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,...