• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2015

This paper proposes column-parallel three step Single Slope Analog-to-Digital Converter (SS-ADC) for high frame rate VGA CMOS Image Sensors (CISs). The proposed three step SS-ADC improves the sampling rate while maintaining the architecture of the conventional SS-ADC for high frame rate CIS. The sampling rate of the three-step ADC is increased by a factor of 39 compared with the conventional SS-ADC. The proposed three-step SS-ADC has a 12-bit resolution and 200 kS/s at 25 MHz clock frequency. The VGA CIS using three step SS-ADC has the maximum frame rate of 200 frames/s. The total power consumption is 76 mW with 3.3 V supply voltage without ramp generator buffer. A prototype chip was fabricated in a $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS process.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.286-292
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• 2012

Scan techniques are almost mandatorily adopted in designing current System-on-a-Chip (SoC) to enhance testability, but inadvertently secret keys can be stolen through the scan test channels of crypto SoCs. An efficient scan design technique is proposed in this paper to protect the secret key of an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) core embedded in an SoC. A new instruction is added to IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan to use a fake key instead of user key, in which the fake key is chosen with meticulous care to improve the testability as well. Our approach can be implemented as user defined logic with conventional boundary scan design, hence no modification is necessary to any crypto IP core. Conformance to the IEEE 1149.1 standards is completely preserved while yielding better performance of area, power, and fault coverage with highly robust protection of the secret user key.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.913-917
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• 2010

To inspect the defects of printed markings on the surface of IC package, the OCV (Optical Character Verification) method based on NCC (Normalized Correlation Coefficient) pattern matching is widely used. In order to detect the micro pattern defects appearing on the small portion of the markings, a Partitioned NCC pattern matching method was proposed to overcome the limitation of the NCC pattern matching. In this method, the reference pattern is first partitioned into several blocks and the NCC values are computed and are combined in these small partitioned blocks, rather than just using the NCC value for the whole reference pattern. In this paper, we proposed a method to decide the proper number of partition blocks and a method to inspect and combine the NCC values of each partitioned block to identify the defective markings.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.316-324
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• 2010

In this paper, we design a 256 kbits EEPROM for a MCU (Microcontroller unit) with the wide voltage range of 1.8 V to 5.5 V. The memory space of the EEPROM is separated into a program and data region. An option memory region is added for storing user IDs, serial numbers and so forth. By making HPWs (High-voltage P-wells) of EEPROM cell arrays with the same bias voltages in accordance with the operation modes shared in a double word unit, we can reduce the HPW-to-HPW space by a half and hence the area of the EEPROM cell arrays by 9.1 percent. Also, we propose a page buffer circuit reducing a test time, and a write-verify-read mode securing a reliability of the EEPROM. Furthermore, we propose a DC-DC converter that can be applied to a MCU with the wide voltage range. Finally, we come up with a method of obtaining the oscillation period of a charge pump. The layout size of the designed 256 kbits EEPROM IP with MagnaChip's 0.18 ${\mu}m$ EEPROM process is $1581.55{\mu}m{\times}792.00{\mu}m$.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.300-308
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• 2010

This paper describes the development of a low-power electrocardiogram (ECG) touch sensor intended for the use with two dry metal electrodes. An equivalent ECG extraction circuit model encountered in a ground-free two-electrode configuration is investigated for an optimal sensor read-out circuit design criteria. From the equivalent circuit model, (1) maximum sensor resolution is derived based on the electrode's background thermal noise, which originates from high electrode-skin contact impedance, together with the input referred noise of instrumentation amplifier (IA), (2) 60 Hz electrostatic coupling from mains and motion artifact are also considered to determine minimum requirement of common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) and input impedance of IA. A dedicated ECG read-out front end incorporating chopping scheme is introduced to provide an input referred circuit noise of 1.3 ${\mu}V_{rms}$ over 0.5 Hz ~ 200 Hz, CMRR of IA > 100 dB, sensor resolution of 7 bits, and dissipating only 36 ${\mu}W$. Together with 8 bits synchronous successive approximation register (SAR) ADC, the sensor IC chip is implemented in 0.18 ${\mu}m$ CMOS technology and integrated on a 5 cm $\times$ 8 cm PCB with two copper patterned electrodes. With the help of proposed touch sensor, ECG signal containing QRS complex and P, T waves are successfully extracted by simply touching the electrodes with two thumbs.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2010

This paper presents a fine-grain supply-voltage-control scheme for low-power FPGAs. The proposed supply-voltage-control scheme detects the critical path in real time with small overheads by exploiting features of asynchronous architectures. In an FPGA based on the proposed supply-voltage-control scheme, logic blocks on the sub-critical path are autonomously switched to a lower supply voltage to reduce the power consumption without system performance degradation. Moreover, in order to reduce the overheads of level shifters used at the power domain interface, a look-up-table without level shifters is employed. Because of the small overheads of the proposed supply-voltage-control scheme and the power domain interface, the granularity size of the power domain in the proposed FPGA is as fine as a single four-input logic block. The proposed FPGA is fabricated using the e-Shuttle 65 nm CMOS process. Correct operation of the proposed FPGA on the test chip is confirmed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.27-32
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• 2007

We investigated the damage of the TTL ICs which manufactured five different technologies by artificial microwave. The artificial microwave was rated at a microwave output from 0 to 1000W, at a frequency of 2.45GHz. The microwave power was extracted into a standard rectangular waveguide(WR-340) and TTL ICs were located into the waveguide. TTL ICs were damaged two types. One is breakdown which means no physical damage is done to the system and after a reset the system is going back into function. The other is destruction which means a physical damage of the system so that the system will not recover without a hardware repair. TTL SN74S08N and SN74ALS08N devices get a breakdown and destruction occurred but TTL SN74LS08N, SN74AS08N and 74F08N devices get a destruction occurred. Also destructed TTL ICs were removed their surface and a chip conditions were analyzed by SEM. The SEM analysis of the damaged devices showed onchipwire and bondwire destruction like melting due to thermal effect. The tested results expect to be applied to the fundamental data which interprets the combination mechanism of the semiconductors from artificial microwave environment.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.1804-1809
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• 2006

The aim of this Paper is to describe the implementation of a low-power digital front-End Design (FED) that will act as the core of a stand-alone Power dissipation methodology. The design of digital integrated circuits is a large and diverse area, and we have chosen to focus on low power FED. Designs are made from synthesized logic, and we need to consider the low power digital FED including input clock, buffer, latches, voltage regulator, and capacitance-to-voltage counter which have been integrated onto hish bandwidth communication chips and system. These single- chip micro instruments, implemented in a 0.12um CMOS technology operate with a single 0.9V supply voltage, and can be used to monitor dynamic and static power dissipation, Vesture, acceleration junction temperature (Tj), etc.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1345-1356
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• 2014

The thermal behavior of power modules is an important criterion for the design of cooling systems and optimum thermal structure of these modules. An important consideration for high power and high frequency design is the spacing between semiconductor devices, substrate structure and influence of the boundary condition in the case. This study focuses on the thermal behavior of hybrid power modules to establish a simplified method that allows temperature estimation in different module components without decapsulation. This study resulted in a correction of the junction temperature values estimated from the transient thermal impedance of each component operating alone. The corrections depend on mutual thermal coupling between different chips of the hybrid structure. A new experimental technique for thermal mutual evaluation is presented. Notably, the classic analysis of thermal phenomena in these structures, which was independent of dissipated power magnitude and boundary conditions in the case, is incorrect.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2002

This paper presents MMIC drive and power amplifiers covering 6-18 ㎓. For simple wideband impedance matching and less sensitivity to fabrication variation, modified distributed topologies are employed in the both amplifiers. Cascade amplifiers with a self-biasing circuit through feedback resistors are used as unit gain blocks in the drive amplifier, resulting in high gain, high stability, and compact chip size. Self impedance matching and high-pass, low-pass impedance matching networks are used in the power amplifier. In measured results, the drive amplifier showed good return losses ($S_11,{\;}S_{22}{\;}<{\;}-10.5{\;}dB$), gain flatness ($S_{21}={\;}16{\;}{\pm}0.6{\;}dB$), and $P_{1dB}{\;}>{\;}22{\;}dBm$ over 6-18 GHz. The power amplifier showed $P_{1dB}{\;}>{\;}28.8{\;}dBm$ and $P_{sat}{\;}{\approx}{\;}30.0{\;}dBm$ with good small signal characteristics ($S_{11}<-10{\;}dB,{\;}S_{22}{\;}<{\;}-6{\;}dB,{\;}and{\;}S_{21}={\;}18.5{\;}{\pm}{\;}1.25{\;}dB$) over 6-18 GHz.