This paper presents a direct conversion transceiver intended for use in a microfluidic NMR flowmeter. It consists of an H-bridge power amplifier, which drives a hand-wound milimeter-sized coil with RF signals, and a direct conversion receiver, which amplifies the NMR signals picked up by the coil, and then digitizes them with an asynchronous 8 bit SAR ADC sampling at 70 MHz. Fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology, the receiver achieves a noise spectral density of 1 nV/sqrt(Hz) at 21 MHz, while dissipating only 36 mW. A microfluidic flowmeter based on the transceiver and a handheld 0.5 T permanent magnet can measure flow rates up to 96 ml/h in a 0.8 mm inner-diameter channel with pm 1.3 % full-scale error. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first reported portable NMR flowmeter.

Bias-flip rectifiers are commonly employed for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH). This article proposes a synchronized switch harvesting on an inductor (SSHI) rectifier with a duty-cycle-based (DCB) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The proposed DCB MPPT algorithm is based on the mathematically derived relation between the MPPT efficiency and the duty cycle of the bridge rectifier. The resulting equation shows that the MPPT efficiency only depends on the rectifier duty cycle, and is independent of any other system variables, such as voltage bias-flipping efficiency, the open-circuit voltage from the harvester, vibration frequency, etc. As a result, MPPT can be achieved by regulating the duty cycle, simplifying circuit implementation, and achieving self-regulating and continuous MPPT. This design was fabricated in a 180-nm BCD process. The measured results show 98% peak MPPT efficiency and up to 738% output power enhancement.

This article describes a PNP-based temperature sensor that achieves both high energy efficiency and accuracy. Two resistors convert the CTAT and PTAT voltages generated by a PNP-based front-end into two currents whose ratio is then digitized by a continuous-time (CT) Δ Σ -modulator. Chopping and dynamic-element-matching (DEM) are used to mitigate the effects of component mismatch and 1/f noise, while the spread in V _BE and in the ratio of the two resistors is digitally trimmed at room temperature (RT). Fabricated in a 0.18μ m CMOS process, the sensor occupies 0.12 mm ², and draws 9.5μ A from a supply voltage ranging from 1.7 to 2.2 V. Measurements on 40 samples from one batch show that it achieves an inaccuracy of ± 0.1° C (3σ) from -55° C to 125° C, and a commensurate supply sensitivity of only 0.01° C/V. Furthermore, it achieves high energy efficiency, with a resolution Figure of Merit (FoM) of 0.85

Low-cost metal (e.g., PCB trace) shunts can be used to make accurate current sensors (< 1 % gain error) [1-3]. However, their reported maximum operating temperature (85 circC) is not high enough for automotive applications, and at higher temperatures, shunt resistance may exhibit increased drift, especially at high current levels. This paper presents a metal-shunt-based current sensor with a wide temperature range and a stable on-chip reference current (I textREF) source for shunt self-calibration. By employing a continuous-time (CT) front-end, it achieves an input noise density of 14textnV/sqrttextHz while consuming only 280mu A, making it > 10times more energy efficient than prior art [1], [2], with comparable gain error (pm0.2%) over a wider current (pm 40A) and temperature (-40 circC to 125 circC) range.

In this article, we propose a reconfigurable regulating rectifier with a wide operational range for wireless power transfer. The proposed three-mode rectifier achieves a broad range voltage regulation without global loop control to minimize the chip area occupation. Compared with previous work, more working modes and greater voltage gain allow the proposed rectifier to regulate lower input power, which extends the voltage regulation range. A local loop control scheme is proposed for voltage rectification with three modes. It adaptively senses the duty cycle of the mode signal to determine the working mode of the rectifier, and configure the rectifier to the desired mode for voltage regulation. The proposed system was designed and fabricated in a 180-nm BCD technology with an active area of 1.17 mm2. The measurement results show that the proposed system can rectify wide-range input ac power to a regulated output. The achieved voltage conversion ratiois between 0.95X and 2.68X, with a peak power conversion efficiencyat 87.4%.

BJT-based temperature sensors are widely used because they can achieve excellent accuracy after 1-point calibration. However, they typically dissipate mu textWs of power and require supply voltages above 1V [1]. Although sensors based on DTMOSTs [2], [3], capacitively biased (CB) diodes and BJTs [4,5] have demonstrated sub-1V operation, this comes at the expense of accuracy. This paper presents a sub-1V CB BJT-based temperature sensor that achieves a 1-point-trimmed inaccuracy of 0.15°C (3σ) from -55 circC to 125 circC, which is 4times better than the CB BJT state-of-the-art [4]. It also achieves a resolution FoM of 0.34pJ.K2, which is 6.8 times better than that of state-of-the-art BJT-based sensors with a similar accuracy [1], [6], (Fig. 23.5.6).

BJT-based temperature sensors are widely used due to their high accuracy over a wide temperature range with a low-cost 1-point trim. Although resistor-based sensors can achieve better energy efficiency, they typically require a 2-point trim to achieve comparable accuracy, while thermal-diffusivity based sensors achieve superior accuracy at the cost of energy efficiency [1]. This paper presents a BJT-based temperature sensor that achieves both excellent accuracy and energy efficiency. To avoid the kTfC noise limitations of conventional discrete-time (OT) readout schemes [2], [3], it employs a compact continuous-time (CT) front-end. Component mismatch, which often limits the accuracy of CT front-ends [4], [5], is mitigated by a combination of dynamic element matching (OEM) and a low-cost resistor-ratio self-calibration scheme. As a result, the sensor achieves a resolution FoM of 0.85textpJcdotK 2, and a competitive inaccuracy of pm 0.1 circC (3sigma) from -55 circC tO 125 circC after a 1-point trim. This makes it 4times more energy-efficient than state-of-the-art BJT-based sensors with similar accuracy [2], [4], [5].

Synchronized bias-flip rectifiers, such as synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) rectifiers, are widely used for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) [1], which can replace the use of batteries in many loT applications, thus reducing both system volume and maintenance cost. However, the output power extracted by such rectifiers strongly depends on the impedance matching between the piezoelectric transducer (PT) and the circuit. To maximize this, two maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms are often used. As shown in Fig. 30.3.1 (left), the Perturb & Observe (P&O) (a.k.a. hill-climbing) algorithm adjusts the rectified output power in a stepwise manner towards the maximum power point (MPP), thus establishing robust and continuous MPPT. However, accurately sensing the rectified output power often requires complex and power-hungry hardware [1], [2]. Another simpler algorithm is based on the fractional open-circuit voltage (FOCV) and involves periodically measuring the PT's open-circuit voltage amplitude (VOC) and regulating the rectified voltage (VREC) to a level (VMPP), which corresponds to the MPP [3-6]. However, the PT must be periodically disconnected from the rectifier to measure VOC, resulting in wasted energy, while the inherent delay in sensing VOC variations reduces the overall tracking efficiency. Furthermore, a calibration step is usually necessary to determine VMPP, since this depends on the actual PT voltage flip efficiency (etaF) of the bias-flip rectifier.

This letter presents a low-power dB-linear variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a small linear-in-dB error over a wide gain tuning range. An exponential current ratio is realized in the linear-in-dB control circuit based on the subthreshold I-V characteristic. The VGA is built with subthreshold common-gate transistors as current steering, accurately replicating the exponential current ratio and forming a tunable gain. Implemented in 55-nm CMOS technology, the proposed VGA occupies a compact active area of 0.011 mm2 excluding the buffer. It achieves a linear-in-dB error of 0.4 dB over a gain tuning range of 62.4 dB, corresponding to the state-of-the-art relative error of 0.6%. The proposed design shows constant 80-MHz bandwidth with a power consumption of 0.96 mW.

This brief presents a 0.65% relative inaccuracy CMOS temperature sensor with a duty-cycle-modulated (DCM) output. It uses a BJT-based front-end to generate a proportional to absolute temperature voltage (V_{PTAT}) and a complementary to absolute temperature voltage (V_{CTAT}), which are then modulated to a digital-friendly duty-cycle output. Dynamic element matching with Kelvin connection (KC-DEM) is applied to improve the accuracy of V_{PTAT}. To enhance the robustness of the sensor, a continuous-time dynamic single-threshold hysteresis comparator with high energy efficiency is proposed. Implemented in a standard 0.13-{m} CMOS process, the sensor has an active area of 0.086 mm2 and achieves an inaccuracy of ±0.54 °C (3) from -40 °C to 125 °C.

This work presents an energy-efficient diode-based CMOS temperature sensor. It is based on the capacitively biased diode (CBD) working principle and can operate with a 1-V supply voltage. Instead of using a separate CBD front-end and ADC, a new architecture is proposed in which the CBD front-end is directly embedded into the 1st stage of a 1-bit 2nd-order switched-capacitor ΣΔ-ADC, thereby improving both energy efficiency and accuracy. The circuit was fabricated in a standard 55-nm CMOS process and occupies an active area of 0.021 mm². The measured inaccuracy is ±0.6 °C (3σ) from -55 °C to 125 °C after a 1-point calibration. Furthermore, it consumes 2.2 μW and achieves a resolution of 15 mK in a conversion time of 6.4 ms, which corresponds to a competitive resolution FoM of 3.2 pJ·K²