CMOS-based Integrated Wavefront Sensor

This thesis addresses the design, implementation and performance of an integrated Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor suitable for real-time operation and compatible with a standard technology. A wavefront sensor can be used for the detection of distortions in the profile of a light beam or of an optical component.With such a sensor, one can, for...

Millimeter-Wave Phased-Array Transmitter in CMOS

Mobility-based Time References for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks require small low-cost radios to enable communication among its nodes. Since those radios must be fully integrated to reduce cost and size, integration is required also for their on-board time references, which are needed to achieve synchronization with the other nodes. To deal with the lower accuracy of integrated...

DotFETs: MOSFETs strained by a Single SiGE dot in a Low-Temperature ELA Technology

The work presented in this thesis was performed in the context of the European Sixth Framework Program FP6 project “Disposable Dot Field Effect Transistor for High Speed Si Integrated Circuits”, referred to as the D-DotFET project. The project had the goal of realizing strain-enhanced mobility in CMOS transistors by transferring strain from a...

Millimeter-Wave Digitally-Assisted Frequency Synthesizer in CMOS

High Speed and Wide Bandwidth Delta-Sigma ADCs

This thesis describes the theory, design and implementation of a high-speed, high-performance continuous-time delta-sigma (CT??) ADC for applications such as medical imaging, high-definition video processing, and wireline and wireless communications. In order to achieve a GHz clocking speed, this thesis investigates excess loop delay...

CMOS Wide-Bandwidth Magnetic Sensors for Contactless Current Measurements

This Ph.D. dissertation describes the theory and realization of wide-bandwidth magnetic sensors for current measurements which breach the conventional offset and noise constraints in CMOS processes. These are achieved by several circuit-level and system-level innovations, including the use of three orthogonal ripple reduction loops (RRLs) in...

Cryogenic electronics for the read-out of quantum processors

Quantum computing promises an exponential speed-up of computation compared to what is nowadays achievable with classical computers. In this way, it enables the evaluation of more complex models and the breaching of current security algorithms. For the operation of a quantum system, many questions remain to be answered. Currently, there are...

Integrated CMOS Current Sensing Systems for Coulomb Counters

Coulomb counting is a widely used method to estimate battery state-of-charge (SoC). It involves measuring and integrating the battery’s current to determine its net charge flow.

On the Development of Wideband Direct Detection Focal Plane Arrays for THz Passive Imaging Applications

In the design of millimeter and sub-millimeter wave radiometric imaging systems a persistent goal is the increase in the speed of acquisition of the image while maintaining a high sensitivity. Typically, the highest sensitivity is achieved by cryogenically cooling the detectors, specifically in astronomical applications. However, for the purpose...

High speed electronics for SPAD image sensors used in TimeofFlight applications

Multi Digital Silicon Photon Multipliers (MDSiPM), as image sensors, are utilized to calculate and estimate the properties of the incident light. These properties include spatial location of hits, intensity or number of photons and time of arrival. Some characteristics can be more important than others depending upon the problem at hand. Among...

Designing the Electronic Interface for Qubit Control

Quantum computers have gained widespread interest as they can potentially solve problems that are intractable even for today’s supercomputers, such as the simulation of quantum systems as initially proposed by Feynman. To achieve such tremendous progress, a quantum computer relies on processing the information stored in quantum bits (qubits),...

Cryogenic CMOS Characterization for Quantum Computer Applications

Device characteristics at cryogenic temperatures can deviate significantly from their room temperature behaviour. For example, the threshold voltage of a MOSFET can increase by more than 100 mV when it is cooled down to 4.2 K, as shown in this thesis. If a designer is not aware of this shift, circuits that work as intended at room temperature...