Yukio Arima

A 125–1250 MHz Process-Independent Adaptive Bandwidth Spread Spectrum Clock Generator With Digital Controlled Self-Calibration

A process-independent adaptive bandwidth spread-spectrum clock generator (SSCG) with digitally controlled self-calibration techniques is proposed. By adaptively calibrating the VCO gain (Kv) and charge-pump (CP) current over C (ICP/C), the SSCG can realize not only adaptive bandwidth but also process independence at each operating frequency. The innovative point is the adaptive bandwidth control using Kv and ICP/C calibration. This control enabled a test chip to keep a sharp triangular SSC profile while operating over a wide frequency range (125 to 1250 MHz). The variations of VCO gain and CP current are reduced to one third those of the conventional architecture. At 1250 Mbps (625 MHz) the reduction of spectrum peak amplitude is 18.6 dB which is 2.3 dB better than the reduction obtained without calibration.

A soft-error hardened latch scheme for SoC in a 90 nm technology and beyond

In this paper, we proposed a soft-error hardened latch (SEH-latch) scheme that has an error correction function in the fine process. To achieve this, we designed two types of SEH-latch circuits and a standard latch circuit using 130 nm 2-well, and also 90 nm 2-well CMOS processes. The proposed circuit demonstrated 2-order higher immunity through a radiation test using /spl alpha/-particles, and 1-order higher immunity through neutron irradiation.

Low-Voltage and Low-Power Logic, Memory, and Analog Circuit Techniques for SoCs Using 90 nm Technology and Beyond

Circuit techniques for realizing low-voltage and low-power SoCs for 90-nm CMOS technology and beyond are described. A proposed SAFBB (self-adjusted forward body bias techniques), ATC (Asymmetric Three transistor Cell) DRAM, and ADC using an offset can-celing comparator deal with leakage and variability issues for these technologies. A 32-bit adder using SAFBB attained 353-μA at 400-MHz operation at 0.5-V supply voltage, and 1 Mb memory array using ATC DRAM cells achieved 1.5 mA at 50MHz, 0.5 V. The 4-bit ADC attained 2 Gsample/s operation at a supply voltage of 0.9 V.

A Spread Spectrum Clock Generator Using Digital Tracking Scheme

A Spread Spectrum Clock Generator (SSCG) using Digital Tracking scheme (DT-SSCG) is described. Using digital tracking control outside a PLL, DT-SSCG can realize stable modulation characteristic independent of the PLL constants. Moreover, DT-SSCG can apply to various modulation profiles easily by brief change of the digital tracking parameters. A test chip has realized the fitting of 5000 ppm downspread with 6.02 dB and 8.02 dB spectrum peak reduction for triangle and Non-Linear modulation.

An Over-1-Gb/s Transceiver Core for Integration Into Large System-on-Chips for Consumer Electronics

This paper describes an area-effective 1.5-Gb/s transceiver core with spread spectrum clocking (SSC) capability that is suitable for integration into large system-on-chips (SoCs) for consumer electronics applications such as audio and video stream data transmission. To achieve a good balance between SSC performance and the core area, a novel SSC scheme using a multi-level (hierarchical) phase-interpolator technique has been developed. This technique achieves a very fine clock phase shift of about 0.1 ps for precise and smooth frequency modulation. The SSC scheme is based on a digital feed-forward operation and leads to a small area and good noise robustness for SoC integration. This core also has digital clock data recovery (CDR) with jitter tolerance enhancement and a simple adaptive data equalizer (AEQ). These functions are also on a digital operation and controlled by digital codes, and the core presupposes a multiphase clock for the digital SSC, CDR, and AEQ with shared phase-locked loop (PLL) topology. A test chip including two of these cores was fabricated using shared PLL. The core showed significant peak power reduction (-19 dB to the non-SSC situation) and a small core area of 0.25 mm2 in 0.13-mum CMOS process. This core achieved a remarkable ratio of peak power reduction to area of 76 dB/mm2. Moreover, it achieved good jitter tolerance (flat 0.8 UI at >1 MHz) and stable data communication over an STP (shielded twist pair) cable ranging in length from 1 m to over 22 m.

Soft Error Hardened Latch Scheme with Forward Body Bias in a 90-nm Technology and Beyond

This paper describes a soft error hardened latch (SEH-Latch) scheme that has an error correction function in the fine process. The storage node of the latch is separated into three electrodes and a soft error on one node is collected by the other two nodes despite the large amount and long-lasting influx of radiation-induced charges. To achieve this, we designed two types of SEH-Latch circuits and a standard latch circuit using 130-nm 2-well, 3-well, and also 90-nm 2-well CMOS processes. The proposed circuit demonstrated immunity that was two orders higher through an irradiation test using alpha-particles, and immunity that was one order higher through neutron irradiation. We also demonstrated forward body bias control, which improves alpha-ray immunity by 26% for a standard latch and achieves 44 times improvement in the proposed latch.