Dr. Eric Vittoz
Chief Scientist
Advanced Microelectronics Division
Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM)
| Organizer: IEEE Toronto Section, Solid State Circuits Chapter |
| Title: Micropower Circuit Techniques |
| Speaker: Dr. Eric Vittoz Chief Scientist Advanced Microelectronics Division Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) |
| Summary: Micropower Circuit Techniques Eric Vittoz, CSEM, Neuchâtel, Switzerland Micropower circuits operate at low-voltage (1 to 3V) and very low current (less than 1 nA to 1 microA per branch). They are thus charaterized by very high impedance levels and low current densities, resulting in reduced bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio. These performance degradations can be limited by properly modeling the MOS transistor to exploit special features available at low-current : weak inversion provides a maximum transconductance-to-current ratio, minimum saturation voltage, maximum intrinsic voltage gain and minimum input offset voltage; it also offers the possibility to implement very efficient linear current-mode circuits by using the translinear principle or the concept of pseudo-resistors. At low current, a MOS transistor can also be operated as a lateral bipolar, offering advantages with respect to matching and low-frequency noise. Special problems and solutions are encountered in the realization of micropower elementary building blocks such as current mirrors, differential pairs, low-voltage cascodes and current generators. Single-stage OTA's provide sufficient gain, thanks to weak inversion operation, while avoiding additional power dissipation in compensation schemes. For digital circuits, special techniques such as dynamic CMOS gates and race-free single-clock sequential block have have long been introduced for micropower before being exploited in very fast circuits. |
| Biography: Eric A. VITTOZ received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 1961 and 1969 respectively. He joined the Centre Electronique Horloger S.A. (CEH), Neuchâtel, in 1962, where he participated in the development of the first prototypes of electronic watches. In 1971, he was appointed Vice-Director of CEH, supervising advanced developments in electronic watches and other micropower systems. In 1984, he took the responsibility of the Circuits and Systems Research Division of the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchâtel, where he was appointed Executive Vice-President, Integrated Circuits and Systems, from 1991 to 1996. After the spin off of the industrial part of these activities in 1997, he became responsible for the Advanced Microelectronics Division of CSEM. Since August 1999, he is partially retired form CSEM with a position of Chief scientist. His field of personal research interest and activity is the design of very low-power circuits in general and analog CMOS circuits in particular, with a present emphasis on their application to advanced perceptive processing by means of analog VLSI. Since 1975, he has been lecturing and supervising undergraduate and graduate student projects in analog circuit design at EPFL, where he became Professor in 1982. Dr.Vittoz is a Fellow of IEEE, has published more than 140 papers and holds 26 patents. |
| Time and Location: University of Toronto SF1105 (blue room) Sanford Fleming Bldg 10 King's College Circle, Friday, June 1, 2001 3:30pm - 5:30pm |
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