A circuit which functions as a controlled negative-resistance is
described and analyzed; the circuit contains two transistors, a breakdown
diode, and five resistors connected in a stable feedback configuration.
From the analysis a set of design equations is derived.
An experimental circuit is described and a comparison between
measured performance...
The operation of a tunnel-diode delay-line memory cell is
examined in some detail, and a digital computer program which
approximately simulates the operation of this memory cell is developed.
The data from the computer simulation is compared with the
available experimental data and found to agree very closely for clock...
Three synthesis methods for the realization of the
voltage transfer function by means of RC elements and
three different active devices are presented. These
three devices are a high-gain amplifier, a voltage controlled
voltage source (VCVS) and a negative immittance
converter (NIC). The VCVS and NIC as well as the...
A set of circuit analysis programs designed for the IBM 1620
computer (having 40,000 digits of memory) is described and its operation
is explained. The set consists of d-c, a-c, and transient analysis
programs.
The d-c and a-c analysis programs provide the branch current
and node-to-reference potential for linear circuits....
The improved accuracy of Time Domain Reflection and Transmission (TDR/T)
measurements made possible by the calibration process known as Time Domain
Network Analysis (TDNA) is applied to the problem of characterization and modeling
of electronic interconnect and packaging structures. TDNA uses measurements of
known and partially known calibration standards to...
Currently, the two most critical factors of microprocessor design are performance and power. The optimum balance of these two factors is reflected in the speed-power product(SPP). 32-bit CMOS adders are used as representative circuits to investigate a method of
reducing the SPP. The purpose of this thesis is to show...
The central focus of this thesis is the design, fabrication and characterization of amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistor (TFT) current mirrors. The thin-film deposition and circuit fabrication methods used to realize zinc tin oxide (ZTO) TFT
current mirrors are addressed in order to elucidate the processing challenges for this...
A computationally efficient and accurate substrate noise coupling model for multiple contacts in heavily doped CMOS processes is presented and validated with simulations and experimental data. The model is based on Z parameters that are scalable with contact separation and size. This results in fast extraction of substrate resistances for...
Contemporary circuit design involves significant computer-based simulation, calling for a balance between circuit model accuracy and simulation run time. Traditionally, circuit modelers concentrated on producing either (1) physically-based models, where each element in the model correlates to a physically meaningful aspect of the device being modeled or (2) mathematically-based "macromodels,"...
This thesis describes the design of a baseband digital predistortion
architecture for radio frequency (RF) amplifier linearization. Existing amplifier
linearization techniques are first examined. The nonlinearity of an amplifier can
be characterized as amplitude-to-amplitude distortion and amplitude-to-phase
distortion. The distortion can be corrected by providing a predistorted driver
signal (both...
Alternating-current thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) devices are metal-insulator-semiconductorinsulator-
metal (MISIM) structures which emit light under high field, pulsed excitation. One aspect of ACTFEL operation that is not well understood is the aging of such devices with operating time. One of the primary goals of
this thesis is to characterize the kinetics...
The design of high-performance, high-speed clock generation and distribution becomes challenging in terms of phase noise, jitter and power consumption, due to the fast development of communication and computing systems. Injection locking is a promising clocking technique since it can significantly improve the energy efficiency, suppress the phase noise of...
The major goal of this research work was to develop better
electrical measurements for the evaluation of silicon material
quality.
The first approach investigated was the Zerbst generation
lifetime measurement technique. It was demonstrated that the
error in the estimation of the generation lifetime obtained with
this technique could be...
Digitally-programmable filters have been an ongoing research topic for a number of years. The first such filters were FIR transversal filters using Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD's) and IIR recursive filters using switched-capacitor (SC) techniques. Although both techniques achieve excellent results, they require non-standard and/or additional IC fabrication steps. Low substrate doping...
In high-frequency circuit design, performance is often limited by the quality of the passive components available for a particular process. Specifically, spiral inductors can be a major bottle-neck for Voltage-Controlled Oscillators (VCOs), Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNAs), mixers, etc. For designers to correctly optimize a circuit using a spiral inductor, several frequency-domain...
The addition of thin-film alloy magnetic materials to integrated circuit processing enables a number of novel monolithic circuits. Examples include fully integrated magnetic field sensors, signal and power galvanic isolation circuits, and power supplies on chip (PwrSoC). There are several benefits to integrating these traditionally off-chip devices, including improved manufacturability,...
Clock-feedthrough effects, channel-length modulation and device mismatch are
the main causes of the inaccuracy of Switched-Current (SI) circuits. In this paper, these
non-ideal effects are analyzed. A high-performance current mirror, namely regulated
cascode current mirror, which eliminates drain voltage variation problem is introduced.
By using this current mirror as a...
A new structure for the implementation of bit/serial adaptive IIR filter is
presented. The bit level system consists of gated full adders for the arithmetic
unit and data latches for the data path. This approach allows recursive
operation of the IIR filter to be implemented without any global
interconnections, minimal...
A new comprehensive wide-band compact modeling methodology for single-ended spiral inductors and differential spiral inductors is presented. The new modeling methodology creates an equivalent circuit model consisting of frequency-independent circuit elements for use in circuit simulators. A fast automated extraction procedure is developed for determining the circuit element values from...
Passive components, including spiral inductors and transformers, fabricated on silicon-based substrates are placing an increasing demand on radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design. Performance of the RFIC suffers from several non-ideal effects that must be taken into account in order to create a successful design. In particular, monolithic transformers can be...
A duty-cycle controlled switched resistor is a tunable resistive element that uses pulse width modulation as the method of tuning. This thesis will describe the operation of switched resistors and propose several circuit architectures that are well suited to the use of switched resistors. These architectures include filters, mixers, and...
The objective of this work is to explore the feasibility of replacing conventional op-amps with inverters in switched-capacitor (SC) circuits. In order to verify the idea, a low-pass filter (LPF) and a second-order delta-sigma (∆Σ) analog-todigital converter (ADC) are designed in the 0.5-m CMOS technology. The low-pass filter structure is...
This work presents a new energy saving technique for modern digital designs. We propose Time Interleaved Multi-Rail (TIMR) - a method for providing two dynamic supply rails to a circuit. This technique uses the first supply rail to mask the transition delay while changing the voltage of the second rail....
A new circuit technique called Folded Source Coupled Logic (FSCL) has been developed
to implement the digital section of mixed-signal IC applications. This FSCL circuit technique
offers the advantage of low overlap current spikes during the switching transitions
of conventional CMOS gates. This overlap current spike has become one of...
Spiral inductors are a key component of mixed-signal and analog integrated circuits (IC's). Such circuits are often fabricated using silicon-based technology, owing to the inherent low-cost and high volume production aspects. However, semiconducting substrate materials such as silicon can have adverse effects on spiral inductor performance due to the lossy...
With advancements in CMOS technology, high speed analog circuits that were
traditionally implemented with discrete circuit components can now be made monolithically.
Antialiasing filters for video signals as well as signal conditioning filters in high
speed communication channels are examples of applications where high frequency integrated
circuits are now feasible....
With increasing transistor operating frequencies, interconnects and passive devices are becoming performance limiters in integrated circuit (IC) designs. To combat this, the interconnect layers above the active silicon are trending toward low-κ dielectrics and Cu metallization. The use of these new materials has popularized chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to planarize...
Variability in circuit performance due to process defects is a major concern in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. Advanced IC manufacturing processes employ Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) for planarization of oxide and metal layers. CMP defects result in variations in the oxide and metal topographical profile. To reduce these topographical variations, electrically...
In advanced integrated circuit (IC) processes, the metal fill inserted to meet foundry imposed density requirements degrades the performance of interconnects and passive components which ultimately affects the overall circuit performance. Accounting for this degradation through electromagnetic and equivalent circuit modeling is becoming a critical aspect of IC design. However,...
Low noise oscillators are universally needed in digital systems for clock generation and synchronization, and in radio-frequency communication front-ends for frequency up- and down-conversion. Noise in oscillators results in timing jitter, and limits the clock frequency of digital systems. In radio-frequency communication systems, phase noise in oscillators lowers the signal-to-noise...
The most accurate method for performing analog signal processing in MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) integrated circuits is through the use of switched-capacitor circuits. A switched-capacitor circuit operates as a discrete-time signal processor. These circuits have been used in a variety of applications, such as filters, gain stages, voltage-controlled oscillators, and modulators. A...
