Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications

2231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A 300-mV ΔΣ Modulator Using a Gain-Enhanced, Inverter-Based Amplifier for Medical Implant Devices

by Ali Fazli Yeknami

J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2016, 6(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea6010004 - 11 Mar 2016

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 10573

An ultra-low-voltage low-power switched-capacitor (SC) delta-sigma (ΔΣ) modulator running at a supply voltage as low as 300 mV is presented for biomedical implant devices, e.g., cardiac pacemakers. To reduce the supply voltage, an inverter-based amplifier is used in the integrators, whose DC gain [...] Read more.

An ultra-low-voltage low-power switched-capacitor (SC) delta-sigma (ΔΣ) modulator running at a supply voltage as low as 300 mV is presented for biomedical implant devices, e.g., cardiac pacemakers. To reduce the supply voltage, an inverter-based amplifier is used in the integrators, whose DC gain and gain-bandwidth (GBW) are boosted by a simple current-mirror output stage. The full input-feedforward loop topology offers low integrators internal swing, supporting ultra-low-voltage operation. To demonstrate the concept, a second-order loop topology was chosen. The entire modulator operates reliably against process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations from a 300 mV ± 10% supply voltage only, while the switches are driven by a charge pump clock boosting scheme. Designed in a 65 nm CMOS technology and clocked at 256 kHz, the simulation results show that the modulator can achieve a 64.4 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a 60.7 dB signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) over a 1.0 kHz signal bandwidth while consuming 0.85 μW of power. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Implantable Bio-Electronic Circuits and Systems)

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1393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Open-Source Tool Set Enabling Analog-Digital-Software Co-Design

by Michelle Collins, Jennifer Hasler and Suma George

J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2016, 6(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea6010003 - 04 Feb 2016

Cited by 40 | Viewed by 10774

Abstract

This paper presents an analog-digital hardware-software co-design environment for simulating and programming reconfigurable systems. The tool simulates, designs, as well as enables experimental measurements after compiling to configurable systems in the same integrated design tool framework. High level software in Scilab/Xcos (open-source programs [...] Read more.

This paper presents an analog-digital hardware-software co-design environment for simulating and programming reconfigurable systems. The tool simulates, designs, as well as enables experimental measurements after compiling to configurable systems in the same integrated design tool framework. High level software in Scilab/Xcos (open-source programs similar to MATLAB/Simulink) that converts the high-level block description by the user to blif format (sci2blif), which acts as an input to the modified VPR tool, including the code v p r 2 s w c s , encoding the specific platform through specific architecture files, resulting in a targetable switch list on the resulting configurable analog–digital system. The resulting tool uses an analog and mixed-signal library of components, enabling users and future researchers access to the basic analog operations/computations that are possible. Full article

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638 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications in 2015

by Journal Of Low Power Electronics And Applications Editorial Office

J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2016, 6(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea6010002 - 26 Jan 2016

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Abstract

The editors of Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2015. [...] Full article

613 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Technique for Improving Lifetime of Non-Volatile Caches Using Write-Minimization

by Sparsh Mittal and Jeffrey Vetter

J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2016, 6(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea6010001 - 18 Jan 2016

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6676

Abstract

While non-volatile memories (NVMs) provide high-density and low-leakage, they also have low write-endurance. This, along with the write-variation introduced by the cache management policies, can lead to very small cache lifetime. In this paper, we propose ENLIVE, a technique for ENhancing the LIfetime [...] Read more.

While non-volatile memories (NVMs) provide high-density and low-leakage, they also have low write-endurance. This, along with the write-variation introduced by the cache management policies, can lead to very small cache lifetime. In this paper, we propose ENLIVE, a technique for ENhancing the LIfetime of non-Volatile cachEs. Our technique uses a small SRAM (static random access memory) storage, called HotStore. ENLIVE detects frequently written blocks and transfers them to the HotStore so that they can be accessed with smaller latency and energy. This also reduces the number of writes to the NVM cache which improves its lifetime. We present microarchitectural schemes for managing the HotStore. Simulations have been performed using an x86-64 simulator and benchmarks from SPEC2006 suite. We observe that ENLIVE provides higher improvement in lifetime and better performance and energy efficiency than two state-of-the-art techniques for improving NVM cache lifetime. ENLIVE provides 8.47×, 14.67× and 15.79× improvement in lifetime or two, four and eight core systems, respectively. In addition, it works well for a range of system and algorithm parameters and incurs only small overhead. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-efficient and Scalable Embedded Memories for Future Technologies)

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J. Low Power Electron. Appl., Volume 6, Issue 1 (March 2016) – 4 articles

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