A novel design for temperature-compensated complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) voltage reference sources by using the 1st order voltage reference taking into account the electrical property of the conventional current generator was proposed to minimize a temperature coefficient. A temperature coefficient of the proposed voltage reference source was estimated by using the current generator, which operated at smaller or larger temperature in comparison with the optimized operating temperature. The temperature coefficient at temperature range between -40 and 125, obtained from the simulated data by using hynix 0.35 µm CMOS technology, was 3.33 ppm/. The simulated results indicate that the proposed temperature-compensated CMOS voltage reference sources by using the 1st order voltage reference taking into account the electrical properties of the conventional current generator can be used to decrease the temperature coefficient.

Aiming at drastically reducing standby leakage current, an SRAM using Four-Terminal- (4T-) FinFETs, named Flex-Vth SRAM, with a dynamic row-by-row threshold voltage control (RRTC) was developed. The Flex-Vth SRAM realizes an extremely low standby-leakage current thanks to the flexible threshold-voltage (Vth) controllability of the 4T-FinFETs, while its access speed and static noise margin (SNM) are maintained. A TCAD-based Monte Carlo simulation indicates that even when the process-induced random variation in the device performance is taken into account, the Flex-Vth SRAM reduces the leakage current to 1/100 of that of a standard SRAM in a 256256 array, where 20-nm-gate-length technologies with the same on-current are assumed.

A power-aware compiler controllable chip multiprocessor (CMP) is presented and its performance and power consumption are evaluated with the optimally scheduled advanced multiprocessor (OSCAR) parallelizing compiler. The CMP is equipped with power control registers that change clock frequency and power supply voltage to functional units including processor cores, memories, and an interconnection network. The OSCAR compiler carries out coarse-grain task parallelization of programs and reduces power consumption using architectural power control support and the compiler's power saving scheme. The performance evaluation shows that MPEG-2 encoding on the proposed CMP with four CPUs results in 82.6% power reduction in real-time execution mode with a deadline constraint on its sequential execution time. Furthermore, MP3 encoding on a heterogeneous CMP with four CPUs and four accelerators results in 53.9% power reduction at 21.1-fold speed-up in performance against its sequential execution in the fastest execution mode.

Stochastic approaches for effective power distribution network optimization are proposed. Considering node voltages obtained using dynamic voltage drop analysis as sample variables, multi-variate regression is conducted to optimize clock timing metrics, such as clock skew or jitter. Aggregate correlation coefficient (ACC) which quantifies connectivity between different chip regions is defined in order to find a possible insufficiency in wire connections of a power distribution network. Based on the ACC, we also propose a procedure using linear regression to find the most effective region for improving clock timing metrics. By using the proposed procedure, effective fixing point were obtained two orders faster than by using brute force circuit simulation.

This work presents an ultra-low-voltage ultra-low-power weak inversion composite MOS transistor. The steady state power consumption and the linear swing signal of the composite transistor are comparable to a single transistor, whereas presenting very high output impedance. This work also presents two interesting applications for the composite transistor; a 1:1 current mirror and an extremely low power temperature sensor, a thermistor. Both implementations are verified in a standard 0.35-µm TSMC CMOS process. The current mirror presents high output impedance, comparable to the cascode configuration, which is highly desirable to improve gain and PSRR of amplifiers circuits, and mirroring relation in current mirrors.

A method for detecting interconnect open faults of CMOS combinational circuits by applying a ramp voltage to the power supply terminal is proposed. The method can assign a known logic value to a fault location automatically by applying a ramp voltage and as a result, it requires only one test vector to detect a fault as a delay fault or an erroneous logic value at primary outputs. In this paper, we show fault detectability and effectiveness of the proposed method by simulation-based and theoretical analysis. We also expose that the method can be applicable to every fault location in a circuit and open faults with any value. Finally, we show ATPG results that are suitable to the proposed method.

This paper presents the history of superconductor digital circuits starting from several years after the discovery of the Josephson junction in 1962. The first two decades were mainly devoted to developing voltage-state logic, which is similar to semiconductor logic. Research on circuits employing the manipulation of single magnetic flux quanta resulted in a form called RSFQ in the mid-1980s; this is the basis of superconductor logic systems of today. The more difficult problem of random access memory is reviewed. We analyze the present status of the field and outline the work that lies ahead to realize a successful superconductor digital technology.

This paper describes novel CMOS level-conversion flip-flops for use in low-power SoCs with clustered voltage scaling. These flip-flops feed outputs directly into the front stage to support self-resetting and conditional operations. They thus have simple structures to avoid clock level shifting and redundant transitions, leading to substantial improvements in terms of power and area. The comparison results indicate that the proposed level-conversion flip-flops achieve power and area savings up to 50% and 31%, respectively, with no speed degradation as compared to conventional level-conversion flip-flops.

A power-efficient Dickson-based charge pump circuit is proposed and verified in this paper. Using a PMOS transfer switch in the new circuit solves the problem of the output voltage loss and its body control switch can suppress the parasitic bipolar action. Comparing this new one with the conventional circuit, the new circuit generates output voltage as high as 2.9 VDD while the conventional one only 2 VDD. For their efficiency values, the new circuit has better efficiency than the conventional one by as much as 14.5% with the area overhead of 12.2% using 3.5-µm and 40-V CMOS high-voltage process.

This paper proposes a new reset driving waveform to widen the driving margin under a low address voltage in AC-PDPs. The proposed reset waveform alters the wall charge distribution between the X-Y electrodes by applying an X-ramp bias prior to an address-period, thereby lowering the minimum level of the scan pulse (ΔVy) during an address-period without any misfiring discharge in the off-cells. When adopting the proposed reset waveform, the address discharge time delay is reduced by about 200 ns at an address voltage of 35 V, while the related dynamic driving margin is wide under a low address voltage condition. The related phenomena are also examined using the Vt close-curve method.

This paper proposes useful circuit structures for achieving a low-voltage/low-power pipelined ADC based on switched-opamp architecture. First, a novel unity-feedback-factor sample-and-hold which manipulates the features of switched-opamp technique is presented. Second, opamp-sharing is merged into switched-opamp structure with a proposed dual-output opamp configuration. A 0.8-V, 9-bit, 10-Msample/s pipelined ADC is designed to verify the proposed circuit. Simulation results using a 0.18-µm CMOS 1P6M process demonstrate the figure-of-merit of this pipelined ADC is only 0.71 pJ/step.

This paper proposes a performance model for design of pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). This model includes the effect of overdrive voltage on the transistor, slewing of the operational amplifier, multi-bit structure of multiplying digital to analog converter (MDAC) and technology scaling. The conversion frequency of ADC is improved by choosing the optimum overdrive voltage of the transistor, an important consideration at smaller design rules. Moreover, multi-bit MDACs are faster than the single-bit MDACs when slewing occurs during the step response. The performance model of pipelined ADC shown in this paper is attractive for the optimization of the ADC's performances.

This paper presents a methodology for performing on-line voltage risk identification (VRI) in power supply networks using hyperrectangular composite neural networks (HRCNNs) and synchronized phasor measurements. The FHRCNN presented in this study integrates the paradigm of neural networks with the concept of knowledge-based approaches, rendering them both more useful than when applied alone. The fuzzy rules extracted from the dynamic data relating to the power system formalize the knowledge applied by experts when conducting the voltage risk assessment procedure. The efficiency of the proposed technique is demonstrated via its application to the Taiwan Power Provider System (Tai-Power System) under various operating conditions. Overall, the results indicated that the proposed scheme achieves a minimum 97 % success rate in determining the current voltage security level.

A scheme for a low-voltage CMOS syllabic-companding log domain filter with wide dynamic range is proposed and its prototype is presented. A nodal voltage which is fixed in a conventional filter based on the dynamically adjustable biasing (DAB) technique is adapted for change of input envelope to achieve wide dynamic range. Externally linear and time invariant (ELTI) relation between an input and an output is guaranteed by a state variable correction (SVC) circuit which is also proposed for low-voltage operation. To demonstrate the proposed scheme, a fifth-order Chebychev low-pass filter with 100-kHz cutoff frequency is designed and fabricated in a standard 0.35-µm CMOS process. The filter has a 78-dB dynamic range and consumes 200-µW power from a 0.8-V power supply.

This paper proposes a dual-level low voltage differential signaling (DLVDS) circuit aimed at low power consumption and reducing transmission lines for LCD driver IC's. We apply two-bit binary data to the DLVDS circuit as inputs, and then the circuit converts these two inputs into two kinds of fully differential signal levels. In the DLVDS circuit, two transmission lines are sufficient to transfer two-bit binary inputs while keeping the conventional LVDS features. The receiver recovers the original two-bit binary data through a level decoding circuit. The proposed circuit was fabricated using a commercial 0.25 µm CMOS technology. Under a 2.5 V supply voltage, the circuit shows a data rate of 1-Gbps/2-line and power consumption of 35 mW.

A full wave voltage multiplier for passive RFID transponders is presented. The current driving capability of the proposed rectifier is remarkably improved at the cost of only a small increase in layout area compared to the widely used conventional half wave voltage multiplier. The communication distance of RFID systems can be extended due to the improved RF carrier to DC power conversion capability of the proposed voltage multiplier.

This paper describes a new design concept, the Body Bias Voltage Set (BBVS), and presents the effect of the BBVS on static power, operating speed, and area overhead in an FPGA with field-programmable Vth components. A Flex Power FPGA is an FPGA architecture to solve the static power problem by the fine grain field-programmable Vth control method. Since the Vth of transistors for specific circuit blocks in the Flex Power FPGA is chosen from a set of Vth values defined by a BBVS, selection of a particular BBVS is an important design decision. A particular BBVS is chosen by selecting body biases from among several supplied body bias candidates. To select the optimal BBVS, we provide 136 BBVSs and perform a thorough search. In a BBVS of less Vth steps, the deepest reverse body bias for high-Vth transistors does not necessarily result in optimal conditions. A BBVS of 0.0 V and -0.8 V, which requires 1.65 times the original area, utilizes as little as 1/30 of the static power of a conventional FPGA without performance degradation. Use of an aggressive forward body bias voltage such as +0.6 V for lowest-Vth, performance is increased by up to 10%. Another BBVS of +0.6 V, 0.0 V, and -0.8 V reduces static power to 14.06% while maintaining a 10% performance increase, but it requires 2.75-fold area.

A complementary cross-coupled differential Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is reported. The combination of gm-boosting and the complementary transistors allows record low power integrated VCO implementation. The proposed VCO and the corresponding parallel quadrature VCO (P-QVCO) are implemented using 0.25-µm CMOS technology for 1.8 GHz operation. Measurements for the VCO and P-QVCO show phase noise of -116.8 and -117.7 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, while dissipating only 0.4 and 1.1 mA from a 0.9-V supply, respectively.

We demonstrate low-voltage operation of a CMOS imager with an in-pixel large-gain comparator without degradation of the dynamic range by using a pulse-width-modulation scheme in pixel readout. Experimental results showed a dynamic range of 57 dB with a 1.0 V power supply voltage at the pixel array block, which demonstrates the possibility of low-voltage, single-power-supply operation of imagers fabricated with deep-submicron CMOS technologies.

In this paper, class DE inverter with second order constant K band-pass filter is proposed. In the proposed inverter, the band-pass filter is used instead of the resonant filter in class DE inverter presented at the previous papers. By using band-pass filter, two important results can be gotten. One is the sensitivity of the output voltage to the operating frequency is suppressed by using band-pass filter. The other is that zero voltage switching operation appears when the operating frequency is lower than the nominal frequency. Moreover, it keeps the advantage of class DE inverter with resonant filter, that is, high power conversion efficiency under high frequency operation because of class E switching. The laboratory experiments achieve 90.4% power conversion efficiency under 1.98 W output power and 1.0 MHz operation.