NGCAS 2017: 1ST NEW GENERATION OF CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS
PROGRAM FOR FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH
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09:00-09:45 Session 7: Invited Talk 2: Bosch Sensortec: Company Overview, MEMS sensors and ASIC Design for MEMS sensors

This presentation will first introduce Bosch Sensortec GmbH, the market segments and applications as well as the R&D activities and locations. While taking a look across the major market segments, we’ll have the opportunity to get an overview of the company performance, products and technology portfolio. Examples will be described for automotive and consumer electronic areas, specifically MEMS innovations for accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, pressure, temperature and optical sensors. The second part will show examples of IC design requirements, topologies and challenges for different MEMS application areas like Smartphones, Wearables, IoT, Automotive. The talk will include interesting videos and hands-on demo applications of the company products.

Location: Auditorium Salone Piano Nobile
09:45-10:30 Session 8: Keynote 2: Bio/Nano/CMOS interfaces for Remote Monitoring of Human Metabolism

Integrated electrochemical Nano-Bio-Sensors for diagnosis and/or treatment of patients with specific physiological conditions (e.g., heart, cardiovascular, cancer diseases) or convalescents is a key factor to provide better, more rationale, effective and ultimately low-cost health care also at home. The ultimate goal of improved health care on those subjects is the extension of the patients’ autonomy, the possibility for auto-monitoring, the improvement of their comfort levels and their integration into everyday life. Some systems for on-line monitoring are available in the market. They use wearable devices (accelerometers, heartbeat monitoring system, etc). However, all these systems do not measure the human metabolism at molecular level (metabolites). The only available real-time, implantable/wearable systems for metabolic control are limited to glucose monitoring and used only for diabetic patients. However, electrochemical sensors may address so many other molecules, which have crucial relevance in human metabolism in chronic patients. So far, there are no available integrated nano-bio-systems for multi-metabolites, real-time, remote monitoring of the human metabolism. Thus, the aim of this tutorial is to present innovative concepts for multi-panel, highly integrated, fully implantable, remotely powered and real-time monitoring systems for human metabolism at molecular level. The considered metabolic molecules will be glucose, lactate, glutamate, ATP, and anticancer drugs as well as anti-inflammatory ones. In case of drugs, the specificity of electrochemical sensors is improved at system level. The proposed nanotechnology will be based on carbon nanotubes to improve the sensors performance. To pursue their detection, innovative VLSI solutions are discussed including the system remote powering. The new approach is demonstrated by showing Systems-In-Package with embedded System-On-Chip that integrate: (i) a sensors array for data acquisition; (ii) remote power and/or data transmission; (iii) nano-sensors; CMOS IC design; (iv) multi-panel metabolites detection. Systems applications are shown in the field of implantable devices with in-vivo experiments too by including packaging issues and monitoring in intensive care units.

Location: Auditorium Salone Piano Nobile
10:30-11:00Coffee Break
11:00-12:40 Session 9A: Gas Sensing Circuit Interfaces (Special Session)

The introduction of new sensing materials from the field of nanotechnology is paving the way towards improved performance gas sensing systems. Gas sensors provide a vast array of functionality, from informing people about their environment, air quality, and safety, to diagnosing health conditions through breath analysis. Chemoresistive solid-state gas sensors are based on the change in the electrical conductivity of the gas sensitive layer. The typical components of chemoresistive sensors are a heater, temperature sensor and the sensing material. Thus, an electronic interface circuit is required to drive the heater, control the temperature in the sensing area, and measure the changes in the resistance of the sensing material in the presence of gases. Other consolidated electrical interfacing techniques are based on Polymers, Carbon Nanotubes or moisture absorbing specific materials, where usually resistance and capacitance values have to be read-out. In essence, the function of the electronic interface circuit is to extract the resistance of the sensor signal, amplify it, and often convert it into the digital domain. The sensing materials of many solid-state gas sensors operate at high temperatures, as in the case of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors, increasing dramatically power consumption thus restricting its integration into smartphones. Besides, the gas sensing interface electronics needs to cover the wide dynamic ranges of the sensing material (more than 4- decades). This adds challenges in ensuring that the circuitry keeps the operating voltages within the working range and preserving accuracy. Another problem arises which is the long measuring time when converting high resistance values, thus, limiting the speed of such interface circuit. Due to the continuous scaling in CMOS technologies, interfacing the sensor signals poses serious challenges in designing circuit architectures with energy saving, and area optimization. The objective of the special session is to highlight new design approaches and methods in the field of gas sensing at circuit and architectural level for driving, signal conditioning/compensation and readout the sensor resistive signal. The proposed solutions aim to mitigate the significant issues inherent in gas sensors interface circuits resulting in a low power, robust and optimized interface.

Location: Auditorium Salone Piano Nobile
11:00
153dB Dynamic Range Calibration-Less Gas Sensor Interface Circuit with Quasi-Digital Output
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. MOX gas sensors show a wide input resistance variation due to different employed materials, sensor ageing, and temperature variations, when encountering target gases. From the electronics point of view, a wide dynamic range readout interface is needed. The role of the interface is to accommodate the signal received by the sensor in order to be converted into digital or quasi-digital signal. This operation results to be very expensive in terms of calibration when exploiting a multi-scale approach (not satisfactory in terms of accuracy without calibration) or exploiting range compression either logarithmic or quadratic leading to unavoidable voltage drop. In this perspective, the paper presents the design of calibration-less, wide range readout electronic interface circuit with a quasi-digital output. The proposed resistance to time (R-to-T) architecture converts the wide resistance range (10kΩ to 10GΩ) into time with a relative linearity error lower than 1% and achieves a dynamic range of 153dB over 6-decades at transistor level simulations.

11:20
A reconfigurable sensor interface for an array of self-adaptive temperature modulated gas sensor
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. Temperature modulation of gas sensors is used to improve the selectivity and the stability over a long time. In this paper, we illustrate a reconfigurable gas sensor interface for the implementation of the self-adapted temperature modulation. Such a interface can be easily adapted to any temperature modulated sensor. The adaptation is achieved simulating part of the analog circuit by means of a microcontroller. In this way, virtual electronic components can be promptly optimized for each specific sensor. The performance of the interface has been evaluated with two commercial gas sensors exposed to various concentrations of measuring two gases.

11:40
An unconventional type of measurement with chemoresistive gas sensors exploiting a versatile measurement system
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. To characterize chemoresistive sensors based on novel materials, a versatile measurement system is required that is able to accurately control/measure all the quantities of interest (among which test gas mixture composition, relative humidity, sensor surface temperature, sensor resistance). The research group of the authors has developed in the last years a laboratory measurement system with these characteristics, which can be used with chemoresistive sensors provided with both a heater and a temperature sensor. In this contribution an unconventional technique to use chemoresistive sensors, made it possible by the above system (improved to be used also with sensors not provided with a dedicated temperature sensor), will be presented. The technique consists in driving the heater, on the basis of the sensing film temperature, in order to maintain constant the sensing film resistance while varying the test gas mixture composition.

12:00
Gas sensing on unmanned vehicles: challenges and opportunities
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. Unmanned aerial vehicles are aggressively entering many fields of scientific research thanks to their versatility, relatively low cost and ease of customization. Among all the envisioned applications, environmental monitoring and disaster recovery are a very interesting and promising. In this scenario, drones instrumented with environmental sensors are driven into contaminated or inaccessible areas to collect samples (air, water, soil, etc.) and to estimate their wholesomeness, before human intervention. Many challenges are still open in this field, from the design of a suitable artificial intelligence for autonomous driving to the maximization of energy autonomy. In this paper we focus on the interface between gas sensors and drone equipment, in particular we discuss the issue of minimizing the weight of the payload and the accuracy of the measurement, processing and streaming relevant data to the final users. A prototype gas-drone based on a micro drone platform has been realized and used to investigate the challenges and to identify the opportunities.

12:20
A 0.7 V Capacitance-to-Digital Converter for Interdigitated Electrode Capacitive Vapor Sensors
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a CMOS capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) for capacitive sensors applications. Off-chip capacitive sensors are fabricated by coating sensing materials on interdigitated electrode (IDE) structure. A CDC consists of a capacitance-to-voltage front-end and 12-bit successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR-ADC) in a single chip is used for converting sensor data into digital codes. The proposed capacitance-to-voltage front-end circuit extends the dynamic range by a select logic for combinations of reference capacitances and voltages. The SAR-ADC uses a monotonic capacitor switching procedure and the input commonmode voltage gradually converges to supply voltage. This chip is fabricated with the TSMC 0.18-m 1P6M CMOS process and the core occupies area of 719276 m2. The CDC achieves measurement interval of 1.5-78 pF and 8.35-bit ENOB with 220 nW consumption at a 0.7 V supply voltage and 0.25 ms measurement time.

11:00-12:40 Session 9B: Approximate Computing and Signal Processing
Location: Room-A5
11:00
Approximate Multipliers based on Inexact Adders for Energy Efficient Data Processing
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. Approximate computing circuits are considered as a promising solution to reduce the power consumption in embedded data processing. This paper proposes an FPGA implementation for a new approximate multiplier based on inexact adder circuits. The performance of the proposed multiplier is evaluated by comparing the power consumption, the accuracy of computation, and the time delay with those of an approximate multiplier based on exact adder presented in literature. Results reports a power saving up to 17.39% with an improvement in time delay by 13.49%.

11:20
Multiplier Free Implementation of 8-tap Daubechies Wavelet Filters for Biomedical Applications

ABSTRACT. Due to an increasing demand for on-sensor biosignal processing in wireless ambulatory applications, it is crucial to reduce the power consumption and hardware cost of the signal processing units. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is very popular tool in artifact removal, detection and compression for time-frequency analysis of biosignals and can be implemented as two-branch filter bank. This work proposes a new, completely multiplier free filter architecture for implementing Daubechies wavelets which targets Field-Programmable-Gate-Array (FPGA) technologies by replacing multipliers with Reconfigurable Multiplier Blocks (ReMBs). The results have shown that the proposed technique reduces the hardware complexity by 40% in terms of Look-Up Table (LUT) count and can be used in low-cost embedded platforms for ambulatory physiological signal monitoring and analysis.

11:40
Approximate Arai DCT Architecture for HEVC
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This work describes an approximate DCT architecture for the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. Since the standard requires to support multiple block sizes, architectures based on exact implementation require a relevant amount of hardware resources, namely multipliers and adders. This work aims to reduce the amount of hardware resources while keeping the rate-distortion performance nearly optimal. To achieve this goal, this work exploits an exact factorization of the DCT of size N = 8, which is then extended to obtain approximate DCTs of size N = 16 and N = 32. Simulation and implementation results prove that the proposed approximate solution features a complexity reduction with respect to exact one of more than 43% with an average rate-distortion performance loss of 4.74% for the worst-case (all-intra) configuration.

12:00
Approximate Distributed Arithmetic for Variable-Latency Table Lookup
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the algorithm and architecture for approximate distribute arithmetic (ADA), which tolerates timing faults in SRAM- or ROM-based lookup tables (LUT) at ultra-low voltages by applying fine-grained bit-slice skipping and compensation. A zero count-based timing fault detector is also proposed, where false-negative detections with seriously decreased SNR are completely avoided. The simulation results show 50.52~57.69dB SNR can be achieved for LUT with 7.82% slow cells (or 3.60~4.47% BER for timing faults, depending on LUT contents), in comparison with 0.21~4.81dB in conventional DA that is not aware of timing faults.

12:40-14:00Lunch Break
14:00-14:45 Session 10: Invited Talk 3: New Technology Development: from idea generation, to development, to production

This presentation will show the complexities arising in the process of translating a new idea into an innovative product. Technical difficulties, product definition, social interaction, people management are all aspects of enabling the adoption of the best technology candidate for a new device. Mix of experience levels in the engineering team can be recipe for disruptive results only if proper expectations are set and positive interaction is enabled.

Location: Auditorium Salone Piano Nobile
14:45-15:45 Session 11A: Poster-Session: CAS for Power, Communications, and Analog signal Processing
Location: Room A9
14:45
Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) based Direct down conversion Receiver Front End in 65nm CMOS Technology
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. Abstract-This paper presents a BLE based receiver that features a low power LNA and a novel passive AND function mixer. The entire receiver is designed and simulated in the TSMC 65nm planar CMOS technology. The receiver features a direct down conversion technique where the baseband signals are separated into I/Q paths based on the phase of the signal. The overall reception sensitivity of the receiver is around -65 dBm, whilst the system has an overall Noise Figure (NF) of 8dB. The overall conversion gain of the systemThe entire receiver consumes.

14:45
Cascode Stage based LNA for Bluetooth Applications in 65 nm CMOS Technology
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. A highly linear, cascode stage based Low Noise Amplifier(LNA) has been discussed in this work. The proposed circuit has been implemented in 65 nm CMOS TSMC technology. The linearity factor has been improved with an Inter Modulation Distortion (IMD) technique. It’s band of operation is centered around the 2.45 GHz frequency, hinting its Bluetooth application prospects. The circuit exhibits a power gain |S21| of 14.1 dB and input return loss |S11| of -18.35 dB. The LNA attains a Noise Figure (NF) of 1.42 dB and 1 dB compression point of -9.87 dBm. The LNA consumes a power of 1.98 mW from a 1 V supply.

14:45
Analog Characterization Module with Data Converter-coupled Signal Reconfiguration
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This paper provides quite a new approach for analog computing. This work proposes an analog characterization module to imitate (emulate) various analog components as essential technologies for analog reconfigurable system. This module converts an analog input signal into digital by an ADC, makes use of digital signal processing technologies to characterize the signal as expected, and outputs the analog signal converting by a DAC. Unlike a typical digital-assist, the module is used as a pseudo analog component. In this paper, we verify the feasibility of our idea with respect to DC operating characteristics as a resistance. In addition, we incorporate our analog characterization module into the feedback of opamp and clarify the cancellation the discretization noise.

14:45
A low-cost free-space optical communication prototype
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. In this paper a prototype of a free-space optical communication system is proposed. The transmitter is equipped with a blue 1W LED and a low-cost microcontroller implementing a digital modulation scheme. The receiver converts the incoming light into a current through a photodiode and another identical microcontroller is employed to demodulate and decode the signal, after proper analog amplification and filtering. The system is thought to be used underwater for communication, e.g., between a autonomous underwater vehicle and a buoy. Preliminary results in air are shown to validate the functioning of the system with different values of solar illuminance.

14:45
Design and Layout Challenges in a 2 GHz On-Chip Differential Wide Bandpass Filter
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This paper offers novel insights in the importance of optimal design of the connections between component ground plane and the common reference plane in integrated Silicon circuits while presenting a differential $1.5-2.5~\units{GHz}$ wide bandpass filter design based on lumped elements and manufactured in Global Foundries SiGe 8HP BiCMOS process. Lumped elements are rarely implemented because of their size requirement but are needed to address the linearity performance of the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) of which the differential filter is essential component. Filter test die results show a skew of the $2~\units{GHz}$ center frequency that is associated with how the connection between the PDK inductor ground and the overall internal ground plane that screens out the Silicon substrate is made. EM simulations identified the cause of the skew. A new filter layout yielding the desired frequency response was included in the SoC recently taped out.

14:45
A regulated high negative voltage generator for single-photon avalanche photodiodes
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. In this work, a regulated high negative voltage generator for biasing single-photon avalanche photodiodes (SPAD) was developed. The circuit provides up to -70 V from a positive voltage source. This circuit allows users to control the negative output voltage using a positive voltage rail, thus eliminating the need for a negative voltage rail for the negative voltage control. This approach simplifies the overall control of the output voltage and facilitates integration in a miniaturized single photon counting system. The testing on a fabricated PCB of this circuit shows that the voltage can be accurately controlled up to -70 V with ripples of less than 80 mV. A SPAD based experimental setup was also built and the experimental results show that the circuit is able to maintain a stable bias voltage for a planar SPAD at both low and high counting rates.

14:45
Analog FIR Filter Integrated Circuit
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. Analog FIR filters are critical components of advanced data processing and communication systems. Unlike digital filters, they do not utilize clock signals, but require broad-band analog delay units and variable-gain linear amplifiers. This paper describes a 9-tap linear FIR filter IC with a novel tree-shaped architecture based on an internal transmission line with a special configuration and variable-gain linear amplifiers with multi-cell binary gain control. The IC has been implemented in an advanced SiGe BiCMOS technology that features hetero-junction bipolar transistors with fT=210GHz. The fabricated IC operates at data rates above 25Gbps.

14:45
A clock-less PWM architecture for sensor imaging suitable for energy harversting
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. In this paper, a novel image sensor architecture suitable for embedding energy harvesting circuit is presented. The proposed proof-of-concept consists of only 12x6 pixels and validates the new readout scheme designed for low power application, while the energy harvesting part was not included into the design. Thanks to the clock-less serial readout with embedded PWM interface, the sensor delivers still images at maximum 1Kfps showing a dynamic range of at least 72 dB. A typical value of power consumption of the entire array is estimated about 35nW at 1.6V of power supply.

14:45
Analysis of power electronic interface for capacitive MEMS energy harvesters
SPEAKER: unknown

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an alternative to electrical configuration of capacitive energy harvesters with multiple transducers. The configuration is constructed to combine all the transducer outputs into a single output and performs identically to the linear two-port model. Further development of a power electronic interface circuit is investigated by circuit simulation. The circuit is used to convert the AC outputs of the harvester to a DC voltage and has a tunable resistive input impedance. The introduced topology shows a significant improvement in comparison with the conventional circuit using a full bridge rectifier. The maximum output power is two times higher when the losses of electronic components are taken into account.

15:45-16:15Coffee Break
20:00-22:30 Session : Social Dinner
Location: Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce