• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

In recent years, as LED display systems are actively spread, study on effective control methods for an LED driver for driving the systems has been in progress. The most representative among them is the uniform brightness control method for the LED driver channel. In this paper, we propose an LED driver IC for BLU with current compensation and system protection functions to minimize channel luminance deviation. It is designed for current accuracy within ±3% between channels and a channel current of 150 mA. In order to satisfy the design specifications, the channel amplifier offset was canceled out by a chopping operation using a channel-driving PWM signal. Also, a pre-charge function was implemented to minimize the fast operation speed and luminance deviation between channels. LED error (open, short), switch TR short detection, and operating temperature protection circuits were designed to protect the IC and BLU systems. The proposed IC was fabricated using a Magnachip 0.35-um CMOS process and verified using Cadence and Synopsys' Design Tool. The fabricated LED driver IC has current accuracy within ±1.5% between channels and 150-mA channel output characteristics. The error detection circuits were verified by a test board.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1847-1855
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• 2012

A 1V 1.6-GS/s 6-bit flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with a clock calibration circuit is proposed. A single track/hold circuit with a bootstrapped analog switch is used as an input stage with a supply voltage of 1V for the high speed operation. Two preamplifier-arrays and each comparator composed of two-stage are implemented for the reduction of analog noises and high speed operation. The clock calibration circuit in the proposed flash ADC improves the dynamic performance of the entire flash ADC by optimizing the duty cycle and phase of the clock. It adjusts the reset and evaluation time of the clock for the comparator by controlling the duty cycle of the clock. The proposed 1.6-GS/s 6-bit flash ADC is fabricated in a 1V 90nm 1-poly 9-metal CMOS process. The measured SNDR is 32.8 dB for a 800 MHz analog input signal. The measured DNL and INL are +0.38/-0.37 LSB, +0.64/-0.64 LSB, respectively. The power consumption and chip area are $800{\times}500{\mu}m2$ and 193.02mW.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.864-870
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• 2017

This paper describes a Dual Buck Converter with mode control using variable Frequency to Voltage for portable devices requiring wide load current. The inherent problems of PLL compensation and efficiency degradation in light load current that the conventional hysteretic buck converter has faced have been resolved by using the proposed Dual buck converter which include improved PFM Mode not to require compensation. The proposed mode controller can also improve the difficulty of detecting the load change of the mode controller, which is the main circuit of the conventional dual mode buck converter, and the slow mode switching speed. the proposed mode controller has mode switching time of at least 1.5us. The proposed DC-DC buck converter was implemented by using $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process and die size was $1.38mm{\times}1.37mm$. The post simulation results with inductor and capacitor including parasitic elements showed that the proposed circuit received the input of 2.7~3.3V and generated output of 1.2V with the output ripple voltage had the PFM mode of 65mV and 16mV at the fixed switching frequency of 2MHz in hysteretic mode under load currents of 1~500mA. The maximum efficiency of the proposed dual-mode buck converter is 95% at 80mA and is more than 85% efficient under load currents of 1~500mA.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2016

This paper describes a new PMU(parametric measurement unit) design technique for automatic test equipment(ATE). Only one DDA(differential difference amplifier) is used to force the test signals to DUT(device under test), while conventional design uses two or more amplifiers to force test signals. Since the proposed technique does not need extra amplifiers in feedback path, the proposed PMU inherently guarantees stable operation. Moreover, to measure the response signals from DUT, proposed technique also adopted only one DDA amplifier as an IA(instrument amplifier), while conventional IA uses 3 amplifiers and several resistors. The DDA adopted two rail-to-rail differential input stages to handle full-range differential signals. Gain enhancement technique is used in folded-cascode type DDA to get open loop gain of 100 dB. Proposed PMU design enables accurate and stable operation with smaller hardware and lower power consumption. This PMU is implemented with 0.18 um CMOS process and supply voltage is 1.8 V. Input ranges for each force mode are 0.25~1.55 V at voltage force and 0.9~0.935 V at current force mode.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.18-24
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• 2012

This paper reports the test results of a 50MHz/s 10 bits DAC developed with $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process for the wireless sensor network application. The 10bits DAC, not likely a typical segmented type, has been designed as a current driving type with double step thermometer decoding architecture in which 10bits are divided into 6bits of MSB and 4bits of LSB. MSB 6bits are converted into 3 bits row thermal codes and 3 bits column thermal codes to control high current cells, and LSB 4 bits are also converted into thermal codes to control the lower current cells. The high and the lower current cells use the same cell size while a bias circuit has been designed to make the amount of lower unit current become 1/16 of high unit current. All thermal codes are synchronized with output latches to prevent glitches on the output signals. The test results show that the DAC consumes 4.3mA DC current with 3.3V DC supply for 2.2Vpp output at 50MHz clock. The linearity characteristics of DAC are the maximum SFDR of 62.02dB, maximum DNL of 0.37 LSB, and maximum INL of 0.67 LSB.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.936-943
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• 2013

This work presents the design and measured results of the single channel automotive radar system for 76.5~77 GHz long range FMCW radar applications. The transmitter uses a commercial GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit(MMIC) and the receiver uses the down converter designed using 65 nm CMOS process. The output power of the transmitter is 10 dBm. The down converter chip can operate at low LO power as -8 dBm which is easily supplied from the transmitter output using a coupled line coupler. All MMICs are mounted on an aluminum jig which embeds the WR-10 waveguide. A microstrip to waveguide transition is designed to feed the embedded waveguide and finally high gain horn antennas. The overall size of the fabricated radar system is $80mm{\times}61mm{\times}21mm$. The radar system achieved an output power of 10 dBm, phase noise of -94 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and a conversion gain of 12 dB.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1927-1934
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• 2016

In this paper, we proposed a I-gate n-MOSFET (n-type Metal Oxide Semiconductors Field Effect Transistor) structure in order to mitigate a radiation-induced leakage current path in an isolation oxide interface of a silicon-based standard n-MOSFET. The proposed I-gate n-MOSFET structure was designed by using a layout modification technology in the standard 0.18um CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) process, this structure supplements the structural drawbacks of conventional radiation-tolerant electronic device using layout modification technology such as an ELT (Enclosed Layout Transistor) and a DGA (Dummy Gate-Assisted) n-MOSFET. Thus, in comparison with the conventional structures, it can ensure expandability of a circuit design in a semiconductor-chip fabrication. Also for verification of a radiation-tolerant characteristic, we carried out M&S (Modeling and Simulation) using TCAD 3D (Technology Computer Aided Design 3-dimension) tool. As a results, we had confirmed the radiation-tolerant characteristic of the I-gate n-MOSFET structure.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2010

This paper presents a charge pump architecture for correcting the current mismatch due to the PVT variation. In general, the current mismatch of the charge pump should be minimized to improve the phase noise and spur performance of the PLL. In order to correct the current mismatch of the charge pump, the current difference is detected by the replica charge pump and fed back into the main charge pump. This scheme is very simple and guarantees the high accuracy compared with the prior works. Also, it shows a good dynamic performance because the mismatch is corrected continuously. It is implemented in 0.13um CMOS process and the die area is $100{\mu}m\;{\times}\;160{\mu}m$. The voltage swing is from 0.2V to 1V at supply voltage of 1.2V. The charging and discharging currents are $100{\mu}A$, respectively and the current mismatch due to the PVT variation is less than 1%.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.7 s.361
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• pp.9-15
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• 2007

In this paper, we present the design of Schottky diodes and voltage multiplier for UHF-band passive RFID applications. The Schottky diodes were fabricated using Titanium (Ti/Al/Ta/Al)-Silicon (n-type) junction in $0.35\;{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The Schottky diode having $4{\times}10{\times}10\;{\mu}m^{2}$ contact area showed a turn-on voltage of about 150 mV for the forward diode current of $20\;{\mu}A$. The breakdown voltage is about -9 V, which provides sufficient peak inverse voltage necessary for the voltage multiplier in the RFID tag chip. The effect of the size of Schottky diode on the turn-on voltage and the input impedance at 900 MHz was investigated using small-signal equivalent model. Also, the effect or qualify factor of the diode on the input voltage to the tag chip is examined, which indicates that high qualify factor Schottky diode is desirable to minimize loss. The fabricated voltage multiplier resulted in a output voltage of more than 1.3 V for the input RF signal of 200mV, which is suitable for long-range RFID applications.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.11
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• pp.94-100
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• 2014

In this paper, a design of low power Current-Reuse Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) which has wide tuning range about 1.95 GHz ~ 3.15 GHz is presented. Class-C type is applied to improve phase noise and 2-Step Auto Amplitude Calibration (AAC) is used for minimizing the imbalance of differential VCO output voltage which is main issue of Current-Reuse VCO. The mismatch of differential VCO output voltage is presented about 1.5mV ~ 4.5mV. This mismatch is within 0.6 % compared with VCO output voltage. Proposed Current-Reuse VCO is designed using CMOS $0.13{\mu}m$ process. Supply voltage is 1.2 V and current consumption is 2.6 mA at center frequency. The phase noise is -116.267 dBc/Hz at 2.3GHz VCO frequency at 1MHz offset. The layout size is $720{\times}580{\mu}m^2$.