Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
4 y 5 de AGOSTO
A ñ o s
Conferencia Argentina de
Microelectrónica, Tecnología y
Aplicaciones 2016
ii
2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-
Nanoelectronics, Technology and
Applications
Conferencia Argentina de
Microelectrónica, Tecnología y
Aplicaciones 2016
Coordinated by:
Pedro Julián – Universidad Nacional del Sur
Andreas G. Andreou – The Johns Hopkins University
iii
Proceedings of the 2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-
Nanoelectronics, Technology and Applications (CAMTA)
iv
Message from the Technical Program Chairs
The tenth edition of the “Conferencia Argentina de Microelectrónica, Tecnología y
Aplicaciones” CAMTA, is taking place in Neuquén, hosted by Facultad de Ingeniería,
Universidad Nacional del Comahue, co-located with the eleventh edition of its associated
school (EAMTA).
Eleven regular papers, out of twenty initial submissions were accepted to be presented at the
conference and afterwards be published in IEEE Xplore. The revision process was rigorous and
achieved a 55% acceptance rate. Paper topics include simulation, process design kits, CCD,
wireless power transfer systems, on-chip dosimeters, APS, radiation effects, power converters,
solar cells, filtering, regulators and Hall plates. Three student posters were accepted to be
presented during the conference, encouraging young researchers to present their work. We want
to specially thank all reviewers for their hard work in providing useful feedback to improve the
papers, as they are the key to maintain the technical quality of the proceedings.
The Technical Program is also very diverse and rich. During the event, several lectures will be
delivered by experts from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Belgium. Industry day will
count with known Semiconductor, Design and EDA companies from around the world, plus
representatives of investment funds and important national electronic companies. This year, a
work session with EDA and local companies will be held with the objective of setting up new
initiatives to leverage local industry using new technologies.
One of the targets of the event is to help establish a technological platform in the country, and in
doing this, we continue emphasizing the central role of students. Therefore, continuing with the
tradition started in the first EAMTA, sixty four (64) full lodging grants, nine (9) full travel grants
and thirty eight (38) partial travel grants were provided to students from different provinces of
Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. We want to thank all sponsors for making this possible. One
hundred and twelve participants have registered for the event so far.
This year, six course tracks will be offered during EAMTA. The basic track (38 attendees) will
cover basic topics on analog circuits, digital circuits, tools, device physics and design
laboratories with EDA tools. An additional analog basic course will provide hands-on design of
CMOS amplifiers. Synopsys will deliver a track covering advanced digital techniques (14
attendees) and entry-level knowledge of digital design flow and advanced industrial tools &
techniques for digital synthesis. An advanced analog design track will cover design techniques
using unified models. In addition, there will be two specialized tracks in radiation effects and
fault tolerant design, and solar cells (81 attendees).
We hope you enjoy the event and the city, and wish you an enriching experience.
v
Conference Organization
General Chair
Dr. Marcelo Moreyra
Financial Chairs
Ing. Nicolás Calarco
Dr. José Lipovetzky
Publicity Chair
Dr. Benjamín Reyes
Organizing Committee
Srta. Virginia Aleandri
Ing. Nicolás Calarco
Ing. Facundo Quiñones
Ing. Gustavo San Martín
Ing. Robinson Zapata
Dr. Fernando Perez Quintián
Dr. Marcos Soldera
Dr. Marcelo Moreyra
Sr. Ricardo Fonseca (student)
Sr. Francisco Maldonado (student)
Support Team
Ing. Darío Mendieta
Ing. Daniel Simone
Lic. Rafael Zurita
Sr. Luis Corrale
Sr. Bruno de León (student)
Sr. Bruno D’Angelo (student)
Sr. Fernando Ilafaya (student)
Sr. Mauro Seguel (student)
Sr. Martin Rubin (student)
Sr. Laureano Morcillo (student)
vii
Technical Program
Program Chairs
Pedro Julián
Andreas G. Andreou
Reviewers
viii
Fernando Baruqui UFRJ
Philippe Benabes Supelec
Mario Benedetti Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Fabio Luiz Bertotti Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
Eduardo Bezerra UFSC
Ignatius Bezzam Santa Clara University
Marco Binello Alenia Aermacchi
Gery Bioul UNCPBA
Jennifer Blain Christen Arizona State University
Elena Blokhina University College Dublin
Ivan Bobrinetskiy National Research University of Electronic Technology
Guillermo Bomchil GB NANOCONSULTING
Juan Jose Bonaparte CNEA - UTN-FRH
Mounir Boukadoum Université du Québec à Montréal
Guilherme Brasil Pintarelli IEB-UFSC
Julian Fernando Bravo-Parra Universidad del Valle
Robison Brito Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
Marcelo Bruno Universidad Nacional del Sur
Marcelo Javier Bruno Universidad Nacional del Sur
Fabián Buffa Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Claudio Busada Universidad Nacional del Sur
Sergio Callegari University of Bologna
Belen Calvo University of Zaragoza
Pablo Cancela UDELAR
Adilson Jair Cardoso Federal University of Santa Catarina
Ricardo Carmona-Galán Instituto de Microelectronica de Sevilla
Walter Carpes Jr Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Hugo Carrer Clariphy Argentina S.A.
Daniel Carrica Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata - CONICET
Luigi Carro UFRGS
Andrew Cassidy IBM
Juan Castagnola Universidad Catolica de Córdoba
Carlos Castro-Pareja Harmonic Inc
Gert Cauwenberghs UCSD
Ricardo Cayssials Universidad Nacional del Sur
Ariel Cedola GEMYDE
Santiago Celma Universidad de Zaragoza
Roberto Cerdas-Robles ITCR
Alfonso Chacon-Rodriguez Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica
Victor Champac INAOE
Edgar Charry Rodrı́guez Universidade de São Paulo
Wang Chau University of Sao Paulo
Fernando Chavez Ceitec-SA
Liang-Gee Chen National Taiwan University
Shuai Chen University of Toronto
Hector Chiacchiarini Universidad Nacional del Sur
Jun Rim Choi Kyungpook National University
Malgorzata Chrzanowska-Jeske Portland State University
ix
Pau-Choo Chung National Cheng Kung University
Dalton Colombo CEITEC
Lucas Compassi Severo Federal University of Pampa - UNIPAMPA
David Javier Cordova Vivas NSCAD
Maria Luisa Corona CUJAE
Nelson Correa Andinum, Inc.
Pascal Cotret Supélec
Juan Cousseau Universidad Nacional del Sur
Eugenio Culurciello Yale University
Rene Cumplido INAOE
Ana Isabela Cunha Universidade Federal da Bahia
Maria Belen D’Amico UNS-CONICET
Eduardo Da Costa Catholic University of Pelotas - UCPel
Diogenes Da Silva UFMG - Federal U. of Minas Gerais
Paulo Augusto Dal Fabbro Chipus Microelectronics
Robeto Damore Technological Institute of Aeronautics
Ali Davoudi University of Texas at Arlington
Francisco-J De La Hidalga-W INAOE
Alejandro De La Plaza UBA
Jose M. De La Rosa Universidad de Sevilla
Alexandre S. de La Vega Universidade Federal Fluminense
Jader De Lima Freescale Semiconductor Brazil
Roberto de Matos Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina
Luciana De Micco FIUNMDP CONICET
Jocemar Francisco de Souza Technological Institute of Aeronautics
Tobi Delbruck UNI-ETH Zurich
Simon Deleonibus CEA-LETI
Gustavo Denardin UTFPR
Martin Di Federico INTI-CMNB, Universidad Nacional del Sur
Alejandro Diaz-Sanchez INAOE
Jean-Philippe Diguet Lab-STICC
Steve Dilbeck Skyera Inc
Patricio G. Donato CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Carlos Dualibe Fresscale Semiconductors Brasil LTDA
Carlos Dualibe Université de Mons
Francisco Duque-Carrillo University of Extremadura
Hebe Duran CNEA
Abdelali El Aroudi Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Paulo Engel Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Burcu Erkmen Yildiz Technical University
Gustavo Escudero Instituto Nacional de Tecnologı́a Industrial
Parastoo Eshraghi Islamic Azad University, West Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
Guillermo Espinosa INAOE
Horacio Estrada Centro Nacional de Metrologia
Ralph Etienne-Cummingss JHU
Eric Fabris UFRGS
Adrian Faigon Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ingenierı́a
Adrian Faigon Facultad Ingenieria - UBA
x
Arturo Fajardo Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Fahti Farag Electronics and Communication Dept., Faculty of Eng.
Zagazig University
Luis Ernesto Farah Fernández Instituto Superior Politécnico ”José Antonio Echeverrı́a”
Lester De Abreu Faria Technological Institute of Aeronautics
Gregorio Fernando Universidad Nacional del sur
Enrique Ferreira UCU
Sandro Ferreira NSCAD
Romualdo Alejandro Ferreyra VCU
Tomas Figliola
Igor Filanovsky U. of Alberta
Pablo Fillottrani Universidad Nacional del Sur
Erlon Finardi UFSC
Carlo Fiocchi AMS Italy s.r.l.
Rafaella Fiorelli Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla
Maximiliano Fischer CNEA
Liliana Fraigi PhD
Marcos Funes Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata - CONICET
Joel Gak Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Antonio Garcia Professor
Guillermo Garcia GEA-UNRC
Lorena Garcia IEEE Colombia Section
Miguel Ángel Garcı́a Andrade
José Gerardo Garcı́a Sánchez Cinvestav
Carlos Arturo Gayoso UNMdP
Alessandro Girardi Universidade Federal do Pampa
Gregorio Oscar Glas FIUBA
José Gabriel Gomes Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Hector Gomez Universidad Industrial de Santander
Walter Gontijo LINSE/EEL/UFSC
Agustı́n González Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Marı́a
Oscar C. Gouveia-Filho UFPR
Michael Green Univ. of California, Irvine
Fernando Gregorio Universidad Nacional del sur
Victor Grimblatt Synopsys
Marcelo Guarini Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Guillermo Guichal Emtech
Shalabh Gupta IIT Bombay
Sergio N. Gwirc Instituto Nacional de Tecnologı́a Industrial
Juan Carlos Gómez UTN-FRBA-GIAR
Jose Luis Güntzel Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Matias Hadad Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Reiner Hartenstein TU Kaiserslautern
Luis Hernandez-Martinez INAOE
Arturo Hernández González Instituto Superior Politécnico ”J. A. Echeverrı́a”
Fabiano Hessel PUCRS
João Ari Hill IAPAR
xi
Nuno Horta Instituto Superior Técnico
Yalin Hu Sandia National Laboratories
Mario Hueda LCD-UNC
Anh Huynh university of melbourne
Tingting Hwang National Tsing Hua University
Ricardo Jacobi UnB
Julian Jenkins Perceptia Ltd
Manuel Jimenez University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus
Victor Jimenez-Fernandez Universidad Veracruzana
Marcelo Johann UFRGS
Gordana Jovanovic Dolecek INAOE
Alfredo Juan UNS
Rodriguez Juan Agustin UNS
Pedro Julian Universidad Nacional del Sur - CONICET
Fernanda Kastensmidt Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS
Eric Kerherve IMS
Hamilton Klimach Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Marcio Kreutz UFRN
Cristiano Krug CEITEC S.A.
Ney L. V. Calazans FACIN-PUCRS
Walter Lancioni Univ Catolica de Cordoba
Vianney Lapotre Université de Bretagne-Sud - Lab-STICC
Hilda Angela Larrondo UNMDP, CONICET
Ching-Ting Lee National Cheng Kung University
Bernardo Leite UFPR
Diego Lemos UdeA
Betiana Lerner CONICET
Djones Lettnin UFSC
Djones Lettnin
Julio Leão Da Silva Jr.
Omar Lifschitz INTI-CMNBB
Chin-Teng Lin National Chiao-Tung University
Gustavo Linan IMSE-CNM
Mónico Linares-Aranda INAOE
Jose Lipovetzky Low Temperature Lab, CAB, CNEA
Bin-Da Liu National Cheng Kung University
Carlos Humberto Llanos Universidade de Brasilia
Antonio Lopez-Martin Public University of Navarra
Mónica Lovay UTN Fac. Reg. Villa Marı́a
Alex Lozano INTI
Fernando Lozano Universidad de los Andes
Marcelo Lubaszewski CEITEC SA
Marcelo Lubaszewski UFRGS Federal University
Daniel Lupi INTI
Ariel Lutenberg FI-UBA
Laura Malatto INTI - Electronica e Informatica
Pablo Mandolesi Universidad Nacional del Sur
Andre Mariano DELT - GICS - UFPR
xii
Carlos Marques FAMAF (UNC)
Jefferson Luiz Brum Marques IEB-EEL-CTC-UFSC
Franco Martin Pirchio Graduate Student
Jaime Martinez Universidad Veracruzana
Mar Martinez University of Cantanbria
Herminio Martinez-Garcia Technical University of Catalonia
Favio Masson Universidad Nacional del Sur
Fabricio Mattos CEITEC
Miguel Mayosky UNLP
Nicolas Medrano University of Zaragoza
Venkata Rakesh Mekala JNTU
Matias Miguez Universidad Catolica del Uruguay
Shahriar Mirabbasi University of British Columbia
Jose Mireles Jr Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez
Gerardo Monreal Allegro Microsystem
Jose Monteiro INESC-ID, IST ULisboa
Juan A. Montiel-Nelson Univ. de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Carlos Montoro UFSC
Fernando Moraes PUCRS
Robson Luiz Moreno UNIFEI
Miguel Moreto Federal University of Santa Catarina
P.R. Mukund Rochester Institute of Technology
Carlos Muravchik Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Roberto Murphy INAOE
Keivan Navi Shahid Beheshti University
Jean-Francois Naviner TELECOM Paristech
Lirida Naviner Telecom ParisTech
Gabriel Nazar Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Roberto Ribeiro Neli Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Paraná
Sergio Netto Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Robson Nunes De Lima Universidade Federal da Bahia
Maciej Ogorzalek Jagiellonian University
Vojin G. Oklobdzija University of California
Alejandro Oliva Universidad Nacional del Sur
Juan Oliver Universidad de la Republica
Alberto Oliveri University of Genoa
Beatriz Olleta Austria Microsystems
Carlos Martin Orallo UNMdP
Ariel Oroz De Gaetano Universidad Nacional del Sur
Williams Ortiz Martı́nez Universidad Nacional del Sur
Adelmo Ortiz-Conde Universidad Simon Bolivar
Rogelio Palomera University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
Felix Palumbo CONICET
Maneesh Pandey Freescale Semiconductor Inc
Eduardo Paolini Universidad Nacional del Sur
Alvaro Pardo Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Flavio Pardo Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent
Pablo Daniel Pareja Obregón CNEA
xiii
Mauro Parodi DIBE-University of Genova
Alejandro Pasciaroni Universidad Nacional del Sur
Hernan Pastoriza Centro Atómico Bariloche; CONICET
Marcelo Antonio Pavanello Centro Universitário da FEI
Aristides Pavani Filho CTI
Volnei Pedroni UTFPR
Aldo Pena Perez Stanford University
Roberto Pereira-Arroyo ITCR
Maximiliano S. Perez UNSAM
Sofia Perez UdelaR
Marcelo Peruzzi UNS
Antonio Petraglia Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Pablo Antonio Petrashin Universidad Catòlica de Còrdoba
Stanislaw Piestrak IJL/Universite de Lorraine
Tales Pimenta Universidade Federal de Itajuba
Pedro Pinto UFMG
Vanja Plicanic Samuelsson Sony mobile
Ariel Luis Pola Fundación Fulgor
Marcelo Porto UFPel
Cesar Augusto Prior Federal University of Santa Maria
Pablo Pérez-Nicoli IIE-FING-UDELAR
Syed Manzoor Qasim King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
Max Hering De Queiroz Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Flavio Quizhpi Universidad Politécnica Salesiana
Jorge Ramirez LASCAS
Jaime Ramirez-Angulo New Mexico State University
Jorge Ramı́rez Instituto Superior Politecnico J. A. Echeverrı́a
Juan M. Ramı́rez-Cortés INAOE
Fernando Rangel de Sousa Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Jose Ernesto Rayas-Sanchez ITESO
Andre Reis UFRGS
Ricardo Reis UFRGS
Leonardo Resende Federal University of Santa Catarina
Benjamin T. Reyes FCEFyN - Universidad Nacional de Cordoba
Linder Alejandro Reyes Martinez Universidad de la República de Uruguay
Claudia Reyes-Betanzo INAOE
Renato Ribas UFRGS
Carlos Rocha Federal University of Santa Catarina
Paloma Maria Silva Rocha Rizol UNESP
Paula Roldán Universidad de Sevilla
Leonardo Romano Centro Universitário da FEI
Hernan Romero Allegro Microsystems Argentina
Murilo Romero University of Sao Paulo
Pedro Agustı́n Roncagliolo UNLP
Conrado Rossi Universidad de la Republica
Adoracion Rueda IMSE-CNM
Alireza Saberkari University of Guilan
Julio Saldaña-Pumarica Universidade de São Paulo
xiv
Gustavo San Martin UNComahue
Juan Sanchez-Garcia IPN ESIME CULHUACAN
Federico Sandoval Cinvestav-Guadalajara
Edson Santana UFBA
Gerard Santillan Federal University of Santa Catarina
Ivan Saraiva Silva Universidade Federal do Piauı́
Arturo Sarmiento INAOE
Mohamad Sawan École Polytechnique de Montréal
Vishal Saxena Boise State University
Silvana Sañudo Universidad Nacional del Sur
Jürgen Scheible Reutlingen University
Marcio Schneider UFSC
Antonio Carlos Schneider Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Hiroo Sekiya Chiba Univ.
Nataliya Semyonova North-Caucasus Federal University
Bruno Serra Fing - UdelaR
Francisco Serra-Graells IMB-CNM(CSIC)
Shihab Shamma University of Maryland
Mrigank Sharad IIT Kharagpur
Danilo Silva Federal University of Santa Catarina
Carlos Silva Cardenas UC Peru
Fernando Silveira Universidad de la Repblica
L. Miguel Silveira Universidade de Lisboa
Galo J. A. A. Soler-Illia CNEA
Jorge Solsona UNS
Worawit Somha Fukuoka Institute of Technology
Santiago Sondon INTI
Celso Luis De Souza Alstom Grid
Anderson Spengler UFSC
Milutin Stanacevic Stony Brook University
Leonardo Steinfeld Universidad de la República del Uruguay
Marco Storace University of Genoa
Antonio Strollo University of Napoli
Marius Strum Genia Strum
Guillermo Stuarts Allegro
Altamiro Susin Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Gustavo Sutter Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Daniela Suzuki IEB - UFSC
Santiago Sánchez Solano IMSE-CNM
Carlos Sánchez-López Autonomous University of Tlaxcala
Francisco Tejada Sensing Machines
Esteban Tlelo-Cuautle INAOE
Elı́as Todorovich UNCPBA
Luis Toledo Universidad Católica de Crdoba
Pedro Toledo NSCAD Microeletronics
Diego Tondo Cintelec Electronic Engineering
Guido Torelli University of Pavia
xv
Lionel Torres LIRMM
Reydezel Torres INAOE
Alfonso Torres Jacome INAOE
Massimo Traversone Selex zES
Vladimir Trujillo-Olaya Universidad del Valle
Bartolomeu Uchôa-Filho Federal University of Santa Catarina
J. Alejandro Urrego University of San Buenaventura Bogotá
Carlos Valderrama University of Mons
Manuel Valencia Universidad de Sevilla
Ronald Valenzuela Synopsys
Maria Ines Valla Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Wilhelmus Van Noije University of São Paulo
Cristian Rolando Vargas Santo Tomás University
Gustavo Vazquez Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Cristian Vega Universidad De Antioquia
Alejandro Veiga Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Jaime Velasco-Medina Univ. del Valle Colombia
Raoul Velazco Laboratoire TIMA
Alonzo Vera The University of New Mexico
Omar P. Vilela Neto UFMG
Héctor Vázquez-Leal Universidad Veracruzana
Kyle Web University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Jonathan Wu Canada Research Chair
Vivek Yadav IIT Bombay
Akira Yasuda Hosei Univ.
Bruno Zatt Federal University of Pelotas - UFPel
Cesar Zeferino University of Vale do Itajaı́
Pablo Zegers Universidad de los Andes
Zhaonian Zhang Johns Hopkins University
Hongwei Zhu ARM, Inc.
Julio Zola FIUBA
Marcela Álvarez Universidad Nacional del Sur
xvi
Table of Contents
xvii
Author Index
Bertou, Xavier 11
Blostein, Jerónimo 22
Cancelo, Gustavo 11
Cappelletti, Marcelo 39
Carrica, Daniel 33
Carro-Pérez, Iliani 1
Cedola, Ariel 39
Cervellini, Maria Paula 33
Cogo, Jorge 40
Estrada, Juan 11
Faigón, Adrian 27
Fernandez Moroni, Guillermo 11
Funes, Marcos 33
Lipovetzky, Jose 22
Marı́n, Julio 22
Muravchik, Carlos 40
Osinaga, Javier 46
Paolini, Eduardo 11
Peltzer Y Blancá, Eitel 39
Perez, Martı́n 22
Perez, Sofia 17
Pérez-Nicoli, Pablo 17
Rodrı́guez-Esteva, Agustı́n 17
Roncagliolo, Pedro Agustı́n 40
xviii
Ronis, Nicolás 52
Saldaña, Julio 46
Sambuco Salomone, Lucas 27
Sanca, Gabriel Andrés 6
Serra, Bruno 17
Sidelnik, Ivan 22
Silveira, Fernando 17
Sofo Haro, Miguel 11, 22
Sánchez-López, Carlos 1
Tiffenberg, Javier 11
xix
2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-Nanoelectronics, Technology and Applications
Abstract—This paper deals with the high-level simulation of emulator circuit can be used for researching real applications,
a frequency-shift-keying (FSK) modulator based on charge- as those mentioned above, a computer model of the memristor
controlled memconductor. The behavioral model of the mem- is of great help for forecasting the behavior of systems to high-
conductor is built on SIMULINK under MATLAB environment. level.
It is demonstrated that the incremental memconductance in- Into the applications described above, modulator circuits are
creases and decreases according the width and amplitude of
important blocks in digital communications since they are used
a positive and negative pulse signal, respectively; whereas the
decremental memconductance increases and decreases according to convert a unipolar bit sequence in an appropriate form for
the width and amplitude of a negative and positive pulse signal. modulation and transmission [24]. Among the modulator cir-
Both incremental and decremental memconductances are used cuits, frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation is a frequency
to on-line reconfigure the frequency of oscillation of a single- modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted
memconductor controlled oscillator configured as FSK modulator. through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave. FSK is
The obtained results not only allows an easy reconfigurability of widely used in modems, radio-teletype, fax modems and can
the FSK modulator, but also demonstrate the viability of the also be used to send Morse code [24]. The main advantage
memconductor to be used in other applications such as cellular of FSK modulation with respect to other modulation schemes
neural networks, controllers, sensors, chaotic systems, relaxation is its low immunity to noise. Since FSK modulation uses,
oscillators, nonvolatile memory devices and programmable analog
basically, two operating frequencies as carriers, a voltage-
circuits.
controlled oscillator (VCO) is commonly used to get these
two frequencies. Because a digital signal has two states, the
I. I NTRODUCTION high-frequency of the VCO is assigned to signal 1 and the low-
frequency is assigned to signal 0, with respect to the center
With the solid-state fabrication of the memristor [1]-[3], a frequency of the VCO. However, a robust synchronization
lot of real applications not only in the analog domain, such scheme between the VCO and the modulating signal level
as cellular neural networks [4], modulators [5]-[7], chaotic is necessary in order to avoid spurious emission, since the
systems [8], relaxation oscillators and programmable analog continuity between bits could not be holded, resulting at
circuits [9], but also in the digital domain, such as nonvolatile unnecessary spectrum regrowth. Furthermore, the use of an
random access memory [10], logic gates and reconfigurable single oscillator not only reduces the discontinuities in the
logic circuits [11], [12], are current research topics. A charge- phase and has as consequence the elimination of sudden
or flux-controlled memristor is a two-terminal element whose changes in amplitude, but also reduces the sideband power
memristance changes with the current flow through it and at a and the interference with neighbor channels [5]. In this sense,
particular direction. This memristance is freezed whether the a lot of programmable VCOs designed with different active
current flow is stopped and hence, at this state, the memristance devices have been proposed in the literature. However, despite
becomes a linear resistor until that the current flow begins of that these oscillators can be used as FSK modulators,
again. This feature makes that the memorize memristor the several passive components and a large number of switches
passed amount of electric charge. Despite that some solid-state are necessary to control the frequency of oscillation (FO)
memristors have been fabricated by different companies and in a wide range, and hence not only lead to relatively high
research labs, they are not still availables on the market and power consumption and complex designs, but also limiting
hence, not only a lot of computer models have been proposed their functionality [24].
in the literature to be used in numerical simulations [13]-[15], All in all, the purpose of this paper is demonstrate, by
but memristor emulator circuits have also been designed using means of high-level simulations, that the behavior of an
different active devices [16]-[23]. In this point, although an FSK modulator based on memconductors can be achieved
[5], [6]. Unlike of VCOs used as main core into an FSK
Manuscript received July 17, 2016. This work was supported in part by the modulator, a single-resistance-controlled sinusoidal oscillator
National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT), Mexico, under
Grant 222843; in part by the Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala (UATx), (SRCO) is herein used, where the SRCO becomes a single-
Tlaxcala de Xicohtencatl, TL, Mexico, under Grant CACyPI-UATx-2015; and memconductor sinusoidal oscillator (SMCO). The charge-
in part by the Program to Strengthen Quality in Educational Institutions, under controlled incremental or decremental memconductor, whose
Grant P/PROFOCIE-2015-29MSU0013Y-02. behavioral model has been experimentally validated in [22], is
C. Sánchez-López and L. E. Aguila-Cuapio are with UATx-Mexico. (e-mail:
carlsanmx@yahoo.com.mx, luis aguila10@outlook.es) here used. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section
I. Carro-Pérez and H. G. González-Hernández are with Tecnológico de II introduces the behavioral model of the memconductor built
Monterrey, Puebla-Mexico. (e-mail: icarrop@itesm.mx, hgonz@itesm.mx) on SIMULINK under MATLAB environment. We will show
2.5
I Y3 W X1
2
S (3) (7) (1)
Y Z 1.5
(3) (5) Y4 JN
33
N D6 1
84
4A D (4) A
Rm Rx AD (6) (2)
X W Cm Z X2 0.5
VR1(t)(V)
(2) (6) Ca
im 0
+v ï0.5
m
ï1
ï1.5
ï2
Fig. 1. Charge-controlled grounded memconductor emulator circuit taken ï2.5
ï2 ï1.5 ï1 ï0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
from [22]. Vm(t)(V)
2.5
1.5
Amplitude (V)
0.5
!
0
−1
−1.5
how the memconductance can be varied according the width
−2
and amplitude of a negative and positive pulse signal, respec-
tively. The SMCO design is presented in Section III, whereas −2.5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time (sec)
numerical simulations of the FSK modulator are presented x 10
−6
R3 V0
Y W Y W
(3) (6) (3) (6)
AN1 AN2
844 8 44
AD AD
X Z X Z
(2) (5) (2) (5)
R1 W2
C1 C2
(Inc or Dec)
0.18
16000
0.14
14000
0.1
12000
0.06
Memristance (Ω)
10000
Amplitude (V)
0.02
8000
−0.02
6000
−0.06
4000
−0.1
2000
−0.14
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time (sec) −4
x 10
−0.18
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time (sec) −4
(a) x 10
2.5 (a)
0.18
2
0.14
1.5
1 0.1
0.5 0.06
Amplitude (V)
Amplitude (V)
0
0.02
−0.5
−0.02
−1
−0.06
−1.5
−0.1
−2
−0.14
−2.5
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time (sec) −4
x 10 −0.18
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
(b) Time (sec) −4
x 10
(b)
Fig. 7. (a) Variation of the incremental (red line) and decremental (blue line)
memristance in function of a pulse signal with amplitude diferents, (b) Pulse
Fig. 8. Time response of the FSK modulator using: (a) an incremental
train to vary incrementally (blue line) and decrementally (red line) M2
memconductor, (b) a decremental memcondcutor.
signal, as shown in Fig. 8. From Fig. 8(a) and Fig. 8(b) and
decremental memconductor is depicted in the bottom. For each
into the interval [0, 2ms], the operating frequency of the FSK
case, a pulse train with amplitude different is used to vary the
modulator is the same of the SMCO. Next, when a positive
memconductance as shown in Fig. 7. According to Fig. 7(b)
digital signal is applied to the incremental and decremental
(blue line) a pulse with 2 V of amplitude and width of 3µs is
memconductor, as depicted in Fig. 7(b), the memconductance
used to decrement M2 (or increase W2 ), as depicted in Fig.
(or memristance) increases or decreases, respectively. As a
7(a) (blue line), whereas a pulse with 0.3 V of amplitude and
consequence, the FO of the SMCO also increases or decreases,
with the same width mentioned before is used to increase M2
as shown in Fig. 8(a) and Fig. 8(b) into the interval [2ms, 4ms],
(or decrease W2 ), as illustrated in Fig. 7(a) (red line). To both
approximately. Afterwards, by applying a negative digital
cases, the memristances (or meconductances) are frozen until
signal to the meconductors, the FSK modulator returns to its
the next pulse. Therefore, when negative pulses with the same
original FO. Therefore, we can observe that a memconductor
amplitudes mentioned before are applied, both memristances
(or memristor) device is useful for controlling the FO of a
(or memconductances) return to their original state, as one
SMCO and they can be used to design an FSK modulator.
can observe in Fig. 7(a). According the previous analysis, a
preprocessor scheme is needed to convert a digital signal (5
V and 0 V) to the levels required (i.e. ±2 V and ±0.3 V) V. C ONCLUSION
to control the meconductance level. Nevertheless, by applying In this paper, the design of an FSK modulator based
the control signals of Fig. 7(b) in Fig. 6, one obtain an FSK on incremental and decremental memconductors has been
presented. Basically, the memconductors are replacing to a [18] C. Sánchez-López, A. Ruiz-Pastor, R. Ochoa-Montiel and M.A.
discrete resistor, that although it is widely used in the design Carrasco-Aguilar, “Symbolic Nodal Analysis of Analog Circuits with
of SRCO, it cannot be modified on-line [27]. High-level Modern Multiport Functional Blocks”, RadioEng., vol. 22, no. 2, pp.
518-525, Jun. 2013.
simulation results using both kind of memconductors were
[19] C. Sánchez-López, J. Mendoza-López, M.A. Carrasco-Aguilar and C.
shown, demonstrating their useful in the generating of digitally Muñiz-Montero, “A floating analog memristor emulator circuit”, IEEE
modulated signals. Trans. Circuits Syst. II: Express Briefs, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 309-313, May.
2014.
[20] M.P. Sah, C. Yang, H. Kim, B. Muthuswamy, J. Jevtic and L.O. Chua,
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Carrasco-Aguilar, “Experimental evidence of a memristor based on
[3] D.B. Strukov, G.S. Sneider, D.R. Stewart and R.S. Williams, “The current conveyor”, in Proc. Instrumen. SOMI XXX, vol. 30, no. 1, pp.
missing memristor found”, Nature, vol. 453, pp. 80-83, May 2008. 1-8, Oct. 2015.
[4] M.P. Sah, C. Yang, H. Kim, and L.O. Chua, “A voltage mode memristor [23] C. Sánchez-López, M.A. Carrasco-Aguilar and C. Muñiz-Montero, “A
bridge synaptic circuit with memristor emulators”, Sensors, vol. 12, no. 16 Hz-160 kHz memristor emulator circuit”, Int. J. Electron Commun.,
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Abstract—An Interoperable Process Design Kit (iPDK) was Interoperable PDK’s structure was defined by the IPL Al-
developed for the scalable CMOS process SCN3ME provided by liance, an industry standard organization established to develop
ON Semiconductors, reachable across MOSIS. It includes DRC interoperable eco-systems for custom design [1], and following
and LVS rules, SPICE models, technology files, verification and
extraction files, execution scripts, symbol library and parametric OpenAccess guidelines, which must be respected to maintain
cells (PCells). Then, using the iPDK, a set of standard digital interoperability. Two different groups of components can be
cells were developed. A test chip was designed and fabricated. distinguished: those which are supplied by the foundry (maybe
Measurements results are presented. not in OpenAccess format) and those which should be part of
Index Terms—CMOS, iPDK, IC Design, PCells, Standard iPDK by definition.
Cells. In the first group, the information related to verification
is placed, such as design rules (DRC) and layout versus
schematic rules (LVS); SPICE model of the transistors and
I. I NTRODUCTION
files related to parasitic extraction.
simply modified for working accross different MOSIS sCMOS corresponding EDA tool runs, a copy of it called “super-
available process. master” is generated in memory. This element contains a list
This technology can work with two different power volt- of parameter names, and for each parameter a default value
ages: 5 and 3.3 volts. Minimum transistors have a channel and the acceptable range. In turn, it provides access to the
lenght equal to 2λ (0.6µm) and channel width of 10λ (3µm). script that can be executed by the EDA tool.
However, lithography allows to manufacture channel widths When a user wishes to instantiate a PyCell, a super master
equal to 0.9µm, making dog bone transistors type. view thereof is generated and stored in memory according to
the script. The user will then specify values for the parameters
IV. K IT C OMPONENTS of the cell. When this entry is complete, the system design
will execute the script PCell with the values of the input
The PDK was designed to use OpenAccess libraries and to
parameters. The result will be the creation of a cell, called
be compatible with IPL Alliance standard. For this reason, the
”sub-master”. Each instance of a sub-master has properties
parametric cells were written in pyhton. The DRC and LVS
that contain the set of parameters used for creating instances,
rules are presented primarily for Calibre. The kit comprises:
and the name of the original PCell.
• PCells: OpenAccess library with parametric cells, written
PyCells’ paradigm faces the closed paradigm of EDA ven-
in python (PyCells).
dor tools, where PCells are written in proprietary language,
• Technology files.
such as SKILL or Ample. In this way, the PyCells have
• Layer Maps: for exporting and importing GDSII and for
the property of being portable PCells, which can be used in
running verification tools.
different work environments.
• Design rules: DRC and LVS written for Calibre.
• Standard cells
• SPICE models (given by MOSIS).
D. Verification Files
A. Technology Files DRC and LVS files were generated based on the distributed
Calibre version of MOSIS, and being re-adapted and written
Technology files are used to add process information to
for the iPDK designed. For this, different supports layers were
a library. Generally it contains information on the different
created to run verification routines.
manufacturing layers, design rule definitions and display pack-
ages defined in the display resource file.
Technology files for both PyCell Studio environment (San-
V. S TANDARD D IGITAL C ELLS
tana.tech) and for Synopsys Custom Designer environment
was written, generated from a compilation in OpenAccess Using the iPDK, 28 standard digital cells were designed,
format of the technology file distributed by North Carolina including basic logic functions, such as NOT, AND, NAND,
State University [6], adapted and re-generated to work in a NOR, OR with two and four inputs; multiplexers; AOI and
purely OpenAccess environment. OAI basic functions; and sequential circuits as flip-flops were
designed.
B. Front-End Components The layout was designed considering the concept of Man-
A library called “onc5 pycells”, which contains the PyCells hattan routing, using only polysilicon and METAL1 inside the
designed for the process, was created. Besides the scripts in cells, providing more degrees of freedom to the place and
phyton, the iCDF files (Interoperable Component Description) route tool. METAL2 can be used within standard cells, but it
which define the values of the cells by dafault, were written. should be used always vertically and on a grid. Even with
The SDL, auLVS and SPICE CellViews were also gen- these considerations, it was decided not to use METAL2 in
erated for each PCell, defined in the iCDF file. Symbols cells.
were copied from the fictional PDK SAED28/32, designed
by Synopsys. The ivpcell CellView was copied from the
standard library analogLib. A. Routing Grid
A grid for routing purposes was established according to
C. Parametrics Cells the rules of the scalable process and with reference to the λ
Parametric cells (PCells) are structures which, besides hav- parameter. All cells are single height type.
ing a fixed geometry, also contain an executable program According to Figure 1, measures W2 and W3 are 9λ defined,
just as geometry that can vary according to a number of i.e. 2.7µm. W4 , NWELL extension, was defined as 54λ, i.e.
parameters, such as the width of a channel in a MOS transistor 16.2µm. V1 is defined as 5λ, 1.5µm. Finally, the pitch, defined
or the value of the resistance of a resistor. The importance of as H, is 27µm, that is, 90λ.
these cells lies in the remarkable simplification provided to In addition, the routing grid was defined with an 4.5λ offset,
the kit, while providing flexibility and reducing design time. in order to avoid DRC rules violations. Thus, when cells are
Each PyCell exists within the PDK in two ways: as a layout abutted, the spacing within the nearest structures inside is
in OpenAccess format and as a python script. Whenever the always equal or higher than the grid spacing.
ISBN 978-1-5090-3777-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 7 IEEE Catalog Number CFP16H30-ART
2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-Nanoelectronics, Technology and Applications
A. Floorplanning
Figure 2a shows the block diagram of the chip. Inputs
A, B, C and D are shared by all cells, divided into three (b) Oscillators measurement.
different groups of gates: four inputs cells, two inputs cells Fig. 3. Measurements bench.
and inverters. In the first group there are eight cells, and in
second and third there are six. The outputs of each group are 2) Dynamic Analysis: In Figure 3b there is a picture of the
multiplexed, using nine control inputs. Then, there are three measurement bench used to estimate the propagation delay by
different outputs. measuring the frequency of the RO. The values shown in Table
In order to estimate the minimum inverter propagation time I are averages obtained from different measurements for each
and having an empirical value to compare with characteriza- oscillator.
tion, four ring oscillators (RO) were designed with different Knowing that the measurement in each case is 256 times
lengths (m-stages), as detailed in the block diagram of Figure lower than the frequency of each oscillator, before calculating
2b, considering that the oscillating frequency would be the propagation time we had to calculate de real frequency:
1
fOR = (1) freal = fmeasured × 256 (2)
2 × td × m
With the signals s0 and s1 each of the oscillators can be Then,
chosen, through a multiplexer. Then, an eight flip-flop chain
65 , s = 00
is placed in series with the multiplexer, in order to divide the
1
129, s = 01
output frequency to simplify the output buffer and facilitate td = ,m = (3)
2 × freal × m 193, s = 10
measurements, detailed in Table I.
257, s = 11
VIII. C ONCLUSION
(a) Layout. (b) Photomicrograph. This work is intended as a contribution to the academic
Fig. 4. Top level of the tiny chip manufactured by MOSIS. community; the kit is already shared with some universities
for testing purposes and is actually being used in EAMTA. In
TABLE I the near future it will be shared more extensively. The scalable
P IN CONFIGURATIONS S 1 AND S 0 TO SELECT DIFFERENT RING
OSCILLATORS . M EASURED FREQUENCIES SHOWN HERE ARE ARITHMETIC
0.5µm MOSIS’ process is widely used in various universities
MEAN . to teach courses on VLSI design, analog and mixed-signal
design. At the same time, although it is an old process, it is
s1 s0 Z Stages Ref. Measured Freq. Estimated td very used by the scientific community to validate large number
0 0 A0 65 osc1 252.08 kHz 119.15ps
0 1 A1 129 osc2 125.96 kHz 120.19ps
of prototypes. The development of an Interoperable PDK for
1 0 A2 193 osc3 84.00 kHz 120.47ps this process provides a great help to various research groups.
1 1 A3 257 osc4 63.02 kHz 120.58ps
A PPENDIX A
BASICS PC ELLS
A total of 38 measurements values were used to calculate In this Appendix the layouts of basics PCells are presented.
the propagation delay average. Five of them was from the In Figure 6 the layout of the nMOS PyCell is presented. This
largest RO, fifteen from the 193-stages RO, twelve from the is a basic instance with w = 3µm and l = 0.6µm. In Figure
129-stages RO and six from 65-stages RO. In Figure 5 the 7 the layout of the pMOS PyCells is presented with the same
results are showed. configuration parameters that the nMOS cell. In Figure 8 the
layout of the elec (poly2) resistor, with high resistence layer,
VII. S UMMARY set with W and H equal to 1.5µm and one finguer, is presented.
In this paper we presented the development of an iPDK in- In Figure 9 the poly and elec capacitor is presented. W and
cluding a set of parametric cells (PCells). The interoperability H are set equal to 2.1µm.
of the kit was considered by following the recommendations of
the consortium IPL Alliance and the OpenAccess community.
Files that describe the process technology, verification files,
such as DRC and LVS rules and component description files
were also developed.
The kit can be configured with a menu written in tcl.
120.5
t_d [ps]
120
119.5
119
0 10 20 30 40
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Ronald Valenzuela and
Victor Grimblatt for their contributions and their continued
support. We also thank the MOSIS, Synopsys and Mentor
Graphics academic programs.
This work was supported by Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Facultad de Ingenierı́a, Departamento de Electrónica. The
integrated circuit was designed using Synopsys tools under the
Synopsys University Program. Chips were fabricated through
the MOSIS foundry service supported by the MOSIS Educa-
tional Program (MEP).
R EFERENCES
[1] IPL Alliance [Online]. Available: https://www.iplnow.com.
[2] R. Goldman, K. Bartleson, T. Wood, V. Melikyan, “Synopsys Intero-
perable Process Design Kit”, European Workshop on Microelectronics
Education, Darmstadt, Germany, 10-12 May, 2010, pp. 119-121.
[3] C. Mead and L. Conway, Introduction to VLSI Systems, United States:
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1980.
[4] J.M Rabaey, A. Chandrakasan, B. Nikolic, Digital Integrated Circuits,
United States: Prentice Hall, 2003.
[5] MOSIS, “Design Rules: MOSIS Scalable CMOS (SC-
MOS)”, Revision 8.00, May 2009 [Online]. Available:
https://www.mosis.com/files/scmos/scmos.pdf
[6] NCSU Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Wiki [Online]. Available:
http://www.eda.ncsu.edu/wiki/NCSU EDA Wiki
[7] N. H.E. West, D. Harris, CMOS VLSI Design, United States: Addison-
Wesley, 2011.
[8] Goldman R., Bartleson K., Wood T., Kranen K., Cao C., Melikyan V.,
“Synopsys Open Educational Design Kit: Capabilities, Deployment and
Future”, Proceedings of the International Conference on Microelectronic
Systems Education, San Francisco, USA, 25-27 July, 2009, pp. 45-48.
VREF CGS,MSF
VOUT
VDD
input
MRST CT RL CL
VSUB 20K
PMOS MSF Q 15pF
RG VSUB gm*VGS,MSF
PMOS
CSN VOUT
0.046pF Fig. 5. Small signal model of the output circuit of the CCD of Fig. 3. The
RL CL
input is modeled with a current source i(t) = Qδ(t), Q is the pixel charge.
20K
15pF The parasitic capacitances are included in the model.
used to sense the voltage of the SN. The load resistor RL is not
Fig. 3. CCD output circuit. CSN models the capacitance of the SN. The SN integrated in the CCD chip. CL is the parasitic capacitance of
is reset to VREF through MRST. MSF is in a source follower configuration.
VDD = −22V , VREF = −12.5V . RL is external to de CCD. CL is the the flex cable that connects the CCD with the read-out system,
parasitic capacitance of the flex cable connected to the CCD. and, as we will see, it limits the maximum read-out speed.
Fig. 5 shows the small signal model of the circuit of Fig.
3. The input has been modeled as a current source i(t) =
Qδ(t), representing a packet of charge Q from a pixel that is
CSN transferred to the SN in t = 0. The model includes the parasitic
MRST capacitance of the circuit. CT is given by equation 1. CW is the
capacitance of the connection between the SN and the gate of
MSF. CGD,M SF and CGD,M RST are the gate to drain parasitic
capacitance of the M SF and M RST transistors respectively.
58
UPS
57
CRYO
Signal Value [mV]
56 Power
Supply
CTRL
55 SEQUENCER
CCD
RESET SIGNAL DAQ
54
LEVEL LEVEL DEWAR
Electrical isolators
53
PUMP Ground connections
0 200 400 600 800 Cable shielding
Time [µs]
Signals
Cold head
Fig. 6. Signal at the output of the CCD when a pixel is read out. The reset
Heater
level is the level after the reset of the SN, while the signal level is obtained
after adding the pixel charge to the SN. The peaks are due to the clock feed-
trough of the RG and SW pulses. Fig. 7. The CCD is in vacuum inside a metallic vessel. The cryocooler cools
down the CCD to 130 K. The read-out system used is a Monsoon, composed
of a sequencer and a DAQ. The whole system is connected to ground in one
point.
transferred to the sense node. The signal level is also kept for
a time T before the sense node is reset to read the next pixel.
T is called integration time. The peaks in Fig. 6 correspond MONSOON
to the clock feed-through of the RG and SW pulses.
The technique used for processing and measuring the charge SEQUENCER
of the pixel v̂p is the correlated double sampling (CDS) [11]. SMPS
As indicated in equation 6, the CDS consists of taking an CCD x1 x2 DAQ
average of the signal level s(t) and subtract to it an average
of the reset level r(t). CDS removes all the correlated noise
between the reset level and the signal level.
Fig. 8. Simplified diagram of the read-out electronics used in the DAMIC and
Z Z CONNIE experiments. The DAQ and the sequencer are the Monsoon system.
v̂p = s(t)dt − r(t)dt (6) The buffer load the CCD with a low capacitance. The amplifier matches the
<T > <T > output impedance to 50Ω of the connection cable.
7
L U σR U−side
σ L−side
SIDE SIDE 6 R
NOISE [electrons]
5
V1L,V2L,V3L V1U,V2U,V3U
4
2
H1L,H2L,H3L H1U,H2U,H3U
1
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Integration Time [µs]
Fig. 9. The CCD is split in two half. Depending on the sequence of the Fig. 10. Electronic read out noise of both CCD output stages for different
horizontal clock signals (H1U/L, H2U/L and H3U/L) the charge of the pixels integration time of the CDS. A minimun noise of (1.33 e− ) is achieved with
can be read in three ways: one CCD half through each output stage (green an integration time of 20 µ. The bump between 20 µs and 35 µs, and the high
arrows), the whole CCD through the U-side output stage (red arrow) or the noise below 20 µs, are due to the switching frequencies of the power supplies.
whole CCD through the L-side output stage (blue arrow).
4
10
2
exposure of the CCD, σD , such as dark current and visible 2
light. A second source of noise, σS2 , is the spurious charge 10
CGS,MSF
VOUT 5
input Ith I1/f IRL SC CDS input
CT RL CL
SC AMP input
20K
Q 15pF 4 SC BUFFER input
gm*VGS,MSF
CCD
NOISE [electrons]
3
Fig. 12. Small signal model of the CCD output circuit that includes the noise
sources of MSF. The are two current sources, one to model the thermal noise
2
(Ith), the other the flicker noise (I1/f)
TABLE I 1
M EASURED NOISE AT DIFFERENT POINTS OF THE READOUT CHAIN . T HE
NOISE INTRODUCED
√ BY MSF CAN BE CALCULATED BY
1.332 e− − 0.872 e− = 1.00e− 0
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Integration Time [µs]
Noise (T=20µs)
SC@ DAQ input 0.28e− Fig. 13. CDS output at different integration times for: a short circuit (SC)
SC@ Amp input 0.84e− at the input of the CDS of the Monsoon sytem, a SC at the input of the
SC@ Buffer input 0.87e− amplifier, a SC at the input of the buffer and for the full chain.
CCD 1.33e−
−5
10
Fig. 12 shows the small signal model of the output stage in SMPS
which the MSF noise current sources have been included with LMPS
2
[V/Hz0.5]
considered an open circuit. The total noise voltage Vnout can
be calculated and is given in equation 10.
gm2 K 1 2
2 2 1 RL 10
−7
Vnout = 4kB T gm + +
3 RL Cox W L f ω 2 CL2 RL 2 +1
(10)
The second noise source σJF ET is added by the JFET 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Frecuency [KHz]
buffer. The next one σA is added by the amplifier, and the
last source σDAQ added by the DAQ in the analog circuit that Fig. 14. Power spectrum of the amplifier output signal at two situations: with
performs the CDS and the ADC of the Monsoon system. Other the Monsoon supplied with LMPS and with SMPS.
source of noise σCLK is introduced to the CCD through the
capacitive coupling between the clock phases and the SN. To
determine the amount of noise that is added by MSF, a short the most powerful peak at 50 kHz is totally removed. The
circuit (SC) was made at the input of each stage, and the noise effect on the output of the CDS at different integration time
after the CDS was measured at different integration times. Fig. can be seen in Fig. 10. For an integration time of 20 µs, the
13 shows the result and table I gives the noise values obtained frecuency response of the CDS is zero at 50 kHz [17] and
for an integration time of 20 µs. the SMPS frecuency peak is totally removed. For this reason,
To estimate the noise introduced by the MSF, the 0.87 e− at 20 µs the output noise when the system is supplied with
noise obtained with the input of the buffer in short circuit must LMPS or SMPS is the same as can be seen in Fig. 15. The
be subtracted in quadrature to the noise of 1.33 e− obtained noise of the SMPS is introduced in the system by the supplies
with the full chain. This results in 1.00 e− of noise introduced of the operational amplifier that perform the CDS and drives
by the MSF. This value is the result of filtering the spectrum the clock signals for the CCD.
of equation 10 by the CDS [17].
The actual configuration of the system has a noise floor VII. C ONCLUSION
of 0.87 e− . To get a read-out noise below 1.00 e− with this In this work the factor that governs the signal gain in
CCD technology, it is necesary to improve the external read- a CCD was shown. The CCD internal parasitic capacitance
out electronics. must be reduced in order to increase the signal, and this
The switching mode power supplies (SMPS) of the Mon- constitutes an open issue in the design of new CCDs. The
soon generates undesirable frequencies that affect the read- CCD output signal is degraded by noise introduced inside the
out noise. Fig. 14 shows the power spectrum of the output CCD and by the external read-out electronics. In this work
amplifier signal when the CCD is exposed in two different a method to measure only the electronic read-out noise and
situations, when the Monsoon system is supplied by SMPS and spurious charge noise has been introduced. With this method
linear mode power supplies (LMPS). With LMPS frecuency is was possible to estimate the noise introduced by the output
peaks between 40 kHz and 60 kHz are removed. In particular MOSFET transistor of the CCD. It was found to be 1.00 e− .
ISBN 978-1-5090-3777-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 15 IEEE Catalog Number CFP16H30-ART
2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-Nanoelectronics, Technology and Applications
[10] Haque, S., et al. “Design of low-noise output amplifiers for p-channel
7 charge-coupled devices fabricated on high-resistivity silicon,” IS&T/SPIE
SMPS
Electronic Imaging, International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2012.
LMPS
6 [11] White, Marvin H., et al. “Characterization of surface channel CCD
image arrays at low light levels,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
NOISE [electrons]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was done under grant PICT 2013-2128, PICT-
2014-1225 and with the BECAR-Fullbright program. Miguel
Sofo Haro, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni are supported by
CONICET, Juan Estrada, Gustavo Cancelo and Javier Tiff-
enberg by Fermilab, and Xavier Bertou by CNEA and CON-
ICET.
R EFERENCES
[1] Boyle, Willard S. “Nobel lecture: CCD an extension of mans view,”
Reviews of Modern Physics, vol 82, no. 3:2305, 2010.
[2] Smith, George E. “Nobel Lecture: The invention and early history of the
CCD,” Reviews of Modern Physics, vol 82, no. 3:2307 , 2010.
[3] Janesick, James R. “Scientific charge-coupled devices,” SPIE press, Vol.
117, 2001.
[4] Holland, Stephen E., et al. “Fully depleted, back-illuminated charge
coupled devices fabricated on high-resistivity silicon,” IEEE Transactions
on Electron Devices, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 225-238, 2003.
[5] Chavarria, Alvaro E., et al. “Damic at Snolab,” Physics Procedia, vol.
61, pp. 21-33, 2015.
[6] Barreto, J., et al. “Direct search for low mass dark matter particles with
CCDs,” Physics Letters B, vol. 711, no. 3, pp. 264-269, 2012.
[7] Moroni, Guillermo Fernandez, et al. “Charge coupled devices for detec-
tion of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering,” Physical Review D, vol. 91,
no. 7, 2015.
[8] Estrada, J., et al. “CCD testing and characterization for dark energy
survey,” SPIE Astronomical Telescopes+ Instrumentation, International
Society for Optics and Photonics, 2006.
[9] Estrada, Juan, et al. “Plasma effect in silicon charge coupled devices
(CCDs),” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section
A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol.
665, pp. 90-93, 2011.
2 L2
k23 Q23 R3 RL
optimal auxiliary coil and in section V-B to validate the model Where RV 3 = L3
can be found using the
RL +Q23 R3
against measurements. transformer equations.
Figure 2 shows the equivalent circuit model of the three coil
link. The system is divided in three stages and the impedance Analogously the efficiency η1 can be calculated as the power
seen and efficiency between stages are studied in order to transfer to L2 (which is equal to the power dissipated in RV 2 )
obtain the overall efficiency. divided the total power dissipated in L1:
RV 2
η1 = (3)
RV 2 + R1
ω 2 k2 L L
1 2
Where RV 2 = R212 +RV 3 can be calculated in the same
manner that RV 3 was found, using the transformer equations.
Where R and r are the radii of the coils and Dij the distance
between coils.
d
γ= √
δ 2
Where δ is the Skin Depth:
r
2
δ=
ωµσ
The self-inductance L for a single layer coil will be calcu-
lated using the following expression [12]:
(aN )2
L= µH (8)
Figure 6: Proposed theoretical models, CST simulation and 22.9a + 25.4l
experimental results for M23 . where a and l are the width and length of the coil in cm
and N the number of turns as shown in Fig. 7. This expression
In the case of the mutual inductance M12 between coils L1 will be used for the transmitter (L1) and auxiliary (L2) coils.
and L2 presented at Fig. 5, a good correspondence between the
experimental values and approaches of Nagaoka and Weinstein
is observed. In the case of M12 it is noted that the coils are not
within the hypothesis of one being much larger than the other
coil used in the expression given by Microchip’s AN710.
Nagaoka’s 1st expression is a good approximation for M23
while Weinstein’s approach underestimates the value of M23
at greater distances than 4 cm while Nagaoka’s 2nd expression
overestimates it.
First approach of Nagaoka [9] (6), will be used for coils
because it presents the best fitting with the CST simulations
and with the experimental values for all the distances D23
considered. Figure 7: Coil dimensions
0, 31(aN )2
L= µH (9)
6a + 9h + 10b
With a, b and h in cm and N total number of turns as
shown in Fig. 8.
B. Experimental measurements
IV. AUXILIARY C OIL D ESIGN
The efficiency of the two coil system L1-L3 (without L2
The transmission efficiency of the system presenting SCMR and with d13 = 15 cm) obtained experimentally was 0.037%.
was studied as a function of the dimensions and characteristics Regarding the efficiency of the three coil system (L1 −
of the auxiliary coil. To design the auxiliary coil, Fig. 9 plots L2 − L3), it was calculated in two ways. The first one,
the constant efficiency contours as a function of the auxiliary exclusively using the theoretical models Eqs. (5, 6, 7, 8, 9) for
coil position D23 and radius a2 . The efficiency is calculated the characterization of the coils. The second one, using only
using the expression (5) and the theoretical models (6, 7, 8, the theoretical model for the efficiency (5) with resistances,
9). self and mutual inductances experimentally measured. Figure
The radius a2 = 6.5 cm shows the maximum efficiency of 11 shows also the experimental values for the efficiency of the
the system and was used to build the auxiliary coil. Addition- whole system with D13 = 15 cm.
ally, the optimal auxiliary coil position for D13 = 15 cm is The maximum deviation between experimental and theoret-
D23 = 2 cm. ically calculated values was observed for D23 = 2 cm. It was
V. E FFICIENCY MEASUREMENTS proposed that for this distance the hypothesis of independence
for values of L and RAC in terms of the proximity of the
A. Experimental set-up other windings is not valid. This was studied using an Agilent
It was necessary to build an experimental set-up in order 4395 network analyzer with the auxiliary coil near the receiver.
to evaluate the proposed model and study the experimental For D23 = 2 cm it was obtained that the resonant frequency
efficiency of the system. The set-up was made of acrylic and varies approximately 600Hz. The efficiency for a system with
wood in order to affect as little as possible the magnetic field this frequency shift in the resonance frequency (600Hz) was
of the coils. simulated in Spice (using the model presented in Fig. 2)
VI. C ONCLUSIONS
A system presenting SCMR was fully modeled, optimized,
fabricated and measured. In particular the case of a low
frequency RFID system with a distance from transmitter to
receiver D13 = 15 cm was studied. For the typical two-coil
system, an efficiency of 0.037% was obtained. The optimal
intermediate coil was then placed at a distance D23 = 2 cm
(D13 = 15 cm) increasing the efficiency to 10%. Therefore,
the efficiency for this system increased 270 times by placing
a passive intermediate winding 2 cm away from the receiver.
Additionally, experimental results are presented and com-
pared with the model predictions showing good agreement.
Therefore, the mathematical models used to describe the char-
acteristics of the coils and the system were adequate, allowing
the proper selection of the dimensions for the auxiliary coil.
R EFERENCES
[1] A. Kurs, A. Karalis, R. Moffatt, J. D. Joannopoulos, P. Fisher, and
M. Soljacic, “Wireless Power Transfer via Strongly Coupled Magnetic
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[2] C. Chih-Jung, C. Tah-Hsiung, L. Chih-Lung, and J. Zeui-Chown, “A
Study of Loosely Coupled Coils for Wireless Power Transfer,” IEEE
Transactions on circuits and systems, vol. 57, no. 7, 2010.
[3] L. Seung-Hwan and R. D. Lorenz, “Development and Validation of
Model for 95%-Efficiency 220-W Wireless Power Transfer Over a 30-
cm Air Gap,” IEEE Transactions on industry applications, vol. 47, no. 6,
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[4] P. Perez-Nicoli, A. Rodriguez-Esteva, and F. Silveira, “Bidirectional
Analysis and Design of RFID Using an Additional Resonant Coil to
Enhance Read Range,” 2016.
[5] Computer Simulation Technology. [Online]. Available:
https://www.cst.com
Abstract—This work compares the damage produced by alpha several defective pixels have values higher than the average,
particles, thermal neutrons and gamma photons to Commercial- even higher than this threshold. This response of a sensor
Off-The-Shelf CMOS image sensors. Image sensors were exposed not being exposed to radiation is called Fixed Pattern Noise
to alpha particles from the decay of Uranium and Americium
sources which caused permanent damage to pixels immediately (FPN). Pixels with high values due to FPN might be mistaken
after a particle hit. Similar failure mode was seen when sensors as events produced by particles interaction, leading to false
were exposed to thermal neutrons in the Neutron Imaging Facility positive counts. To mitigate this problem our group proposed
of the RA-6 Nuclear research reactor, whereas no damage was a method to use these image sensors with a negligible false
seen after exposure to 137 Cs gamma rays. Due to the similarity count rate, using an auto-regressive filter to remove FPN [7].
between alpha and thermal neutron effects, and since silicon
transmutation by neutron capture is very unlikely, we conclude Using this FPN cancellation technique the sensors showed
that the Boron-Phosphorous Silicate Glass (BPSG) on top of the dose resolutions of tens to hundreds of nanoSieverts [6], [7].
silicon acts as a conversion layer producing charged particles Finally, the use of MAPS or CCD sensors for the detection
which in turn cause damage to the sensor. of thermal neutrons is possible by placing a conversion layer
Index Terms—Active pixel sensors, Alpha particles, CMOS on top of the sensor. Neutron capture in this layer produces
image sensors, CMOS technology, Ionizing radiation, Gamma- secondary particles which are detected by the sensor and are
rays, Neutron radiation effects directly correlated to the arrival of thermal neutrons. This is
also of interest in applications such as Boron Neutron Capture
I. I NTRODUCTION Therapy (BNCT) for cancer or neutron imaging [8], [9].
B) C)
A)
Fig. 1. Experimental setup with alpha sources. The CMOS sensor is behind
the Uranium alpha source.
COTS CMOS sensors were irradiated with alpha particles, event took place, and finally one after the event showing the
gamma rays and a mixed field of thermal neutrons and gamma damaged pixels. The plot is shown for the Uranium source, but
rays in order to compare the damage caused by each particle. the same happens with Americium. This kind of damage was
The image sensor used was the APTINA CMOS color image typical of alpha particles released by the radioactive sources
sensor model MT9V011, with a size of 0.25 inches, 640 x in these experiments.
480 pixels with pixel pitch of 5.6 µm x 5.6 µm. The color
sensor has a color Bayer filter covering the sensitive area.
More information about this sensor can be found in [6] and B. Neutron irradiation
[7]. For each of the experiments, only one sensor was exposed Two CMOS cameras were irradiated in the Neutron Imaging
to the ionizing radiation at a time. Facility of the RA-6 nuclear research reactor1 . The facility
beam is composed by a neutron flux and gamma rays generated
in the reactor core and passing through a Sapphire filter. There
A. Alpha particle irradiation
is a thermal neutron flux of 107 n(cm2 s)−1 and a gamma
One CMOS sensor was exposed to alpha particles from the dose rate of 800 mGy.h−1 . The experiment consisted in the
decay of 235 U and another to alpha particles coming from an exposure of one CMOS sensor covered with a Gadolinium
241
Am source. The experimental arrangement can be seen in layer of 150µm of thickness and another sensor without this
figure 1, where, in that case, a small Uranium source lays on layer. Gadolinium has a very high absorption cross-section in
top of the sensor. The whole set, the camera and the source, the thermal neutron energy range, and acts as a blocking layer,
was placed in a sealed box in order to isolate the sensor from not allowing thermal neutrons to reach the device [16]. In this
ambient light. Alpha particles from 235 U and 241 Am sources way, the sensor without Gadolinium was exposed to gamma
have energies of 4.7 MeV and 5.5 MeV, respectively, but the and thermal neutrons directly from the beam, and the other
energy of the particles arriving to the sensor is spread to lower sensor was exposed only to gamma rays, since the thickness
energies due to attenuation in the source and in air. of the Gadolinium layer is enough to stop thermal neutrons
The cameras were exposed to the sources while recording but is almost transparent to gamma rays.
at the same time their video outputs. The analysis of the A mixture of SU-8 photo-lithography resin and Gadolinium
video shows the interaction of the alpha particles with the Oxide in a powder form was prepared and applied to the sensor
silicon as bright spots in the image and those interactions over the whole die as shown in figure 3.
are called events. Each event is the consequence of energy Both cameras were placed inside an aluminum box, in order
deposited by an alpha particle and may produce damage to the to avoid any light coming from outside, the box was placed
sensor by atom displacement or by leaving charges trapped in in the neutron radiography facility and both cameras were
SiO2 . In any case, damage can be seen in the output image irradiated at the same time while recording two video files
as bright pixels—with values higher than the average—that from their outputs.
remain illuminated in every frame after the event. Figure
2 shows a typical damage produced by an Uranium alpha 1 RA-6 research reactor is placed in San Carlos de Bariloche city and is
particle. Pixel values were plotted as a function of frame operated by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). The purpose
of this reactor is to carry out teaching, training, research and development
number and also three images of the event are displayed, one tasks in the field of nuclear engineering. It is an extremely versatile reactor,
before the interaction, one of the exact frame in which the useful for a wide range of experiments.
B) C)
A)
Fig. 4. The values of a 4 by 4 pixel matrix, i.e. 16 adjacent pixels, are shown
versus time and also three samples of how those pixels look like in the video.
Image A shows the pixels before particle hit, B shows the frame in which
interaction takes place, and C shows the resulting damage.
Pixel Value
showed an event rate of 49 events every 1000 frames while 100
no damage was observed to the sensor. Also the average dark
signal, i.e. the mean value of all pixels in the image throughout
the video, maintained its value and no raise of the background 50
noise was observed.
Threshold Damage
Detected
III. D ETECTION OF DAMAGED PIXELS 0
2400 2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100
Fram e #
In order to detect the kind of damage showed in figures 2
and 4 an algorithm was written using Python and OpenCV. The
idea was to analyze the videos taken in the Neutron Imaging Fig. 6. Pixel damage is detected by looking at the difference of two filters,
with short and long time constants. When damage is detected, a reset of the
Facility and with Americium and Uranium sources, and look long filter is performed in order to avoid counting again the same pixel.
for sudden changes in the mean value of each pixel. Two
temporal running average filters are applied to the video for
each pixel, one with a long time constant and the other with by thermal neutrons, or by their interaction with the BPSG
a short time constant. The objective of these filters is first to layer.
remove noise and events produced by particle hits, and second The algorithm counted zero damaged pixels for the gamma
to track the mean value of each pixel. In the case that an event irradiation of section II-C. It is worth noticing that the gamma
produces any damage to one or more pixels, like in figure 4, dose received by the sensor in this case was the same as in
the short filter changes more rapidly than the other as shown the Neutron Imaging Facility, approximately 2 Gy, although
in figure 6 for one pixel. So by comparing the results of the the gamma ray energies involved were different.
two running average filters and looking for a difference of
more than a certain threshold, it is possible to detect damaged IV. D ISCUSSION AND C ONCLUSIONS
pixels. Commercial CMOS image sensors were exposed to three
When damage is detected on a pixel, the long time constant kinds of ionizing radiation: alpha particles, thermal neutrons
filter is updated to the pixel current value in order to avoid and gamma photons. The failure mode caused by thermal
counting the same pixel more than once. neutrons seems to be very similar to the damage caused by
As already said, one of the objective of the filter is to alpha particles. Also, it was totally different to total ionizing
eliminate pixel noise and also high peaks due to particle dose damage caused by gamma photons, as was reported
events, which always have a duration of one frame, so the in previous works [10]. Moreover, the damage was reduced
time constant of the short filter has to be chosen to comply considerably by adding the Gadolinium layer on top of the
with those objectives only. On the other hand, the long time sensor, as was seen in the experiment with a mixed beam
constant filter should be long enough to retain the mean value of thermal neutrons and gamma rays of section II-B. Also,
of one pixel after a sudden change when damage occurs. This since Gd have a very high thermal neutron absorption cross-
is done by using a time constant ten times greater for the long section, the reduction of damage can be attributed to less
filter than for the short filter. neutrons interacting with the sensor. The Gd layer attenuation
Using this algorithm an analysis of the damage produced of gamma rays in this experiment was negligible due to its
to the CMOS sensors exposed to alpha, neutrons and gamma small thickness and thus the damage reduction because of a
radiation was carried out by counting the number of damaged lower gamma ray intensity is not possible.
pixels per frame. In the case of the irradiation with alpha On the other hand, thermal neutron absorption cross-section
particles of section II-A a damage rate of 25 damaged pixels of silicon is very low, which makes very unlikely the damage
per 1000 frames—that is, at 25 frames per second, in 40 by silicon transmutation. Moreover, the failure modes caused
seconds—with the 235 U source and 34 damaged pixels/1000 by alpha particles and neutrons were very similar. That leads
frames with the 241 Am source. to think if there is another reaction, not directly neutrons
Applying the algorithm to the irradiation in the Neutron with silicon, but neutrons with something else. This reaction
Imaging Facility of section II-B resulted in a damage rate of produces charged particles similar to alphas and these particles
338 damaged pixels per thousand frames for the uncovered in turn produce the damage to the sensor. It is widely known
sensor and only 14 damaged pixels/1000 frames for the Gd [17] that the isolation layers in a chip are made of a Boron-
covered one. Thus the reduction in thermal neutron flux due Phosphorous Silicate Glass (BPSG). This layer could be
to absorption in the Gadolinium layer lead to a reduction of responsible of the damage to the pixels because the neutron-
the damage to the sensor, indicating that damage is produced Boron reaction products are alphas and 7 Li particles.
ISBN 978-1-5090-3777-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 25 IEEE Catalog Number CFP16H30-ART
2016 Argentine Conference of Micro-Nanoelectronics, Technology and Applications
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank to the staff of the RA-6
Nuclear Research Reactor for their assistance during the
experiments.
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dosemeter,” Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 59, no. 4, pp.
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commercial on the shelf CMOS image sensors, technical analysis and
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F. A. Bessia, and M. G. Berisso, “Particle detection and classification
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Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 665, pp. 90–93, 2011.
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G. Fernández Moroni, and G. Cancelo, “Development of a novel
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Coupled Device,” Journal of Instrumentation 10 P01006, 2015.
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A. Nourreddine, “Demonstrating the γ-transparency of a CMOS pixel
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K. K. Muminov, T. A. Toshov, and D. Y. Chistyakov, “Modeling
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Fig. 3. Experimental (symbols) and simulated (lines) ΔVt vs. dose curves
for positive charge buildup under different positive applied voltages.
Fig. 5. Evolution with dose of the model parameters for an applied bias
Fig. 4. Spatial distribution of trapped holes for an applied bias VG = 1.8 V VG = 1.8 V. Symbols are taken from the fitting of the spatial distribution of
from the exact (symbols) and simplified (lines) models, and different trapped holes for different dose levels, whereas lines are the best fit to these
simulations times (tsim). values.
Abstract—Power converters that operate in Discontinuous and estimating power losses in input and output DM filters,
Conduction Mode (DCM) are able to reduce switching losses, as well as a key performance indicator [7].
when compared to Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) opera- Total ripple in CCM has been characterized in [8], for the
tion. This reduction is mainly due to zero current commutation
and the reduction of the reverse recovery losses. However, DCM case where the inductance value is the same in each phase,
operation in high power converters is limited due to the increment and generalized on [9] for any inductance ratio. These char-
in current ripple, which increases losses and volume in the acterizations have allowed to predict total ripple for the entire
differential mode (DM) filter. Multiphase DCM power converters duty cycle range, as a function of the system parameters. As
can reduce total ripple by dividing total current among N a consequence, amplitude, RMS value and harmonic content
phases and interleaving its ripples. Nevertheless, magnitude of
ripple reduction as a function of the system parameters has of total current ripple have been found.
not yet been completely determined. This information would On the other hand, DCM total current ripple has not been
be an important performance indicator and a useful tool for fully characterized. Available methodologies are not able to
aiding in the design of key converter features, such as the compute total ripple for the entire duty cycle range [6], or
number of phases and DM filter design, in order to meet total focus on a particular topology or number of phases [10],
ripple, losses or electromagnetic interference specifications. In
this sense, this paper proposes a methodology for the steady [11]. Therefore, said methods cannot be used to predict the
state characterization of input and output ripple in both buck current ripple characteristics for any N or input and output
and boost converters operating in DCM. Experimental tests on voltages. This lack of information makes difficult to select
a 4-phase buck converter validate the proposal. the optimal number of phases, and to design the DM filter
Index Terms—Multiphase power converters, discontinuous to meet total ripple, losses or electromagnetic interference
conduction mode (DCM), ripple, photovoltaic systems (PV).
(EMI) specifications, which has to be performed by evaluating
I. I NTRODUCTION particular cases [12], [13].
In this paper a methodology for the characterization of input
WITCHING power converters are extensively used in a
S wide range of applications, including photovoltaic (PV)
energy systems, Power Factor Correction (PFC) and Electrical
and output total ripple, in both buck and boost topologies,
for DCM operation, is presented. This methodology analyses
total ripple in the time domain for any number of phases and
Vehicles (EV) [1]–[3]. The efficiency achieved in these appli- the entire range of duty cycle. It also allows to obtain total
cations can be improved by operating in Discontinuous Con- ripple reduction pattern and location of cancellation points, as
duction Mode (DCM), which reduces the reverse recovery and a function of input voltage Vin , output voltage Vout and switch
hard switching losses found in Continuous Conduction Mode on time Ton . Experimental tests on a 4-phase buck converter
(CCM) [4]. However, DCM current ripple is as large as twice validate the proposal.
the mean inductor current, which increases losses and volume
of the differential mode (DM) filter in high power converters, II. P ROPOSED M ETHOD
and could therefore limit maximum converter power [5]. The proposed method characterizes the total input and
Multiphase DCM power converters allow to reduce the DM output current ripple either in boost (Fig. 1a) or buck (Fig. 1b)
noise, and therefore the requirements on the DM filters, by DCM interleaved power converters, based on the analysis of
interleaving 2π/N each phase current ripple [2], [6]. In this each phase ripple in the time domain.
condition, total ripple frequency is increased to N times the The analysis takes into consideration the following:
switching frequency fsw and its amplitude is decreased. • the power converter is operating in steady-state;
Knowledge of total ripple characteristic, as a function of the • the current is approximated by linear segments, as the
system parameters, could prove an important tool for designing time constant associated with the inductors and their
This work was supported in part by the Universidad Nacional de Mar resistive component is much higher than the switching
del Plata (UNMDP), Argentina, the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones period [14];
Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET) project PIP 0210, Argentina, by • the phase errors among phases, with respect to the ideal
the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (MINCYT),
Argentina, by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica phase shift ( 2π
N ), are small compared to the switching
(ANPCYT), Argentina. period [15], therefore they are neglected;
• all N phases have the same period T and the same turn
on time (Ton ).
Under these considerations, total current ripple is a wave- (a) Phase (rLk ) and total (IL ) inductor current ripples.
form composed by linear segments with different slope and
duration, which depend on N , Ton and phase current slopes.
Therefore, said ripple can be fully determined by locating the
instants in which the slope changes, defined as inflexion points,
and the total current value in these points. As an example,
Fig. 2a shows the phase inductor current ripple (rLk ) and total
inductor current ripple (IL ) for an N -phase interleaved power
converter operating in DCM. In this figure, three intervals
can be identified in each phase ripple, Tz (in which inductor
current is zero), Ton (where the switch is on) and finally Tf
(interval in which the switch is off and the current is still not
zero). Additionally and without prejudice to the generality,
Fig. 2b shows the output switch phase current ripple (rSk )
and total output switch current ripple for an N -phase boost
interleaved converter, defined as ISbs . In this case, current is
zero also for Ton interval. Switch current ripple in buck (ISbk )
converters is similar to boost one, but the zero current interval
(b) Phase (rSk ) and total (ISbs ) switching boost current ripple.
is during Tf instead of Ton .
Fig. 2: Phase and total current ripples
Initially, IL is characterized and then the same analysis
is performed for ISbs and ISbk . As it can be observed on
Fig. 2a, the inflexion points of IL (pLx ) agree with certain
instants of each phase current ripple. These instants in the be determined.
phase ripple are: tz (instant where current becomes zero),
ton (instant where current starts incrementing) and tf (instant tz (k + 1) = tz (k) + Tn
where current starts decrementing). The same occurs when tf (k + 1) = tf (k) + Tn
analyzing ISbs and ISbk , with the special consideration that ton (k + 1) = ton (k) + Tn (1)
its inflexion points agree only with tz and tf for boost and
with ton and tf for buck converters. This is due to the fact
In order to calculate said inflexion points, one phase has
that, for boost converters current is zero for Ton and for buck
to be assumed as a reference. If phase one is used for this
ones, current is zero for Tf .
purpose, the first three inflexion points are tz1 , tonN and tfk−2 ,
Since the time when all these particular points occur in each as shown in Fig. 2a. So as to compute the instants of interest,
phase can be analytically calculated, the inflexion points in IL this method has to contemplate the time intervals Tz , Ton and
can be precisely defined. As previously stated, there are three Tf included in a switching period as:
inflexion points in each phase so total current may have up
to 3N different inflexion points. Additionally, every point in tz1 = t1 = 0
each phase current is delayed Tn=T /N from the same point
tonN = t2 = t1 + y1 Tn − Tf
in the previous phase, as shown in (1). Therefore, using the
location of the first three inflexion points, the remaining can tfk−2 = t3 = t1 + y2 Tn − Tf − Ton (2)
where y1 is the top integer that results from Tf /Tn and y2 is Once fx is defined, (4) can be rewritten as:
the top integer that results from (Tf + Ton )/Tn , as:
pLx =A1 .fx + A2 .fx−3 + · · · + Ak .fx−3k+3
y1 = {y1 : y1 ∈ Z ∧ (Tf /Tn ) ∈ R ∧ + · · · + AN .fx−3N +3 , (7)
(y1 − 1) < (Tf /Tn ) < y1 } Generalizing the expression, the inflexion point for tx
y2 = {y2 : y2 ∈ Z ∧ [(Tf + Ton )/Tn ] ∈ R ∧ instant in IL is described as:
N
(y2 − 1) < [(Tf + Ton )/Tn ] < y2 } X
pLx = Ak .fz (8)
The resulting 3N−3 points are calculated as follows: k=1
where subindex z is calculated as:
tx = tx−3 + Tn x = 4, . . . , 3N. (3) (
x − 3k + 3 if x > 3k − 3
z= (9)
Once all 3N points are located, total inductor ripple for tx x − 3k + 3(N + 1) if x ≤ 3k − 3
instant (pLx ) can be computed as the sum of phase ripples
In (8), fz and Ak values must be determined. In order to
(rk ) in that instant.
calculate fz , intervals Tf and Tz are required. These values
pLx = rL1 (tx ) + · · · + rLk (tx ) + · · · + rLN (tx ) are calculated as a function of Ton and current ripple positive
N
and negative slopes (spk and snk , respectively) as:
=
X
rLk (tx ) (4) sp
Tf = Ton k
k=1 snk
spk
In order to obtain the values of rLk (tx ), a generic rep- Tz = T − Ton − Tf = T − Ton 1 +
snk
resentation of phase current ripples is proposed, based on
the periodicity of the system, as shown in Fig. 3. In this Ak = Ton spk (10)
representation, current ripple of a given phase is defined as Current ripple slopes as a function of phase inductance Lk ,
a normalized triangular piecewise function f (t), with period Vin and Vout are summarized on Table I.
T . Therefore it can be represented as a three section function:
one with zero current (Tz ), another with a positive slope (Ton ) TABLE I: S LOPE VALUES FOR T HE C ONVERTERS
and the last one with negative slope (Tf ). The minimum value
Boost Buck
it can reach is 0 and its maximum value is 1. In this sense, Vin Vin −Vout
spk
phase ripple is represented by weighting f (t) by its amplitude, Lk Lk
Vout −Vin Vin
as depicted on (5). The remaining phases are generated using snk Lk Lk
a Tn delayed version of f (t).
The presented method can be easily particularized to com-
rLk (t) = Ak f (t) (5) pute total switch current for boost (ISbs ) and buck (ISbk )
converters. As previously stated, phase switch current is zero
Since f (t) value is required only in the points of interest
during Ton interval for boost converters, and during Tf interval
(tx ), fx is defined by sampling f (t) in the instants calculated
for buck ones. Therefore, in order to use the presented method,
in (2) and (3), as shown in Fig. 3. Then, fx is computed as:
Ton in boost and Tf in buck are redefined as small arbitrary
time values that represent the rise and fall times (Toni and Tfi ,
0
0 ≤ tx < Tz
respectively) associated with the switches and drivers delays.
fx = (tx − Tz ).Ton −1 Tz ≤ tx < Tz + Ton (6)
It is important to point out that, in order to avoid affecting the
(T − tx ).Tf −1 Tz + Ton ≤ tx < T
switching period, it is necessary to recalculate Tz using (10)
as follows:
Tzbs = T − Toni − Tf
Tzbk = T − Ton − Tfi (11)
where Tzbs and Tzbk are the boost and buck redefined Tz ,
respectively. Hence, fx (6) is modified accordingly to obtain
the piecewise functions gx (12) and hx (13) for boost and buck
converters, respectively, as shown in Fig. 4.
0
0 ≤ tx < Tzbs
gx = (tx − Tzbs ).Toni −1 Tzbs ≤ tx < Tzbs + Toni
(T − tx ).Tf −1
Tzbs + Toni ≤ tx < T
Fig. 3: Function Ak f (t) and sampled version Ak fx . (12)
GaAs cells with layers of InAs QDs, are the most studied QD-
Abstract— This paper presents a theoretical study about the based photovoltaic devices [7]-[12]. Typically, in comparison
influence of fully correlated electron and holes on the to a similar device with no QD layers, a QDSC shows a higher
performance of quantum dot solar cells. A device-level model short-circuit current but a reduced open-circuit voltage, being
combining drift-diffusion equations for bulk carriers and rate
this last a result of the capture of carriers from the bulk into
equations for carrier dynamics in the quantum dot states,
developed ad hoc by some of the authors, was applied to the QD states and subsequent recombination within the
investigate the internal processes involved in the operation of nanostructures. This finally leads to solar cells with
InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells, considering excitonic capture efficiencies comparable or even below those of conventional
and escape dynamics. It is demonstrated, in line with previous devices [7]-[12]. Several design strategies have been
theoretical and experimental works, that the excitonic behavior implemented in order to improve the QDSC efficiency, with
of carriers in the nanostructures could be the responsible of the
laboratory prototypes reaching values in the order of 20% [9],
non-additive characteristic of the quantum dot contribution to
the total solar cell photocurrent. Separate carrier capture and [13]-[19]. The performance of the QDSCs may become further
escape are also investigated and compared to the excitonic worsen due to the character of the carrier escape. The non-
dynamics. additive effect of the QD photocurrent occurs when the total
photocurrent of the cell is lower than the sum of the
Index Terms—Quantum dot solar cells, carrier dynamics, photocurrents contributed by the bulk and the QDs separately,
device modeling, numerical simulation, excitonic escape. as reported in [9] for undoped InAs/GaAs solar cells. It has
been shown in [20], [21] that a possible explanation of the
non-additive effect in QDSCs is the excitonic dynamics of
C
I. INTRODUCTION
carriers in the nanostructures.
ARRIER dynamics in quantum dots (QDs) involve In this paper, the influence of the excitonic carrier escape on
capture, relaxation, escape and recombination processes the operation of QDSCs is investigated in-depth by numerical
[1]. As can be inferred from photoluminescence simulations. A physics-based model previously developed for
measurements, the electron and hole escape mechanism may QDSCs, coupling drift-diffusion transport equations for bulk
have excitonic, independent or correlated characteristics, and carriers and rate equations for electrons and holes in the QD
the nature of the carrier escape in the QDs strongly affects the states, is exploited [22]. QDs introducing different energy
behavior of the whole semiconductor structure [2]-[5]. In the states configurations are analyzed, all of them associated with
case of quantum dot solar cells (QDSCs), the type of carrier excitonic dynamics of carriers, as evidenced by photolumi-
escape has a strong impact on the current-voltage (J-V) nescence measurements in [23]. The theory of the exciton-
response of the devices. QDSCs are one of the most feasible induced non-additive effect of the QD photocurrent is
implementations of the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) reinforced by the new results presented in this work. The main
concept [6], whose theoretical efficiency exceeds 63% under differences between the non-excitonic (separate) and excitonic
maximum sunlight concentration. QDSCs consist on p-i-n carrier behavior are also demonstrated from a physical point of
semiconductor structures with several layers of QDs view, taking advantage of the advanced features of the model.
embedded within the intrinsic region, which allow the
harvesting of low energy photons. InAs/GaAs QDSCs, i.e. II. MODEL DESCRIPTION
The devices to be studied in this paper are GaAs p+-i-n+
A. Cedola is with the Group of Study of Materials and Electronic Devices,
GEMyDE, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), structures with a stack of InAs self-assembled QDs layers
1900, Buenos Aires, Argentina (e-mail: ariel.cedola@ing.unlp.edu.ar). embedded within the intrinsic region. Subband energy levels
M. Cappelletti and E. Peltzer y Blancá are with the Group of Study of introduced by the QD layers consist of one strongly confined
Materials and Electronic Devices, GEMyDE, Facultad de Ingeniería,
Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) and also with CONICET (e-mail: level, the ground state (GS), one or more excited states (ES),
marcelo.cappelletti@ing.unlp.edu.ar; eitelpyb@ing.unlp.edu.ar). both of them zero-dimensional, and a two-dimensional state
This work has been supported by UNLP grant I205 and by CONICET with associated with the wetting layer [1]. The relative energy
grant PIP 0292.
separations between these levels depend on the QD size, shape
Fig. 5. Equivalent current densities obtained after integrating the rates of the
involved processes (photogeneration, recombination and escape from WL-to-
barrier), for both separate and excitonic dynamics, simulated at V = 0 under
full illumination.
been considered. From the obtained simulation results, we can [12] K. Tanabe, D. Guimard, D. Bordel and Y. Arakawa, High-efficiency
InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells by metalorganic chemical vapor
conclude that the non-additive characteristic observed deposition, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 100, p. 193905, 2012.
experimentally in a QDSC like that presented in [9] is fully [13] S. J. Polly, D. V. Forbes, K. Driscoll, S. Hellstrom, S. M. Hubbard,
compatible with an excitonic behavior of electrons and holes “Delta-doping effects on quantum-dot solar cells,” IEEE J. Photovolt.,
vol. 4, pp. 1079-1085, 2014.
in the QD states. Simulation parameters were extracted from
[14] Y. Okada, T. Morioka, K. Yoshida, R. Oshima, Y. Shoji, T. Inoue, T.
two sets of experimental works. On the one hand, Kita, “Increase in photocurrent by optical transitions via intermediate
photoluminescence measurements demonstrating excitonic quantum states in direct-doped InAs/GaNAs strain-compensated
dynamics in self-assembled QD samples with transition quantum dot solar cell,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 109, pp. 024301-1-024301-
5, 2011.
energies between confined and unconfined states in the range [15] T. Morioka, Y. Okada, “Dark current characteristics of InAs/GaNAs
40-70 meV [23] and, on the other hand, J-V and optical strain-compensated quantum dot solar cells,” Physica E, pp. 390-393,
measurements showing the non-additive effect of the QD 2011.
[16] X. Yang, K. Wang, Y. Gu, H. Ni, X. Wang, T. Yang, Z. Wang,
photocurrent in QDSCs with GS peak positioned at 1130 “Improved efficiency of InAs/GaAs quantum dots solar cells by Si-
meV, and ∆ −∆ gap energies covering the energy doping,” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 113, pp. 144-147, 2013.
range indicated above [9]. The application of the excitonic [17] N. J. Ekins-Daukes, K. W. J. Barnham, J. P. Connolly, J. S. Roberts, J.
C. Clark, G. Hill, M. Mazzer, “Strain-balanced GaAsP/InGaAs quantum
dynamics model supplied with these parameters conducted to well solar cells,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 75, pp. 4195–4197, 1999.
a very good qualitative agreement between simulations and [18] C. G. Bailey, D. V. Forbes, R. P. Raffaelle, S. M. Hubbard, “Near 1 V
experiments. Additionally, it has been shown that the non- open circuit voltage InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells,” Appl. Phys.
Lett., vol. 98, pp. 163105-1-163105-3, 2011.
additive effect becomes stronger for deeper confined energy [19] K. Sablon, J. Little, N. Vagidov, Y. Li, V. Mitin, A. Sergeev,
states, which can be associated with increasing QD sizes. “Conversion of above- and below-bandgap photons via InAs quantum
Despite being an undesired effect, the non-additivity of the dot media embedded into GaAs solar cell,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 104,
pp. 253904-1-253904-5, 2014.
QD contribution to the solar cell photocurrent is an observable [20] M. Gioannini, A. Cedola, F. Cappelluti, “Impact of carrier dynamics on
characteristic whose origin has been successfully elucidated the photovoltaic performance of quantum dot solar cells,” IET
from modeling and simulation viewpoints. Optoelectron., vol. 9, pp. 69-74, 2015.
[21] A. Cedola, F. Cappelluti, M. Gioannini, “Dependence of quantum dot
photocurrent on the carrier escape nature in InAs/GaAs quantum dot
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Abstract—In this work the performance of different statistical models obtained based on this approach are described in
filtering models used for estimating states of aerospace vehicles, section III.
particularly LEO satellites, based on measurements of GNSS On the other hand, dynamics studies the laws of motion
systems are compared. This problem is non-linear in nature,
since both the state variables model and the output function are of bodies in relation to the causes that originated them,
non-linear. Thus we resort to the use of the extension of the the intervening forces. The formulation known as Newtonian
Kalman filter called EKF. mechanics enables the description of the motion based on
Different models based on several kinematic and dynamic ordinary differential equations in cartesian coordinates; this
approaches are considered. For the performance assessment will be sufficient for the vehicles we want to model. This
we use representative simulation scenarios. Finally, as a real
application example, the case of GPS measurements taken on approach is described in section IV.
board the Argentine SAC-D satellite is analyzed. Since these models are of a non-linear nature, and that
measurements obtained with GNSS are also related non-
I. I NTRODUCTION linearly with the states, the problem of state estimation is also
The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) provide nonlinear. In numerous papers such as [3] and [4] filtering
an alternative for the accurate determination (estimation) of schemes based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for
position and velocity of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. precise orbit determination based on GPS signals are used,
Currently there are several fully operational GNSS systems and in [5] and [6] the case of orbit determination using other
as GPS (USA) and GLONASS (Russia), or in stage of filtering schemes such as the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF)
development, as Galileo (European Union) and Beidou (China) or Sigma-Point Kalman Filter are presented.
[1], [2]. In a previous work [7] the performance of two different
The measurements obtained with GNSS are related to the filtering schemes (EKF and Positioning Kalman Filter (PKF))
satellite-receiver range (pseudorange) and their rate of change is compared for the case of using the same vehicle model.
(deltarange). The former is based on the signal time-of-arrival, In this paper we will focus on analyzing the behavior of the
while the latter is based on the carrier doppler frequency same filtering scheme, the EKF, with different versions of the
shift. Since it requires synchronism of time references of both vehicle model. A brief summary of the EKF formulation is
the GNSS system and the user (receiver), which can’t be described in section V, while section VI describes how the
ensured a-priori, two additional unknowns are incorporated to formulation for each one of these analyzed models results.
the problem: bias and drift of the user’s clock. A mathematical In section VII, the performance of EKF with the different
model of the measurements is presented in section II. proposed models is compared by simulation, while in section
These measurements are affected by various factors that VIII an application example with actual GPS data from
induce both systematic and random errors. For the first type of onboard argentine SAC-D satellite is presented. Finally, in
errors one generally resorts to the use of models to discount or section IX the conclusions are set.
at least reduce them, while to mitigate the effect of the latter,
II. M EASUREMENTS M ODEL
statistical filtering methods are often used. These filtering
methods usually take advantage of a model that describes The pseudorange measurement at time k obtained by a user
vehicle behavior in terms of a state variable system. at position rk based upon the signal of the j-th satellite at
To obtain state variable models for LEO satellite vehicles position skj is given by
we use two approaches of classical physics: the kinematic
ρkj = kskj − rk k + bk + εkj + νkj (1)
approach and the dynamic approach. Kinematics studies the
laws of motion of bodies without considering the causes that where bk is the receiver’s clock bias multiplied by the speed
originate them. Such description generally begins with the of light to be interpreted as range, and εkj and νjk group the
knowledge of some of the involved variables, and the rest sistematic and stochastic errors, respectively. We model the
are obtained based on derivation/integration as required. The latter as an i.i.d. gaussian process, with zero mean and variance
σρ2 . We denote with ρk the column vector that groups all the attraction, if it is modeled as a point mass, and ap corresponds
pseudorange measurements available at time k. to the acceleration due to other factors. In the case of LEO
We also denote satellites, the four effects that contribute the most to ap are:
skj − rk non-uniform distribution of Earth’s mass, ane ; gravitational
ekj , (2) attraction of other celestial bodies, a3b ; atmospheric drag, ad
kskj − rk k
and thrust of the engines used for orbital maneuvers, at [8]
the line-of-sight vector that points from the user’s position to
the j-th GNSS satellite. If the user and satellite velocity vec- ap = ane + a3b + ad + at . (7)
tors are ṙk and ṡkj , respectively, the deltarange measurement
of that satellite results To formulate Eq. 6 in an ECEF frame we need to add the
terms due to the rotation between the ECEF and ECI frames
ρ̇kj = ekj · (ṡkj − ṙk ) + ḃk + ξkj + υkj (3) [9]
µ
where ḃk is the user’s clock drift converted to velocity, and ξkj r̈ = − 3 r + aep + 2S(ωeei ) ṙ + S(ω eei )2 r (8)
and υjk group the sistematic and stochastic errors, respectively. r
We model the latter as an i.i.d. gaussian process, with zero where aep denotes the acceleration due to disturbances ex-
mean and variance σρ̇2 . We denote with ρ̇k the column vector pressed in the ECEF frame, S(·) denotes the cross product
that groups all the deltarange measurements available at time matrix, S(x)y = x × y, and ω eei denotes the angular velocity
k. vector of the ECI frame relative to the ECEF frame, measured
in ECEF. In Eq. 8 the three vectors r̈, ṙ and r are expressed
III. K INEMATIC A PPROACH in ECEF coordinates.
If we consider as state variables the three position states and
the three velocity states (contained in xk ), and as a disturbance V. K ALMAN F ILTER (KF)
input the three acceleration states (contained in ak ); and The KF is an estimator for what is known as linear
neglect higher order terms, a kinematic model discretized in quadratic problem of estimating the state of a linear dynamic
time every T seconds is system disturbed by white noise, using measurements linearly
2
T
related to the state and affected linearly by white noise. The
I3×3 T I3×3 2 I3×3 resulting estimator is statistically optimal with respect to any
xk = xk−1 + ak−1 . (4)
03×3 I3×3 T I3×3 quadratic function of the estimation error [10].
If we also consider that the state vector includes the three We will focus on analyzing the variant of the KF used for
acceleration states, and considering as a disturbance input the discrete systems, whose mathematical description is
three jerk states (contained in jk ); neglecting the higher order
xk = Fk−1 xk−1 + Gk−1 wk−1 (9)
terms, the model is
2 yk = Hk xk + vk (10)
I3×3 T I3×3 T2 I3×3
xk = 03×3 I3×3 T I3×3 xk−1 + where xk denotes the system’s state, and yk denotes the
03×3 03×3 I3×3 measurements vector, both at time k. Matrices Fk−1 , Gk−1
T3 and Hk are commonly referred to as System Matrix, Input
62 I3×3 Matrix and Output Matrix, respectively. The vectors wk and
+ T I3×3 jk−1 . (5) vk are modeled as uncorrelated white stochastic processes
2
T I3×3 with zero mean and covariance matrices denoted Qk and Rk ,
Equations 4 and 5 represent linear time-invariant discrete respectively.
systems, in whose formulation no assumption was made about In the formulation of the KF, two estimates of the state
+
the causes of the acceleration (or higher order terms), in line vector are defined: x̂−
k , or a-priori estimate, and x̂k , or a-
with a kinematic approach. Therefore, these models can be posteriori estimate, with covariance matrix of the estimation
+
used in a wide variety of vehicles when no other, more accurate error P−k and Pk , respectively. The relationships between
model is available. Moreover, being very simple and time- them and the measurements are given by [10], [11]
invariant models, they often result in a low computational load +
x̂−
k = Fk−1 x̂k−1 (11)
implementation.
P−
k = Fk−1 P+ ′
k−1 Fk−1 + Gk−1 Qk−1 Gk−1
′
(12)
IV. DYNAMIC A PPROACH
x̂+ − −
k = x̂k + Kk (yk − Hk x̂k ) (13)
To describe the orbital motion from a dynamic approach,
P+ −
k = (I − Kk Hk )Pk (14)
we start from the equation describing the acceleration of a
satellite in the ECI frame (Earth-Centered Inertial) [8] Kk = P− ′ − ′
k Hk (Hk Pk Hk + Rk )
−1
(15)
µ where Eqs. (11) and (12) are called temporal updates of
r̈ = − 3 r + ap (6)
r the estimate and the covariance matrix of the estimation
where µ is the Earth’s gravitational constant and r = |r|. error, respectively; Eqs. (13) and (14) are called observational
The first term corresponds to the effect of Earth’s gravitational updates of the estimate and the covariance matrix of the
estimation error, respectively; and Eq. (15) is called Kalman Thus, in all cases the linearization of the system function
gain matrix [11]. A′ denotes the transpose of A. is given by
At every moment in which the state must be estimated,
1T
the steps of temporary update (Eqs. (11) and (12)) and 0 2×M
Fk = 0 1 (19)
observational update (Ecs. (13) and (14)) have to be carried 0M×2 F⋆k
out. The latter also requires the computation of the Kalman
gain matrix (Eq. (15)). where F⋆k denotes the system matrix state without expanding,
and M depends on the dimensions of F⋆k . E.g., for Kinematic
A. Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) models I and II this matrix is obtained by inspection of Eqs.
(4) and (5) (i.e. the leftmost matrix of the right-hand side of
The EKF is an extension of the KF for the case where
each equation); and for the Dynamic I model it’s
the state model and/or the relationship between the state and "
T2 µ
#
the measurements is non-linear [11]. Eqs. (11) and (13) are 1 − 3 I3×3 T I 3×3
reformulated as F⋆k = 2 rk
+
−T rµ3 I3×3 I3×3
k
+
x̂−
k = fk−1 (x̂k−1 ) (16) T2 2
S(ω eei )2 T2 2S(ωeei )
+ 2 . (20)
x̂+
k = x̂−
k + Kk (yk − hk (x̂−
k )). (17) T S(ωeei )2 T 2S(ωeei )
All other equations remain the same, but replacing the The input matrix is given by
matrices Fk−1 and Hk by a linearization of the equations
T2
around the latest estimate of the state.
2 02×1
Gk = T (21)
0M×1 G⋆k
VI. M ODELS TO BE C OMPARED
where G⋆k denotes the input array for the state without
For the formulation of the EKF we consider the following expanding, and M depends on the dimensions of G⋆k . For
models Kinematic I and II G⋆k is obtained by inspection from Eqs.
• Kinematic I: We consider as states the three position (4) and (5) (i.e. the rightmost matrix of the right-hand side of
states and the three velocity states; the perturbation is each equation); for Dynamic I and II, it is equal to those of
given by the acceleration. It corresponds to the model Kinematic I, while for Dynamic III and IV is equal to those
described in Eq. (4). of Kinematic II.
• Kinematic II: We consider as states the three position Meanwhile, assembling the vector of measurements as the
states, the three velocity states and the three acceleration concatenation of measurements of pseudorange and deltarange
states; the perturbation is given by the jerk. It corresponds ′
yk = ρ′k ρ̇′k
to the model described in Eq. (5). (22)
• Dynamic I: We consider as states the three position states the matrix Hk results
and the three velocity states related as in Eq. (8). The
∂h(xk )
perturbation is given by the acceleration ap . Hk , = (23)
• Dynamic II: Similar to Dynamic I, but incorporating the
∂xk x̂−
k
effect of the J2 coefficient (Jeffery’s second constant in 1Nk ×1 0Nk ×1 H⋆k 0Nk ×3 0Nk ×L
= (24)
the description of the Earth’s gravitational potential [9]) 0Nk ×1 1Nk ×1 0Nk ×3 H⋆k 0Nk ×L
in ap . The perturbation is given by the remaining terms
where H⋆k is a matrix containing in its rows the line-of-
in ap .
sight vectors, Eq. (2), corresponding to the satellites whose
• Dynamic III: Similar to Dynamic I, but adding three
measurements were grouped into yk , Nk is the number of
aditional states to estimate the non-modeled acceleration.
measurements available at time k, and L is equal to 3 if the
The perturbation is given by the jerk.
state includes acceleration and zero otherwise.
• Dynamic IV: Similar to Dynamic II, but adding three
aditional states to estimate the non-modeled acceleration. VII. S IMULATION R ESULTS
The perturbation is given by the jerk. To define a significant simulation scenario, we generate
In all cases we extend the model by incorporating two the true states of position and velocity that would have our
additional states to contemplate bias, bk , and drift, ḃk , accord- vehicle in a given time interval (actually we are interested
ing to the measurements model as described in II. We also in a sampled interval, tk = kT , k ∈ K ⊂ Z). Based on
incorporate an element to the disturbances to model the clock these states and a description of the GNSS constellation we
“acceleration”, b̈k . We assume that the relation between these synthesize the measurements that the vehicle would have at
states corresponds to a linear system each time k. By entering these synthesized measurements to
T2 the filtering algorithm (in each of its variants) the estimation
bk 1 T bk−1 of the corresponding states is obtained. In this way, it is
= + 2 b̈k−1 . (18)
ḃk 0 1 ḃk−1 T possible to compare the solutions obtained in each case with
ǫ2p
We also obtain the status of GNSS satellites in the simula-
q
tion interval as described e.g. in [1], using a set of arbitrarily 102
chosen broadcast ephemeris, and determine which of them are
visible by the vehicle at each point of its trajectory.
We next synthesize the pseudorange and deltarange mea- 101
surements for each one of the satellites in view at every
moment. For that, we include a model of the user’s clock 100
bias and drift (Eqs. 1 and 3), and the noise affecting each
measurement.
We adjust the covariance matrix Rk (used in Eq. (15)) with 10−1
10−6 10−4 10−2 100
the same value used to generate the measurements’ noise, σẍ , σj
and compare the performance of each filtering scheme (with
the diverse proposed models) for different values of the noise
Fig. 1. Mean square error in bias-position solutions as a function of σẍ (or
model covariance matrix Qk (used in Eq. (12)), given by σj ) for the six models considered using GPS system. In all cases σb̈ = 0.01
is taken.
σb̈2
01×3
Qk = (25)
01×3 σα2 I3×3
TABLE I
where σα = σẍ for those models in which it is considered R ESULTS OF COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT MODELS .
that the disturbance is given by the acceleration, and σα = σj Mod. pt. σẍ ( σj )
q
E{ǫ2p }
p
E{ǫ2v }
for those models where it is considered that the perturbation
Pos 5.75 7.71 × 10−1 1.56 × 10−1
is given by the jerk. To analyze the performance of each of Kin. I
Vel 6.00 7.71 × 10−1 1.56 × 10−1
the models we used as a metric the mean square error in bias- Kin. II
Pos 2.00 × 10−2 7.68 × 10−1 9.69 × 10−2
position and drift-velocity solutions Vel 2.00 × 10−2 7.68 × 10−1 9.69 × 10−2
Pos 1.00 × 10−1 7.65 × 10−1 8.64 × 10−2
Dyn. I
4.00 × 10−2 7.98 × 10−1 6.85 × 10−2
v
u K−1 Vel
q u 1 X kx̂p,k − xp,k k2 Pos 7.50 × 10−4 3.87 × 10−1 1.69 × 10−2
ǫ2p = t (26) Dyn. II
Vel 7.50 × 10−4 3.87 × 10−1 1.69 × 10−2
K 4
k=0 Pos 2.50 × 10−4 7.12 × 10−1 3.20 × 10−2
Dyn. III
Vel 2.50 × 10−4 7.12 × 10−1 3.20 × 10−2
v
u K−1
q u 1 X kx̂v,k − xv,k k2 Pos 2.50 × 10−6 4.06 × 10−1 1.57 × 10−2
2
ǫv = t (27) Dyn. IV
Vel 2.50 × 10−6 4.06 × 10−1 1.57 × 10−2
K 4
k=0
I. INTRODUCTION
The capacitor Cstb is not strictly necessary in all projects, it is B. Linear regulator loop
designed to ensure the loop stability imposing a dominant pole The negative feedback loop of the regulator is implemented
in the negative feedback. For a further information about by the high voltage operational amplifier AO1 and the high
theory and design of linear voltage regulators we recommend voltage NMOS transistor NHV3 presented inside the blue
to consult [4]. dashed trace on Fig (2). Notice that the feedback signal is
Nb2, so the current Idif that flows across the Rsensor is the
difference between I1 and I2. The transistors NHVa1, NHVb1, Na1,
Nb1, NHVa2, NHVb2, Na2, Nb2 were sized with a wide area, thus the
variations on the currents I 1 and I2 modify the voltages Von1 and
Von2 only some tens of millivolts. The resistors R were sized
with very high values, 2MΩ each one, thus the maximum
current across them is less than 17uA. A high current value
through those resistors, besides increase the chip power
consumption, would implied a high dissipated power through
the resistor and heat dissipation, risking to damage the circuit.
Furthermore, the high value of those resistors that implies a
low Von1 and Von2 allow to assume the approximation done on
equation (8).
( BPOS−V on 1)
I 1= (6)
R
(V out −V on2 )
I 2= (7)
R
(BPOS−V out )
I dif =( I 1− I 2 )≈ (8)
R
R sensor
V sensor = I dif × R sensor≈( BPOS −V out )×( ) (9) Fig. 5. Transient simulation of the floating regulator with a variable load
R
connected switching between BPOS and Vout. The red trace is BPOS; the
green trace is Vout; the blue trace is VPR.
if (V sensor > V BG )V POR =5 V ; else V POR= 0 V (10)
V. SIMULATIONS
The current difference Idif across the resistor Rsensor cause a
voltage drop Vsensor expressed on equation (9). The voltage After implement the layout of the designed circuits
Vsensor is compared against a voltage reference V BG generated post-layout simulations were done to consider parasites
by a Bandgap circuit. The resistors R and Rsensor ratio is components, due to the routing and block interconnections,
designed to generate a V sensor voltage equal to VBG when the checking the behavior of the circuit with a more realistic
difference between BPOS and Vout is 4.3V. The threshold value model. The layout of the all circuit is illustrated on Fig (4),
can be changed just adjusting this resistors ratio. The resulting including the floating regulator and the level sensor. The total
function for the output signal VPOR is expressed on (10). area of the circuit is 599µm x 909µm divided in 599µm x
329µm for the floating voltage regulator and 599µm x 580µm
for the level sensor. All corners were considered on
simulations checking the behavior of the regulator and the
sensor against process variations, operating condition
variations and missmatch. Also were considered the Operating
Condition Check (OCC) [7] simulations to ensure that the
components are not over stresses on normal operating
conditions. This is a very important simulation on high voltage
applications because of the risk to expose components against
breakdown voltages.
On Fig (5) are illustrated the pre-regulator output V PR and
the regulator output Vout on a transient simulation. The supply
voltage BPOS is varied from 8.5V to 35V causing that V PR and
Vout variate too, a load is connected between BPOS and Vout
switching its current consumption between 20uA and 80uA
periodically. It is visible that both outputs keep approximately
the same voltage difference against the supply in the all range.
The pre-regulator output VPR present a small variations due to
Fig. 4. Layout of the complete circuit; inside the yellow shape are the the current switching that is considered normal for this
reference circuit and the linear loop regulator; inside the pink shape is the topology, this variation is not propagated to the regulator
pre-regulator; inside the green shape is the level sensor; inside the white output. The circuit pass the OCC simulations confirming that
shape are current mirrors to copy the bias currents of the all circuit. The total all components stay in the safe operating conditions.
area is 599µm x 909µm.
Fig. 6. Transient simulation of the voltage level sensor. The red trace is The measurements of the threshold voltage of the level
BPOS; the green trace is Vout; the blue trace is VPOR. sensor have a mean value of 4.226V under the supply voltage,
with a standard variation of 86mV and the worst case present
A transient simulation of the sensor circuit for the same range a variation 200mV under the designed value. In all the chip
of supply considered on the simulation exposed before is samples the VPOR signal, that advice the state of the regulator,
shown on Fig (6). The input signal of the sensor is the output was turned on correctly when the regulator reach the operating
of the voltage regulator named Vout, this signal was varied level.
crossing the threshold of the sensor many times. It can be
observed how the sensor output VPOR turn on and turn off when
Vout cross the threshold value for the all supply range.
VI. MEASUREMENTS
that can vary in the range of 8.5V to 35V. In addition, the [3] Banba, H.; Shiga, H.; Umezawa, A.; Miyaba, T.; Tanzawa, T.; Atsumi,
S.; Sakui, K., "A CMOS bandgap reference circuit with sub-1-V
regulator output is sensed by a monolithic circuit that provides
operation", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 670–674.
a low voltage logical signal controlling the state of the
regulator. The test results demonstrate the correct behavior of [4] G. Rincon-Mora. Analog IC Design with Low-Dropout Regulators. New
the designed circuits, thus, verifying that the proposed York, NY: McGraw-Hill Inc., 2009, pp. 1-43.
topology is a valid choice for this application. This project was
customized to a load that presents a current consumption [5] A. S. Sedra and K. C. Smith. Microelectronic Circuits. New York, NY:
varying between 20uA and 80uA, the chosen topology can by Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 253-255.
easily scaled to design a regulator that supply a different load
current range. The circuit occupies a total area of 599µm x [6] Biziitu, F., “On-chip 500uA at 5V above battery Dual-Chain Dickson
909µm, among them 599µm x 329µm is occupied by the Charge Pump with Regulated Clock Supply”, International
Semiconductor Conference (CAS), vol. 2, pp. 203–206.
voltage regulator and 599µm x 580µm by the level sensor. The
floating regulated voltage reach an accuracy of 2.5% standard
[7] X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries, “Application Note SPICE Models &
deviation from the designed value. Simulations”, Release 1.3, March 2014.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
REFERENCES
[1] Kuo-Hsing Cheng, Yu-Lung Lo, Wei-Bin Yang “A Novel Power-On
Reset Circuit Without Capacitor”, in 6th WSEAS Int. Multi-Conf. on
Circuits, Systems, Communications and Computers, Crete, Gr., 2002,
pp. 102-104.
Abstract—Four different N-well Hall Plate geometries were Section IV shows the Hall Plates designed, its parameters, as
designed and fabricated in a 0.5µm CMOS process provided by well as the current spinning technique used in the
MOSIS. Different shapes, sizes, contact distribution and measurements. In Section V, the Hall voltage, sensitivity and
dimensions were used in order to characterize Hall Plate resistance measurement results over temperature are shown.
sensitivity and resistance in a range of temperatures from -40°C Section VI introduces the model used for the Finite Element
up to 165°C. To remove the offset a four-phase current spinning
Method (FEM) simulation, the results obtained and a
method was used. The results show a better sensitivity
performance in the cross-shaped whereas the small square shape comparison with the measurements is shown. Finally in
has a slight improvement in the SNR behavior. The sensitivity of Section VII the conclusions of this work are shown.
the different Hall Plate geometries was simulated using a model
based on finite-element showing good agreement with the II. HALL EFFECT
measurements.
A. Equations
Index Terms—Hall Plate, CMOS design, Solid state magnetic The Hall voltage ( ) in an ideal Hall Plate (i.e. infinitely
field sensor long with punctual contacts) can be expressed as follows[2]
I. INTRODUCTION
= (1)
A magnetic transducer has as purpose to turn the sensed
magnetic field into voltage. They can be found in many
applications such as printers, TV, scanners, automotive where is the Hall Plate thickness, is the Hall Plate bias
industry, etc. current, is the external perpendicular magnetic field and
The Hall effect was first discovered in 1879 by Edwin Hall is called Hall coefficient given, for an n-type semiconductor,
[1]. This effect is the manifestation of the Lorentz Force, by
which will appear over mobile charges exposed to an external
magnetic field. This force will push positive and negative
charges in opposite directions causing the appearance of a Hall =− (2)
electric field and hence a measurable Hall voltage.
A Hall Plate consists in a doped semiconductor section, where is the electron concentration, is the electron charge,
defined by a width, a length and a thickness where the Hall is the anisotropy factor and is the Hall scattering factor
effect takes place. It has two pairs of contacts, one for sensing
which is dependent both on temperature and scattering
and one for biasing. It can be made by different materials, but
mechanism.
as it will be seen later, low doped n-type materials are
In a Hall Plate we can find two different electric fields. In
normally used.
This paper begins with an introduction to the equations of the absence of external magnetic field, only an external
the Hall effect and the influences of the geometry in the Hall electric field, , exists, responsible of the current flowing
Plate behavior. In Section III, important aspects of the Hall and collinear with the current density lines, . When a
Plate treated as a sensor (sensitivity, temperature behavior) are magnetic field is applied, the Lorentz Force will cause the
shown. appearance of a new electric field, called Hall electric field
, perpendicular to the first one. Therefore, the total electric
Manuscript received June 10, 2016. This work was supported by field, , in the Hall Plate has two components
Universidad de Buenos Aires, grant UBACyT Q025 and by Facultad de
Ingeniería, Departamento de Electrónica. The integrated circuit was designed
using Mentor Graphics tools under the Higher Education Program (HEP). The = + =( , , 0) (3)
chip was fabricated through the MOSIS foundry service supported by the
MOSIS Educational Program (MEP).
Nicolás Ronis is with the Microelectronics Laboratory, Universidad de resulting that the current density lines and the total electric
Buenos Aires, Argentina. field are tilted by a an angle called Hall Angle, " .
Mariano Garcia-Inza is with the Device Physics - Microelectronics
Laboratory - INTECIN, Universidad de Buenos Aires - CONICET, Argentina.
electric field is
01 3, 0 3, 0 (8)
'0 3 (* (9)
∙ $% = 0 (4) A. Sensitivity
The sensitivity of a Hall Plate is given by the variations of
where $% is a unit vector normal to the boundary. When an the Hall voltage due the variations of the magnetic field in a
external magnetic field is applied, the electric field will be set of operating conditions Q
:
tilted by a Hall angle.
In the vicinity of a contact, since no tangential component 8 9 9 4
: ;
(11)
of the electric field can exist, only a normal component for the
electric field appears
A Hall Plate can be biased by either a constant voltage over
∙ $& 0 (5) temperature (voltage driven) or a constant current over
temperature (current driven). In this work we will focus on the
where $& is a unit vector tangential to a contact. In this case,
first case.
For a voltage driven, the sensitivity can be expressed as
when a magnetic field is applied, the current density lines will
be tilted by a Hall angle.
Analyzing a real geometry of a Hall Plate, the Hall voltage 8 4 (12)
can be obtained solving (6) where A and B are two opposite
contacts (in the y direction) lying in the same equipotential where is the bias voltage and is the Hall Plate
plane in absence of magnetic field. resistance, which in the case of a square geometry can be
expressed as
' ∙ () = 1 =
<
(6)
(13)
> ?@ >
where () 0, (*, 0 and is the total electric field present where > and = are the width and the length of the Hall Plate
in the Hall Plate given by (3) where respectively, < its resistivity and ?@ the electron mobility.
Combining (12) and (13) and dividing by the sensitivity
+ , - ./ (7) in , ⁄4 ∙ / can be expressed as
>
As it can be seen in Fig. 1, in a real geometry, the current 8B 4 ?
density lines have two components 0 , 01 , 0 . Applying a = @ (14)
perpendicular magnetic field in the 2 direction the total
B. Temperature variation
When analyzing the temperature variation of the sensitivity
in a voltage driven Hall Plate is easy to see that the only
parameters in (14) that vary with temperature are the
scattering factor and the mobility. However, the variation of
the first one is negligible compared with the mobility,
therefore the sensitivity variation with temperature will follow
the mobility variation, which can be expressed as [3, 4]
6
5
1 2
3 4
100µm
switches are in series with the Hall Plates, special care has to
be taken regarding their dimensions. However, for this work, Fig. 5. Hall voltage vs. Magnetic Field for the Hall Plates biased with 4V.
the voltage across the Hall Plates was measured directly from
their contacts, accessible through the package pins, so no error With this result we can say that the Hall Plates designed
was introduced due switches resistance. Also accessible from showed a linear behavior in the range of the magnetic field
outside are the inputs of the 2-bit decoder which is used to tested and up to 4V bias.
select the desired phase intended to be measured. In addition,
another 2-bit decoder was used to select the desired Hall Plate. B. Temperature
Fig. 4 shows a microscope capture of the fabricated chip.
Sensitivity and resistance measurements were done in a
temperature range from -40°C up to 165°C. To do so, the chip
V. MEASUREMENTS
was placed in a thermal chuck. Special care was taken at low
The measurements made in this paper aim to characterize temperature, applying the baking technique in order to ensure
the sensitivity, resistance and the variation of these parameters that all the surrounding humidity was removed.
with temperature. The Fig. 6 shows the normalized temperature sensitivity
calculated using (20) as well as the normalized mobility using
A. Sensitivity (15). It can be seen that at -40°C the sensitivity increases 40%
whereas at 165°C it decreases up to 50% of its value at room
During the sensitivity measurements, external and temperature. Fig. 6 confirms what is was stated in Section III,
perpendicular magnetic fields were applied with bias voltages that in a voltage driven Hall Plate, the sensitivity variation
of 2V, 3V and 4V. The results are summarized in the TABLE over temperature follows (15).
II. Through the sense of the current in the bias contacts the
Hall Plate resistance was measured for the different
TABLE II temperatures. Results are shown in the Fig.7.
Sensitivity measured for each Hall Plate
HALL PLATE SENSITIVITY [µV/G·VBIAS]
HP1 3.00
HP2 4.08
HP3 3.09
HP4 3.64
8m n maom p m D
^j a kl2m( 8m n (20)
8m n 25°q
D 25°q
∆ % - 100 (21)
25°q
REFERENCES
[1] E. H. Hall, “On a new action of the magnet on electric
currents”, American Journal of Mathematics, vol. 2, np. 3,
1879, pp. 287-292.
[2] R. S. Popovic, Hall effect devices. Philadelphia, PA: CRC
Press, 2003.
[3] N. D. Arora, J. R. Hauser, D. J. Roulston, “Electron and
hole mobilities in silicon as a function of concentration and
temperature”, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,
vol. 29, np. 2, 1982, pp. 292-295.
[4] E. Ohta, M. Sakata, “Temperature dependence of Hall
factor in low-compensated n-type silicon”, Japanese Journal
of Applied Physics, vol. 17, np. 10, 1978, p. 1795.
[5] A. Bilotti, G. Monreal, R. Vig, “Monolithic magnetic Hall
sensor using dynamic quadrature offset cancellation”, IEEE
journal of solid-state circuits, vol. 32, np. 6, 1997, pp. 829-
836.
[6] A. A. Bellekom, “Origins of offset in conventional and
spinning-current Hall plates”, Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect.
Eng., Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, Netherlands, 1998.
Fig. 9. Hall voltage obtained from the measurements (M) and FEM [7] J. R. Brauer, J. J. Ruehl, B. E. MacNeal, F. Hirtenfelder,
simulations for a 4V bias.
“Finite element analysis of Hall effect and
magnetoresistance”, IEEE transactions on electron
TABLE IV devices, vol. 42, np.2, 1995, pp. 328-333.
Sensitivity comparison between measurements and FEM
simulations
Sensitivity [µV/G·VBIAS]
HP Measurements FEM Error [%]
HP1 3.00 2.94 2.0
HP2 4.08 3.9 4.4
HP3 3.09 3.31 7.1
HP4 3.64 3.38 7.1
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In the present work four different Hall Plate topologies were
designed, characterized and fabricated in a 0.5µm CMOS
ONC5N/F process provided by MOSIS. The Hall Plates
implemented had differences both in the geometries and in the
contacts size and position.
Results showed that the HP2 has a better sensitivity
performance due the high geometric factor this geometry can
achieve. The HP4, although it has a lower sensitivity, showed
the best behavior regarding SNR at the expense of an increase
in the current consumption. The results of the measurements
confirmed that the fabrication process used in this paper
allows the development of Hall Plates with good
performances, since the results obtained are comparable with
existing data.
A Hall Plate model based on FEM was developed. Results
showed a worst case error of 7.1% in comparison with the
measurements, which allows us to say that the model
developed and the FEM simulations are a precise tool in order
to predict the behavior of the Hall Plate sensitivity.