Rui Paulo Martins

This book provides an in-depth introduction to hybrid DC-DC converters, which integrate both inductors and capacitors for high efficiency and high power density. These converters address the demands of applications like high-performance computing and automotive electronics. While numerous hybrid converter combinations have been explored in recent research, this book guides readers in selecting the optimal topology for a specific application. This book provides an incisive understanding of hybrid converters, revealing their underlying design philosophy. The authors present multiple examples of popular hybrid converters, tracing their evolution from simple, fundamental transformer models while highlighting their benefits and limitations. Furthermore, the book includes design guidelines for inventing new hybrid converters.

The book Handheld Total Chemical and Biological Analysis Systems: Bridging NMR, Digital Microfluidics, and Semiconductors centers on the complete design of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) microsystems for in vitro chemical and biological assays based on semiconductor chips and portable magnet. Different sensing mechanisms for CMOS in vitro assay are compared, key design criteria of the CMOS transceiver for NMR measurement are revealed, and system-level optimizations of the CMOS NMR platform utilizing digital microfluidic and diverse functions of the CMOS technology are discussed. Two CMOS NMR platforms are implemented, each of these focuses on different aspect of optimization.

The book Handheld Total Chemical and Biological Analysis Systems: Bridging NMR, Digital Microfluidics, and Semiconductors centers on the complete design of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) microsystems for in vitro chemical and biological assays based on semiconductor chips and portable magnet. Different sensing mechanisms for CMOS in vitro assay are compared, key design criteria of the CMOS transceiver for NMR measurement are revealed, and system-level optimizations of the CMOS NMR platform utilizing digital microfluidic and diverse functions of the CMOS technology are discussed. Two CMOS NMR platforms are implemented, each of these focuses on different aspect of optimization.

This book provides readers with a state-of-the-art description of techniques to be used for ultra-low-power (ULP) and ultra-low-cost (ULC), short-range wireless receivers. Readers will learn what is required to deploy these receivers in short-range wireless sensor networks, which are proliferating widely to serve the internet of things (IoT) for “smart cities.” The authors address key challenges involved with the technology and the typical tradeoffs between ULP and ULC. Three design examples with advanced circuit techniques are described in order to address these trade-offs, which special focus on cost minimization. These three techniques enable respectively, cascading of radio frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) circuits under an ultra-low-voltage (ULV) supply, cascading of RF and BB circuits in current domain for current reuse and a novel function-reuse receiver architecture, suitable for ULV and multi-band ULP applications such as the sub-GHz ZigBee.

Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) play an important role in most modern signal processing and wireless communication systems where extensive signal manipulation is necessary to be performed by complicated digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry. This trend also creates the possibility of fabricating all functional blocks of a system in a single chip (System On Chip - SoC), with great reductions in cost, chip area and power consumption. However, this tendency places an increasing challenge, in terms of speed, resolution, power consumption, and noise performance, in the design of the front-end ADC which is usually the bottleneck of the whole system, especially under the unavoidable low supply-voltage imposed by technology scaling, as well as the requirement of battery operated portable devices. Generalized Low-Voltage Circuit Techniques for Very High-Speed Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters will present new techniques tailored for low-voltage and high-speed Switched-Capacitor (SC) ADC with various design-specific considerations.

This book provides readers with a state-of-the-art description of techniques to be used for ultra-low-power (ULP) and ultra-low-cost (ULC), short-range wireless receivers. Readers will learn what is required to deploy these receivers in short-range wireless sensor networks, which are proliferating widely to serve the internet of things (IoT) for “smart cities.” The authors address key challenges involved with the technology and the typical tradeoffs between ULP and ULC. Three design examples with advanced circuit techniques are described in order to address these trade-offs, which special focus on cost minimization. These three techniques enable respectively, cascading of radio frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) circuits under an ultra-low-voltage (ULV) supply, cascading of RF and BB circuits in current domain for current reuse and a novel function-reuse receiver architecture, suitable for ULV and multi-band ULP applications such as the sub-GHz ZigBee.

This book presents high-/mixed-voltage analog and radio frequency (RF) circuit techniques for developing low-cost multistandard wireless receivers in nm-length CMOS processes. Key benefits of high-/mixed-voltage RF and analog CMOS circuits are explained, state-of-the-art examples are studied, and circuit solutions before and after voltage-conscious design are compared. Three real design examples are included, which demonstrate the feasibility of high-/mixed-voltage circuit techniques. Provides a valuable summary and real case studies of the state-of-the-art in high-/mixed-voltage circuits and systems; Includes novel high-/mixed-voltage analog and RF circuit techniques – from concept to practice; Describes the first high-voltage-enabled mobile-TVRF front-end in 90nm CMOS and the first mixed-voltage full-band mobile-TV Receiver in 65nm CMOS;Demonstrates the feasibility of high-/mixed-voltage circuit techniques with real design examples.

This book presents high-/mixed-voltage analog and radio frequency (RF) circuit techniques for developing low-cost multistandard wireless receivers in nm-length CMOS processes. Key benefits of high-/mixed-voltage RF and analog CMOS circuits are explained, state-of-the-art examples are studied, and circuit solutions before and after voltage-conscious design are compared. Three real design examples are included, which demonstrate the feasibility of high-/mixed-voltage circuit techniques. Provides a valuable summary and real case studies of the state-of-the-art in high-/mixed-voltage circuits and systems; Includes novel high-/mixed-voltage analog and RF circuit techniques – from concept to practice; Describes the first high-voltage-enabled mobile-TVRF front-end in 90nm CMOS and the first mixed-voltage full-band mobile-TV Receiver in 65nm CMOS;Demonstrates the feasibility of high-/mixed-voltage circuit techniques with real design examples.

The prospect of initializing a network-ubiquitous society in the years to come has led to the development of multistandard-compliant wireless transceivers for seamless roaming among multiple networks. To ensure a commercial success of such a development, the manufacturing cost and power consumption of the system chips have to be minimized. The use of an advanced technology and a high level of integration have continued to be the most effective ways for cost and power minimization, given that wireless chips integrate large amounts of digital logic for computation. Regrettably, entering into the nanoelectronics era, the thinner transistor gate oxide implicates great challenges in the design of the analog front-ends. While a low-voltage supply is imposed to maintain device reliability, a relatively large threshold voltage is also necessitated to limit the leakage current. Thus, transceiver architectures and circuits which will befit future full integration of multistandard wireless transceivers in sub-1V nanoscale CMOS processes must be highly reconfigurable and robustly operational underneath a l- voltage supply. This book presents novel analog-baseband architectures and circuits that help realizing multistandard and low-voltage wireless transceivers. The main contents are presented from Chapter 2 to Chapter 6, as pictorially outlined in Figure 1. Chapter 1 overviews the current wireless-IC developments and presents the motivation and research objectives of this book. xi xii Preface Figure 1.

Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) play an important role in most modern signal processing and wireless communication systems where extensive signal manipulation is necessary to be performed by complicated digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry. This trend also creates the possibility of fabricating all functional blocks of a system in a single chip (System On Chip - SoC), with great reductions in cost, chip area and power consumption. However, this tendency places an increasing challenge, in terms of speed, resolution, power consumption, and noise performance, in the design of the front-end ADC which is usually the bottleneck of the whole system, especially under the unavoidable low supply-voltage imposed by technology scaling, as well as the requirement of battery operated portable devices. Generalized Low-Voltage Circuit Techniques for Very High-Speed Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters will present new techniques tailored for low-voltage and high-speed Switched-Capacitor (SC) ADC with various design-specific considerations.

The prospect of initializing a network-ubiquitous society in the years to come has led to the development of multistandard-compliant wireless transceivers for seamless roaming among multiple networks. To ensure a commercial success of such a development, the manufacturing cost and power consumption of the system chips have to be minimized. The use of an advanced technology and a high level of integration have continued to be the most effective ways for cost and power minimization, given that wireless chips integrate large amounts of digital logic for computation. Regrettably, entering into the nanoelectronics era, the thinner transistor gate oxide implicates great challenges in the design of the analog front-ends. While a low-voltage supply is imposed to maintain device reliability, a relatively large threshold voltage is also necessitated to limit the leakage current. Thus, transceiver architectures and circuits which will befit future full integration of multistandard wireless transceivers in sub-1V nanoscale CMOS processes must be highly reconfigurable and robustly operational underneath a l- voltage supply. This book presents novel analog-baseband architectures and circuits that help realizing multistandard and low-voltage wireless transceivers. The main contents are presented from Chapter 2 to Chapter 6, as pictorially outlined in Figure 1. Chapter 1 overviews the current wireless-IC developments and presents the motivation and research objectives of this book. xi xii Preface Figure 1.