square (LMS) algorithm, for DS-CDMA with FDE. We evaluate the BER performance using RLS-CE with adaptive forgetting factor in a frequency-selective fast Rayleigh fading channel by computer simulation.

As the demand for reliable high speed data transmission increases, the capacity of downlink cellular multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is of much interest. Unfortunately, the capacity analysis regarding the frequency reuse factor (FRF) is rarely reported. In this paper, theoretical analyses for both ergodic and outage capacities for cellular MIMO systems are presented. The FRF is considered and a hybrid frequency reuse scheme is proposed. It is shown by the numerical results that the proposed scheme can greatly alleviate the coverage problem of single-frequency-reuse cellular systems.

A novel transmit diversity scheme with space-time-frequency coded training sequence is proposed to perform channel estimation flexibly over doubly selective channel, which offers a trade-off between maximum delay spread and maximum Doppler spread. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed flexible channel estimation method under different propagation conditions.

In this paper, a compact channel thermal noise model for short-channel MOSFETs is presented and applied to the radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design. Based on the analysis of the relationship among different short-channel effects such as velocity saturation effect (VSE), channel-length modulation (CLM), and carrier heating effect (CHE), the compact model for the channel thermal noise was analytically derived as a simple form. In order to simulate MOSFET's noise characteristics in circuit simulators, an appropriate methodology is proposed. The used compact noise model is verified by comparing simulated results to the measured data at device and circuit level by using 65 nm and 130 nm CMOS technologies, respectively.

An on-chip power supply noise canceller with higher voltage supply and switching transistor is proposed and the effectiveness of the canceller is experimentally verified. The noise canceller is effective for nano-second order noise caused by circuit wakeup or step increase of frequency in frequency hopping. The principle of the noise canceller is to reduce the current flowing through the supply line of VDD by injecting additional current from the higher voltage supply, so that the voltage drop across the VDD supply line is reduced. As additional current flow from higher supply, switching transistor has to be turned off not to increase the power consumption. With turn-off time of 2L/R, this current can be turned off without inducting another droop due to the increase of current flowing through the power supply line. The measurement shows the canceller reduces 68% of the noise with load circuit equivalent to 530 k logic gates in 90-nm CMOS with 9% wire overhead, 1.5% area overhead, and 3% power overhead at 50 k wake-ups/s. Compared to passive noise reduction, proposed noise canceller reduces power supply noise by 64% without wire overhead and to achieve same noise reduction with passive method, 77 times more C or 45 times less L is required. Too large switching transistor results in saturated noise reduction effect and higher power consumption. A rule-of-thumb is to set the on-resistance to supply 100% of load current when turned-on.

Logical operations in CMOS digital integration are highly prone to fail as the amount of power supply (PS) drop approaches to failure threshold. PS voltage variation is characterized by built-in noise monitors in a 32-bit microprocessor of 90-nm CMOS technology, and related with operation failures by instruction-level programming for logical failure analysis. Combination of voltage drop size and activated logic path determines failure sensitivity and class of failures. Experimental observation as well as simplified simulation is applied for the detailed understanding of the impact of PS noise on logical operations of digital integrated circuits.

A dual band 0.18 µm CMOS LC-tank injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) is proposed. The ILFD circuit is realized with a cross-coupled pMOS LC-tank oscillator with an inductor switch for frequency band selection. The self-oscillating VCO is injection-locked by nth-harmonic input to obtain the division factor of n. The division ratio of 1, 2, and 3 has been found for the proposed ILFD. Measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 1.1 V, the free-running frequency is from 2.28(3.09) GHz to 2.78(3.72) GHz for the low- (high-) frequency band. The power consumption of the ILFD core is 3.7 mW (6.2 mW) at low (high) band. The total area including the output buffer and the pads is 0.8410.764 mm2.

In this paper, we propose a subcarrier resource allocation algorithm for managing the video quality degradation for multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) systems. The proposed algorithm exploits the unequal importance existing in different picture types for video coding and the diversity of subcarriers for multiuser systems. A model-based performance metric is first derived considering the error concealment and error propagation properties of the H.264 video coding structure. Based on the information on video quality enhancement existing in a packet to be transmitted, we propose the distortion management algorithm for balancing the subcarriers and power usages for each user and minimizing the overall video quality degradation. In the simulation results, the proposed algorithm demonstrates a more gradual video quality degradation for different numbers of users compared with other resource allocation schemes.

The heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure based on the time position of the electrocardiogram (ECG) R-waves. There is a discussion whether or not we can obtain the HRV pattern from blood pressure (BP). In this paper, we propose a method for estimating HRV from a BP signal based on a HIF algorithm and carrying out experiments to compare BP as an alternative measurement of ECG to calculate HRV. Based on the hypotheses that ECG and BP have the same harmonic behavior, we model an alternative HRV signal using a nonlinear algorithm, called heart instantaneous frequency (HIF). It tracks the instantaneous frequency through a rough fundamental frequency using power spectral density (PSD). A novelty in this work is to use fundamental frequency instead of wave-peaks as a parameter to estimate and quantify beat-to-beat heart rate variability from BP waveforms. To verify how the estimate HRV signals derived from BP using HIF correlates to the standard gold measures, i.e. HRV derived from ECG, we use a traditional algorithm based on QRS detectors followed by thresholding to localize the R-wave time peak. The results show the following: 1) The spectral error caused by misestimation of time by R-peak detectors is demonstrated by an increase in high-frequency bands followed by the loss of time domain pattern. 2) The HIF was shown to be robust against noise and nuisances. 3) By using statistical methods and nonlinear analysis no difference between HIF derived from BP and HRV derived from ECG was observed.

A sound field reproduction method is proposed that uses blind source separation and a head-related transfer function. In the proposed system, multichannel acoustic signals captured at distant microphones are decomposed to a set of location/signal pairs of virtual sound sources based on frequency-domain independent component analysis. After estimating the locations and the signals of the virtual sources by convolving the controlled acoustic transfer functions with each signal, the spatial sound is constructed at the selected point. In experiments, a sound field made by six sound sources is captured using 48 distant microphones and decomposed into sets of virtual sound sources. Since subjective evaluation shows no significant difference between natural and reconstructed sound when six virtual sources and are used, the effectiveness of the decomposing algorithm as well as the virtual source representation are confirmed.