Open Access
Energy harvesting approaches in IoT scenarios with very low ambient energy
(European Association for the Development of Renewable Energy, Environment and Power Quality (EA4EPQ), 2019) López Martín, Antonio; Algueta-Miguel, Jose M.; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
The feasibility of multi-source energy harvesting in Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios with low and intermittent ambient energy is addressed. As a relevant case study, application to a smart cargo container system is analysed. The most relevant features of the main energy sources available in this target application are identified, and various transducers adapted to such sources are evaluated. Measurement results indicate that combined piezoelectric and thermoelectric generation inside cargo containers can significantly extend the battery lifetime of IoT end nodes embedded in such containers.
Open Access
Sensing in coin discriminators
(IEEE, 2007) Carlosena García, Alfonso; López Martín, Antonio; Arizti, Fernando; Martínez de Guereñu, Ane; Pina Insausti, José L.; García Sayés, Miguel; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa
This paper describes the technologies used in coin discriminator devices, stressing the improvements and novel mechanisms introduced by the authors in the past few years as a result of the cooperation with one leading company in the vending sector. Emphasis is put on how low-cost sensors are used to characterize coins (or tokens) and discriminate them from their counterfeits.
Open Access
Pseudo-three-stage Miller op-amp with enhanced small-signal and large-signal performance
(IEEE, 2019) Paul, Anindita; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; López Martín, Antonio; González Carvajal, Ramón; Rocha-Pérez, José Miguel; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
A simple technique to implement highly power efficient class AB-AB Miller op-amps is presented in this paper. It uses a composite input stage with resistive local common mode feedback that provides class AB operation to the input stage and essentially enhances the op-amp's effective transconductance gain, the dc open-loop gain, the gain-bandwidth product, and slew rate with just moderate increase in power dissipation. The experimental results of op-amps in strong inversion and subthreshold fabricated in a 130-nm standard CMOS technology validate the proposed approach. The op-amp has 9 V·pF/μs·μW large-signal figure of merit (FOM) and 17 MHz · pF/μW small-signal FOM with 1.2-V supply voltage. In subthreshold, the op-amp has 10 V · pF/μs · μW large-signal FOM and 92 MHz · pF/μW small-signal FOM with 0.5-V supply voltage.
Open Access
Super class AB RFC OTA using non-linear current mirrors
(Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2018) Garde Luque, María Pilar; López Martín, Antonio; Carvajal, Ramón G.; Galán, J.A.; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
An alternative approach to the design of super class AB recycling folded cascode operational transconductance amplifiers is proposed. Instead of using local common-mode feedback for boosting dynamic currents, simple current mirrors with input transistors entering triode region for large currents are employed. Measurement results from a 0.5 μm CMOS test chip validate the proposal.
Open Access
Buscando claves para promover la participación de la mujer en estudios de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación
(Educación Editora, 2014) Alejos, Ana V.; Milagros, María Pilar; Falcone Lanas, Francisco; López Martín, Antonio; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza
En la presente contribución se discute la necesidad de analizar el problema de la escasa presencia de la mujer en los estudios de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación. Se describe una encuesta en curso para indagar los factores de la segregación de género en esta carrera. Asimismo, se propone trasladar al aula medidas que capten una mayor presencia femenina.
Open Access
Super class AB RFC OTA with adaptive local common-mode feedback
(Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2018) Garde Luque, María Pilar; López Martín, Antonio; Carvajal, Ramón G.; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
A super class AB recycling folded cascode operational transconductance amplifier is presented. It employs local common-mode feedback using two matched tuneable active resistors, allowing to adapt the amplifier to different process variations and loads. Measurement results from a test chip prototype fabricated in a 0.5 μm CMOS process validate the proposal.
Open Access
Low-power ultrasonic front-end for cargo container monitoring
(IEEE, 2019) Algueta-Miguel, Jose M.; García Oya, José Ramón; López Martín, Antonio; Cruz Blas, Carlos Aristóteles de la; Muñoz Chavero, Fernando; Hidalgo Fort, Eduardo; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
A low-power ultrasonic communication system conceived for cargo container monitoring is presented. Two piezoelectric transducers operating at 40 kHz are used for generating and acquiring an ultrasonic signal through the metallic wall, thus establishing a non-invasive inside-outside communication that preserves the container integrity. Both transducers are fixed by means of a novel magnetic case designed for optimizing data transmission. The acoustic and electrical characteristics of the ultrasonic channel are analyzed. An experimental measurement setup based on FPGA has been implemented for comparing some basic modulation and detection schemes in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER), also considering their robustness against undesired mechanical and electromagnetic perturbations. On this basis, a compact digital DBPSK modulator using a square carrier signal is proposed. Frequency and amplitude tracking algorithms are designed for optimizing the quality and robustness of the data transmission. Finally, a low-power low-rate (up to few kbps) architecture based on the previous elements is presented. All the proposed contributions are experimentally validated.
Open Access
On the optimal current followers for wide-swing current-efficient amplifiers
(IEEE, 2018) López Martín, Antonio; Garde Luque, María Pilar; Carvajal, Ramón G.; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
The design of various current followers for the implementation of OTAs with high slew rate and current efficiency is addressed. Two basic current follower topologies are compared, and modifications of both followers to improve these parameters are presented. As an application example, an enhanced recycling folded cascode OTA is proposed. Measurement results of the OTA fabricated in a 0.5 μm CMOS process show a 260% and 180% improvement in SR and GBW, respectively, for the same power consumption.
Open Access
±0.25 V Class-AB CMOS capacitance multiplier and precision rectifiers
(IEEE, 2019) Pourashraf, Shirin; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; Hinojo Montero, José María; González Carvajal, Ramón; López Martín, Antonio; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
Reduction of minimum supply requirements is a crucial aspect to decrease the power consumption in VLSI systems. A high performance capacitance multiplier able to operate with supplies as low as ±0.25 V is presented. It is based on adaptively biased class-AB current mirrors which provide high current efficiency. Measurement results of a factor 11 capacitance multiplier fabricated in 180 nm CMOS technology verify theoretical claims. Moreover, low-voltage precision rectifiers based on the same class-AB current mirrors are designed and fabricated in the same CMOS process. They generate output currents over 100 times larger than the quiescent current. Both proposed circuits have 300 nW static power dissipation when operating with ±0.25 V supplies.
Open Access
CMOS first-order all-pass filter with 2-Hz pole frequency
(IEEE, 2019) Paul, Anindita; Ramírez-Angulo, Jaime; López Martín, Antonio; González Carvajal, Ramón; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
A CMOS fully integrated all-pass filter with an extremely low pole frequency of 2 Hz is introduced in this paper. It has 0.08-dB passband ripple and 0.029-mm2 Si area. It has 0.38-mW power consumption in strong inversion with ±0.6-V power supplies. In subthreshold, it has 0.64-uW quiescent power and operates with ±200-mV dc supplies. Miller multiplication is used to obtain a large equivalent capacitor without excessive Si area. By varying the gain of the Miller amplifier, the pole frequency can be varied from 2 to 48 Hz. Experimental and simulation results of a test chip prototype in 130-nm CMOS technology validate the proposed circuit.