MICROELECTRONICS

The course is aimed at providing the students with knowledge on advanced analog and mixed-signal CMOS integrated circuits operating at low/mid frequencies. Specifically, the course will discuss techniques of analysis and design of basic building blocks like Comparators and offset compensation, Operational Transconductance Amplifiers and tecniques for the optimization of performance parameters, integrated Filters and Data Converters. Besides, exercitations and computer simulations will be offered and aimed at consolidating of the theoretical topics and of the design techniques discussed.

At the end of the course the student will be able to select the most suitable configuration for the given application among a possible set of solutions and to design at the transistor/system level the main building blocks constituting a modern IC system.

The course is based on both frontal lessons prevede and exercitations (by hand and with the aid of computer simulator) aimed at developing, consolidating and putting in practice the theory developed and the design techniques. Seminars held by experienced designers and researchers form the industries will be also organized.

1. From Electronics to Micro and Nano electronics. VLSI technologies. Asics and design steps. IC design flow.
2. Operational amplifiers and feedback. Applications: instrumentation amplifier and for sensors. Effect of finite gain and bandwidth. Op Amps architectures. Output stages. The uA741.
3. Frequency compesnation. Harmonic distortion. Noise. Slew Rate.
4. Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTAs). Miller OTAs (class A and AB). Folded Cascode OTA. Telescopic OTA etc. Low voltage solutions. Multistage OTAs . Fully differential architectures and common mode control schemes.
5. Comparators. Autozeroed comparators Schmitt Triggers.
6. Filters. Active and passive filters, continuous time and discrete time solutions. First order and second order filters implmented in RLC, Active-RC, Switched-Capacitor, Gm-C and MOSFET-C approaches. Biqudratic cells (Thow-Thomas, Sallen-Key, Ackerberg-Mossberg, Delyannis-Friend). High-order filters. Gyrators. Automatic tuning for Gm-C filters.
7. A/D e D/A converters. Performance and design specifications. Sample and Hold circuits. A/D examples: full flash, two step flash, time interleaved, successive approximation, ramp. D/A examples: current-steering (binary, thermometric, segmented), resistor-string, capacitor-string, ramp.
8. Computer Aided Design Tools for the microelectronics.

1. Sergio Franco , Design with operational amplifiers and analog integrated circuits, McGraw-Hill,4th Ed. 2015.
2. D. Johns, K. Martin, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, Wiley&Sons, 1997.
3. Schaumann, Van Valkemburg, Design of Analog Filters, Oxford UniversityPress, 2001.
4. R. Van De Plassche, Integrated Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog Converters; Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994.
5. G. Palumbo, Pennisi, Feedback Amplifiers: Theory and Design, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.