A 0.5-V, 440-µW frequency synthesizer for implantable medical devices

Author

Chen, Wu-Hsin ; Loke, Wing-Fai ; Thompson, Gabriel J. ; Jung, Byunghoo

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

19-21 Sept. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

This paper presents an ultra-low-power, low-voltage frequency synthesizer designed for medical implantable devices. Several design techniques are adopted to address the issues in ultra-low voltage design. The charge pump (CP) in the synthesizer utilizes dynamic threshold-voltage and switch-coupled techniques to provide a high driving current while maintaining a low standby current. The synthesizer adopts a ring-based voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) that utilizes a dual resistor-varactor tuning technique for compensating process-voltage-temperature (PVT) variations and the exponential voltage-to-current curve. Implemented in a 130-nm CMOS technology, the 0.5-V medical-band frequency synthesizer consumes 440 μW with a phase noise of -91.5 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz frequency offset.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; biomedical electronics; charge pump circuits; frequency synthesizers; prosthetics; varactors; voltage-controlled oscillators; CMOS technology; CP; PVT; VCO; charge pump; dual resistor-varactor tuning technique; dynamic threshold-voltage techniques; exponential voltage-to-current curve; frequency synthesizer; high driving current; medical implantable devices; power 440 muW; ring-based voltage-controlled oscillator; size 130 nm; switch-coupled techniques; ultra-low voltage design; voltage 0.5 V; CMOS integrated circuits; Frequency measurement; Frequency synthesizers; Phase locked loops; Transistors; Tuning; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

San Jose, CA

ISSN

0886-5930

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0222-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CICC.2011.6055302

Filename

6055302