ECE 636: Advanced Analog Integrated Circuits (Fall 2013)
Instructor: Peter Levine
Instructor Office Hours: Please email instructor to make an appointment.
Course Description: Analog integrated circuits (ICs) are fundamentally important to many of today's complex, high-performance microelectronic systems because they interface real-world analog signals, continuous in time and in value, with digital electronics. For example, the proliferation of personal digital media and portable communication devices has spurred innovation in analog ICs designed to condition music, speech, optical, radio, and physiological signals as well as to convert these to and from the digital domain. It is well known that continued scaling of semiconductor devices has brought significant performance improvements and cost reduction to digital electronics, as expressed in Moore's Law. However, the design of analog circuits in nanometer-scale technologies, which feature low supply voltages and exhibit significant device variability, has become increasingly challenging due to the performance demands of consumer electronics. To tackle these challenges, circuit designers require a thorough understanding of transistor modeling, analog signal processing, amplifier design, and analog system development.
Course Content: This course covers the design of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) analog ICs at the transistor level, with an emphasis on the analysis and design of single-stage and multi-stage amplifiers. Related topics including device modeling, biasing, stability, and noise will be presented. In addition, an introduction to higher-level analog and mixed analog/digital systems, such as switched-capacitor circuits, will be covered. Industry-standard computer-aided design (CAD) software for circuit design and simulation will be used throughout the course.
Lecture Schedule: Thursdays, 2:30−5:30 pm, EIT 3141.
Tentative Course Topics:
- MOS device modeling (operating regions, small-signal and large-signal analysis, intrinsic/extrinsic capacitances, second-order effects, etc.).
- Review of single-stage amplifiers and differential pairs, passive/active current mirrors, frequency response analysis, settling, and feedback amplifiers.
- Systematic amplifier design methodologies.
- Circuit noise modeling and analysis.
- Analysis and design of single-ended output amplifiers (e.g., two-stage, telescopic/folded-cascode, gain-boosted), compensation, slew rate, CMRR, PSRR, etc.
- Analysis and design of fully-differential amplifiers and common-mode feedback (CMFB) circuits.
- Device mismatch.
- Introduction to switched-capacitor (SC) circuits.
- Voltage references (bandgap references, etc.).
Evaluation:
Assignments
(5
or
6):
10%
Project:
20%
Midterm
exam:
20%
Final
exam:
50%
Course Website: Available through LEARN. Assignments, project, lecture slides, CAD software tutorials, etc. will be posted here.
Project Description: The project will involve transistor-level schematic design and simulation of one or more CMOS amplifiers with various performance specifications. Students will complete the project individually and use Cadence CAD software for the design.
Required Text:
- B. Razavi, Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Supplementary Texts:
- T. Chan Carusone, D. A. Johns, and K. W. Martin, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, 2nd ed., New York: Wiley, 2012.
- P. R. Gray, P. J. Hurst, S. H. Lewis, and R. G. Meyer, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, 5th ed., New York: Wiley, 2009.
- A. S. Sedra and K. C. Smith, Microelectronic Circuits, 6th ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Y. Tsividis, Mixed Analog-Digital VLSI Devices and Technology, Singapore: World Scientific, 2002.
Background and Prerequisites:
- ECE 242 (Electronic Circuits 2) or equivalent. This course covers cascode amplifiers, current mirrors, MOS/BJT differential and multi-stage amplifiers, frequency response, feedback, and output stages. See chapters 7 to 11 of Sedra and Smith, 6th ed. for more information.
- Students should be comfortable with continuous-time signal-and-system analysis and linear control theory.
- Experience using CAD software for circuit simulation and basic Linux/UNIX operating system commands is helpful but not required.