SkyDowser: An Electromagnetic Geophysical Survey Instrument for Groundwater Detection

Clean drinking water is still not widely available around the globe and therefore remains an unsolved issue. In fact, 1 in 9 people lack daily access to safe water and sanitation. Groundwater is a water supply source that needs minor treatment and thereby presents itself as a good solution to this global issue. Especially in development...

Cryogenic CMOS LNA based on Resistive-Feedback for RF readout of Spin-Qubits

The promise that quantum computing is going to solve intractable computational problems has drawn tremendous interest and motivation in research communities throughout the world. However, operating a large-scale quantum computer requires classical electronics. In the present experimental setups, classical electronics is placed at room...

Cryo-CMOS Circuits and Systems for Quantum Computing Applications

A fault-tolerant quantum computer with millions of quantum bits (qubits) requires massive yet very precise control electronics for the manipulation and readout of individual qubits. CMOS operating at cryogenic temperatures down to 4 K (cryo-CMOS) allows for closer system integration, thus promising a scalable solution to enable future quantum...

Characterization and Compact Modeling of Nanometer CMOS Transistors at Deep-Cryogenic Temperatures

Cryogenic characterization and modeling of two nanometer bulk CMOS technologies (0.16-μm and 40-nm) are presented in this paper. Several devices from both technologies were extensively characterized at temperatures of 4 K and below. Based on a detailed understanding of the device physics at deep-cryogenic temperatures, a compact...

A transceiver ASIC for a single-cable 64-element intra-vascular ultrasound probe

This work presents an ASIC designed to be integrated on the tip of an intra-vascular ultrasound catheter, capable of interfacing 64 ultrasonic transducer elements to an imaging system using only one micro-coaxial cable.<br/>A prototype chip has been taped out that can be used to transmit acoustic waves using a small-area transmit switch. The...

Cryogenic CMOS LNA for RF readout of spin qubits

Quantum computation is bringing excitement and motivation into the scientific community to build a practical quantum computer. This would enable the solution of problems today intractable, thanks to the exponential decrease in the required number of operations with respect to a classical computer. Nevertheless, this extraordinary computer needs...

Linearity Analysis and Enhancement Techniques for the Base-Collector Capacitance Dominated Distortion in Bipolar Amplifiers

SiGe bipolar amplifiers are getting more competitive in terms of noise figure to GaAs amplifiers. However, the linearity of these amplifiers is still limited in view of these GaAs implementations. In order to address and overcome these linearity limitations, this thesis report will start demonstrating that the linearity of SiGe bipolar...

Level-Crossing ADCs and Their Applications in Biomedical Readout Systems

This thesis describes the theory, design and implementation of levelcrossing ADCs and their system integration. The goal of this work is to explore methods at both the circuit level and the system level to improve the energy efficiency of LC-ADCs and integrate LC-ADCs in biomedical readout systems. Two single-bit capacitive LC-ADCs and an ECG...

LNA and Square Law Detector at 60 GHz for Passive Radiometers

Millimeter-wave passive radiometers have earlier been designed in III-V integrated circuit (IC) technologies, due to their higher carrier mobility when compared to silicon, resulting in higher transit frequencies (fT) thereby enabling to operate at higher frequencies. However, increased fT in SiGe BiCMOS technology has generated interest for...

An Ultra-Linear LNA for Base stations

In the commercial basestation market of today, LNAs are implemented using GaAs pHEMT technology. The popularity of GaAs pHEMT technology is based on its excellent low noise and high linearity properties. In this project, an LNA for basestation applications is designed using SiGe technology, which can provide low noise performance, but requires...

60GHz front-end receiver chain in 90nm CMOS technology

Operation at millimeter-wave frequency, where up to 7GHz of unlicensed bandwidth is available in the 60GHz band, provides an opportunity to meet the higher data rate demands of wireless users. Advancements in silicon technology permit one to consider exploiting the 60GHz band for commercial applications (e.g., short range, wireless HDTV...

Highly Linear LNA Design for Base Station Applications

As the first stage of the amplifier chain aiming for the base station applications, a highly linear low noise amplifier (LNA) dictates very high performance for optimum coverage with a best signal quality. In today’s commercial market, the GaAs enhancement-mode pHEMT based LNA is dominant. However, a SiGe-based LNA, due to its high integration,...

Highly linear LNA design for base station applications

As the first stage of the amplifier chain aiming for the base station applications, a highly linear low noise amplifier (LNA) dictates very high performance for optimum coverage with a best signal quality. In today’s commercial market, the GaAs enhancement-mode pHEMT based LNA is dominant. However, a SiGe-based LNA, due to its high integration,...

Design of LNA+Mixer for Multi-Band WCDMA

A small, low-cost, single-chip multi-band WCDMA/GSM transceiver solution is needed to address the high growth segment of 3G enabled smart phone ICs, while still keeping compatibility with widely deployed 2G GSM networks. In this thesis, an inductor-less LNA+mixer combination for multi-band WCDMA is presented. By designing the mixer for high IIP2...

FMCW radar receiver front-end design

The main focus of this thesis is the design a receiver frontend for FMCW radar applications. In these systems, the increasing requirements on detection resolution,points towards the use of higher frequencies. In view of this, frequencies at W-band are very attractive due to the otential of high spatial resolution, while chip size and antennas...