Low Power Delta Sigma Modulators For Medical Applications

This thesis investigates the design of high-resolution and power-efficient [Delta][Sigma] modulators at very low frequencies. In total, eight discrete-time (DT) modulators have been designed in a 65nm CMOS technology: two active modulators, two hybrid active-passive modulators, two ultra-low-voltage modulators operated at 270mV and 0.5V supply voltages, one fully passive modulator, and a dual-mode [Delta][Sigma] modulator using variable-bandwidth amplifiers.

Biomedical electronics has gained significant attention in healthcare industry, where biomedical devices are becoming widespread for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation and prevention of disease. They are used in wide variety of conditions such as cardiac pacemakers for cardiac arrhythmia, cochlear implants for deafness or retinal implants for blindness' large amount of activity is being researched in brain-machine interfaces for paralysis, stroke, and blindness. A general biomedical device comprises energy source, analog preprocessing, analog-to digital conversion (ADC), digital signal preprocessing, and communication subsystem, each of which must be designed for minimum energy consumption to adhere to the stringent energy constraint. The ADC is one of the key building blocks in all biomedical electronic systems. As of particular interest in this thesis, the ADC is an important block in the sensing stage of the biomedical systems, such as implantable devices, for accurate detection of the physiological signals like electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG).

Oversampling techniques based on sigma-delta modulation are widely used to implement the analog/digital interfaces in CMOS VLSI technologies. This approach is relatively insensitive to imperfections in the manufacturing process and offers numerous advantages for the realization of high-resolution analog-to-digital (A/D) converters in the low-voltage environment that is increasingly demanded by advanced VLSI technologies and by portable electronic systems. In The Design of Low-Voltage, Low-Power Sigma-Delta Modulators, an analysis of power dissipation in sigma-delta modulators is presented, and a low-voltage implementation of a digital-audio performance A/D converter based on the results of this analysis is described. Although significant power savings can typically be achieved in digital circuits by reducing the power supply voltage, the power dissipation in analog circuits actually tends to increase with decreasing supply voltages. Oversampling architectures are a potentially power-efficient means of implementing high-resolution A/D converters because they reduce the number and complexity of the analog circuits in comparison with Nyquist-rate converters. In fact, it is shown that the power dissipation of a sigma-delta modulator can approach that of a single integrator with the resolution and bandwidth required for a given application. In this research the influence of various parameters on the power dissipation of the modulator has been evaluated and strategies for the design of a power-efficient implementation have been identified. The Design of Low-Voltage, Low-Power Sigma-Delta Modulators begins with an overview of A/D conversion, emphasizing sigma-delta modulators. It includes a detailed analysis of noise in sigma-delta modulators, analyzes power dissipation in integrator circuits, and addresses practical issues in the circuit design and testing of a high-resolution modulator. The Design of Low-Voltage, Low-Power Sigma-Delta Modulators will be of interest to practicing engineers and researchers in the areas of mixed-signal and analog integrated circuit design.

This book presents the study, design, modulation, optimization and implementation of low power, passive DT-ΣΔMs for use in audio applications. The high gain and bandwidth amplifier normally used for integration in ΣΔ modulation, is replaced by passive, switched-capacitor branches working under the Ultra Incomplete Settling (UIS) condition, leading to a reduction of the consumed power. The authors describe a design process that uses high level models and an optimization process based in genetic algorithms to achieve the desired performance.

This important book deals with the modeling and design of higher-order single-stage delta-sigma modulators. It provides an overview of the architectures, the quantizer models, the design techniques and the implementation issues encountered in the study of the delta-sigma modulators. A number of applications are discussed, with emphasis on use in the design of analog-to-digital converters and in frequency synthesis. The book is education- rather than research-oriented, containing numerical examples and unsolved problems. It is aimed at introducing the final-year undergraduate, the graduate student or the electronic engineer to this field.

Thoroughly revised and expanded to help readers systematically increase their knowledge and insight about Sigma-Delta Modulators Sigma-Delta Modulators (SDMs) have become one of the best choices for the implementation of analog/digital interfaces of electronic systems integrated in CMOS technologies. Compared to other kinds of Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Σ∆Ms cover one of the widest conversion regions of the resolution-versus-bandwidth plane, being the most efficient solution to digitize signals in an increasingly number of applications, which span from high-resolution low-bandwidth digital audio, sensor interfaces, and instrumentation, to ultra-low power biomedical systems and medium-resolution broadband wireless communications. Following the spirit of its first edition, Sigma-Delta Converters: Practical Design Guide, 2nd Edition takes a comprehensive look at SDMs, their diverse types of architectures, circuit techniques, analysis synthesis methods, and CAD tools, as well as their practical design considerations. It compiles and updates the current research reported on the topic, and explains the multiple trade-offs involved in the whole design flow of Sigma-Delta Modulators—from specifications to chip implementation and characterization. The book follows a top-down approach in order to provide readers with the necessary understanding about recent advances, trends, and challenges in state-of-the-art Σ∆Ms. It makes more emphasis on two key points, which were not treated so deeply in the first edition: It includes a more detailed explanation of Σ∆Ms implemented using Continuous-Time (CT) circuits, going from system-level synthesis to practical circuit limitations. It provides more practical case studies and applications, as well as a deeper description of the synthesis methodologies and CAD tools employed in the design of Σ∆ converters. Sigma-Delta Converters: Practical Design Guide, 2nd Edition serves as an excellent textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in electrical engineering as well as design engineers working on SD data-converters, who are looking for a uniform and self-contained reference in this hot topic. With this goal in mind, and based on the feedback received from readers, the contents have been revised and structured to make this new edition a unique monograph written in a didactical, pedagogical, and intuitive style.

High speed and high resolution analog-to-digital converter is a key building block for broadband wireless communications, high definition video applications, medical images and so on. By leveraging the down scaling of the latest CMOS technology and the noise shaping properties, delta-sigma ADCs are able to achieve wide-band operation and high accuracy simultaneously. At first in this thesis, two novel techniques which can be applied to high performance delta-sigma ADC design are proposed. The first one is a modulator architectural innovation that is able to effectively solve the feedback timing constraints in a double-sampled delta-sigma modulator. The second one is a transistor level improvement to reduce the hardware consumption in a standard Date Weighted Averaging (DWA) realization. Next, charge-pump (CP) based switched-capacitor (SC) integrator is discussed. A cross-coupling technique is proposed to eliminate parasitic capacitor effect in a CP based SC integrator. Also design methodologies are introduced to incorporate a modified CP based SC integrator into a low-distortion delta-sigma modulator. A second-order delta-sigma modulator was designed and simulated to verify the proposed modulator topology. Finally, design of a double-sampled broadband 12-bit delta-sigma modulator is presented. To achieve very low power consumption, this modulator utilizes the following two key design techniques: 1. Double sampled integrator to increase the effective over-sampling ratio. 2. Capacitor reset technique allows the use of only one feedback DAC at the front end of the modulator to completely eliminate the quantization noise folding back. A 2+2 cascaded topology with 3-bit internal quantizer is used in this delta-sigma modulator to adequately suppress the quantization noise while guarantee the loop stability. This delta-sigma modulator was fabricated in a 90nm digital CMOS process and achieves an SNDR of 70dB within a 5MHz signal bandwidth. The modulator occupies a silicon area of 0.5mm2 and consumes 10mW with a supply voltage of 1.2V.