K. Castellani-Coulié

Development of a CMOS Oscillator Concept for Particle Detection and Tracking

An oscillator concept developed for particle detection and tracking is presented. The methodology used to characterize the currents generated by the particle is detailed. A Design Of Experiment (DOE) analysis is used to correlate the circuit oscillations with the current characteristics after particle detection. To validate the concept, an application example is developed to validate the detector capability to track a striking particle.

Analysis of SEU parameters for the study of SRAM cells reliability under radiation

A simplified RC circuit is used to simulate the effects of ionizing particles in a 90nm SRAM. The main characteristic of the memory cell bit flip are discussed and compared for characteristic parameters. The effect of the surrounded circuit on the impacted transistor is discussed in order to extract parameters characteristic of the SEU occurrence.

Investigation of a CMOS oscillator concept for particle detection and diagnosis

An oscillator concept used for particle detection and diagnosis is presented. The methodology used to characterize the currents generated by particles is detailed and the results extracted from a DOE analysis are presented.

SITARe: A simulation tool for analysis and diagnosis of radiation effects

This work provides reliability criteria to detect and diagnose multi-events upset by the use of a SER tool. The study is based on a charge generation model used to simulate the impact of an ionizing particle striking the sensitive nodes of a SRAM cell. The currents, collected at the sensitive nodes are generated by the physical model and injected at circuit level. Thus, a correlation between the circuit electrical behavior and injected currents is established to provide a reliability criterion.

Impact of SEU configurations on a SRAM cell response at circuit level

This work focuses on the SEU simulation in a 90nm SRAM cell, in order to provide basic metrics for reliability studies. To do that, a charge generation model is used to simulate the impact of an ionizing particle striking a sensitive node. The current collected at this particular node is extracted and injected at a circuit level. Thus, a correlation between the circuit electrical behavior and the critical charge is presented.

On the investigation of built-in tuning of RF receivers using on-chip polyphase filters

This paper presents a built-in tuning technique in radiofrequency receivers using on-chip polyphase filters. Auto-calibration of the filter resistance values, based on Design-Of-Experiment (DOE) methodology, is proposed. This approach investigates process and temperature monitoring of the frequency band, the image-rejection-ratio (IRR) and the I/Q-accuracy resulting in robust and low-cost solutions.

SPICE level analysis of Single Event Effects in an OxRRAM cell

As emerging non-volatile memories, based on resistive switching mechanisms, are attractive candidates to overcome future power issues, this paper proposes to analyze Single Event Effects in circuitry surrounding OxRRAMs. The impact of a particle crossing the circuit is presented. A threshold effect is pointed out even if the probability of SEE occurrence is shown to be low in common technologies.

Built-in tuning of RFIC Passive Polyphase Filter by process and thermal monitoring

A built-in tuning circuit of RadioFrequency (RF) Passive Polyphase Filter (PPF) for image rejection in low Intermediate Frequency (IF) receiver is presented. The resistance values of the filter are process dependent and can severely impact the circuit performances if not controlled. In order to overcome this limitation, an in-line auto-calibration of the PPF resistance values, based on Design Of Experiment (DOE) methodology, is presented. Using DOE, a model is derived from thermal and process deviations of the chip responses. This approach results in a robust and low cost solution.

Low cost built-in-tuning of on-chip passive filters for low-if double quadrature rf receiver

Simple and low cost method based on Built-in-Tuning (BIT) of passive filters in RFIC transceiver is presented, which is used to compensate for variability induced imperfections in RF subsystems. Auto-calibration of filter resistance values, based on Design-Of-Experiment (DOE) methodology, is proposed. This approach investigates process and temperature monitoring of the frequency band, the image-rejection-ratio (IRR) and the I/Q-accuracy resulting to robust and low-cost solutions in multistandard wireless transceiver.

Built-in tuning of the local oscillator for open loop modulation of low cost, low power RF transceiver

This paper presents a built-in tuning technique of local oscillator part of radiofrequency (RF) transceiver using onchip temperature sensor and process monitoring in order to cancel the process, voltage and temperature (PVT) drift of the modulating frequency. An auto-calibration of the VCO, based on Design-Of-Experiment (DOE) methodology, is proposed. This approach investigates process and temperature monitoring of the frequency of operation and results in low-cost, low power solutions.