Search Results - nan+sun

8 Results Sort By:
Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) technologies
Background Dr. Nan Sun and his research group have developed a portfolio of analog to digital converter (ADC) technologies that are available for licensing. Overall, Dr. Sun’s lab develops high-performance analog/mixed-signal circuits and architectures, with research efforts focusing primarily on designing low-power, high-speed, and high-resolution...
Published: 11/1/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Wenjuan Guo, Long Chen, Xiyuan Tang, Linxiao Shen, Chen-Kai Hsu
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Computer hardware, Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Low-power SAR ADC design
Background A successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to digitize the physical analog signals to logic digital signals. It often requires low noise to achieve high accuracy. Traditionally the low noise is realized by utilizing a large comparator or averaging. Those methods are not desirable, since a large comparator is power-hungry...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Long Chen, Xiyuan Tang
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Variable gain amplifier utilizing positive feedback and time-domain calibration
BackgroundIn discrete-time systems, including ADCs, a voltage amplifier is necessary to increase the signal swing for further processing. Traditional precision amplification techniques, including closed-loop amplifiers, become less viable in nanometer-scale processes due to reduced transistor intrinsic gain. Additionally, these devices generally consume...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Miguel Gandara
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Floating inverter pre-amplifier based dynamic comparator
Background Two technologies are touched upon. First is an energy-efficient comparator, followed by a time domain two-step capacitance-to-digital converter. Comparators bridge the analog and digital world. A low-power, low-noise comparator is critical for analog-to-digital converters. A comparator consists of a pre-amp followed by a latch. Dynamic comparators,...
Published: 1/11/2024   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Xiyuan Tang
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Continuous-time SAR ADC
Background The kT/C noise poses a fundamental signal to noise ratio (SNR) limit for discrete-time (DT) analog to digital converters (ADCs) with the front-end sampling operation. To achieve a high resolution, the sampling capacitor needs to be sufficiently large (e.g., 3pF for 80-dB SNR assuming 2Vpp swing) and it has to be quadrupled for every 1-bit...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Linxiao Shen
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Inverter stacking amplifier
BackgroundThe front-end amplifier typically dominates the overall noise and power performance of a sensor system. There exists a fundamental tradeoff between noise and power for an amplifier, which is well captured by the noise efficiency factor (NEF). Minimizing this tradeoff (or NEF) is crucial for a wide range of power and energy constrained applications,...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Linxiao Shen
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Noise and spur reduction technique in fractional-N PLL
Background Delta-Sigma fractional-N PLL plays an important role in modern electronic systems. Unlike integer-N PLLs, fractional-N PLLs allow synthesis of frequencies that are a fraction of the reference frequency. Thus, a fractional-N PLL can use a higher reference frequency than an integer-N PLL for the same frequency resolution. It allows a wider...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun
Keywords(s):  
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor
Time-domain capacitance-to-digital converter with zoom-in SAR
BackgroundTwo technologies are touched upon below—an energy-efficient comparator followed by a time domain two-step capacitance-to-digital converter. Comparators bridge the analog and digital world. A low-power, low-noise comparator is critical for analog-to-digital converters. A comparator consists of a pre-amp followed by a latch. Dynamic comparators,...
Published: 12/8/2023   |   Inventor(s): Nan Sun, Xiyuan Tang
Keywords(s): Capacitance-to-digital converter
Category(s): Physical sciences > Semiconductor