Approaches to the organisation of smart sensor ASICs

The principle objective of the Link Scheme `ASICs for Smart Sensors´ Research Programme is to develop a library of ASIC building blocks, or cells, that can be combined in a structured way to produce ASICs for a wide variety of smart sensor applications. By adopting a building block approach, it is the intention that ASICs covering a wide variety of different intelligent sensor types can be created with minimal additional design effort. The building blocks themselves are being developed, with performance suitable for use in smart sensor systems. Alongside these, a strategy for the internal organisation and interconnection of these functional blocks needs to be evolved