Short Course 3 (Circuits) | Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits

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Advanced Circuits and Systems for Internet-of-Things (IoT) Sensors

Moderators: Po-Hung Chen (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) and Danielle Griffith (TI)

This short course covers key design aspects of IoT sensors, including wide spectrum of CMOS/non-CMOS sensor design, power management for energy harvesting, low-power analog/RF/digital circuits, physical attack protections for security. Two complete IoT sensor systems will also be showcased by a computer vision sensor system and a battery-free BLE sensor system.

Live Q&A Session: June 14, 7:00AM-8:30AM (JST)

CMOS Sensor for IoT: First Frontier, Stefano Pietri, NXP Semiconductors: Abstract:
The concept of IoT was coined in 1999 but I only became aware of its meaning around 2010 as our CEO mentioned it at an all-hands meeting. It seems a long time and yet today, about ten years later, many applications like home automation, wearables, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, smart city, and transportation are barely at the beginning. IoT exists today also thanks to the steady and incremental advances in CMOS sensors technologies: after all, we are still measuring voltages, charge, and currents. In this short tutorial, we will explore the state of the art of CMOS sensors including temperature sensors, touch sensors, heart rate sensors, voice sensors, and other CMOS sensors at the heart of IoT applications today, which I nerdly refer to as the “first frontier”. We will also quickly glance at sensor research which I believe will lead us into a new generation of IoT sensors aimed at improving our quality of life by repairing and augmenting the human body.

About Stefano Pietri

Stefano Pietri received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Universita degli Studi di Modena and Reggio Emilia, mentored by Prof P. Pavan, C. Canali A. Gerosa. He has been previously with Cadence, Microsemi, Texas Instruments mentored by T. Gribben, O. Andersson, J. Steensgaard, R. Teggatz, J. Devore and D. Baldwin, and then joined NXP in 2005, where he is currently working as Technical Director of IP Licensing, mentored over the years by D. Garrity, J. Feddeler, J. Pigott, C. McAndrew and A. Piovaccari. His focus is on analog/mixed-signal IC design for general purpose and automotive microcontrollers, pushing the limits in cost, power, and performance. Thanks to all his colleagues and mentors, Dr. Pietri is an NXP Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Master Innovator, 6-Sigma Green Belt, and also SRC TAB and recipient of the Mahboob Khan Award. He is an IEEE Senior Member.

Non-CMOS Based Sesors for IoT, Marcel Zevenbergen, imec: Abstract:
The deployment of IoT technologies, using a wireless network of compact, cost-effective and low-power sensors, makes it possible to collect finer grained information on processes in for instance, gas, liquid and bioprocessing monitoring, on a large scale and in real time. By analyzing this data and combining it with other information sources, it becomes possible to create easily accessible analytical models for a wide range of applications. However, developing miniaturized transducers often requires using non-CMOS processes or materials, or it requires a hybrid approach in which additional non-CMOS sensing layers are processed on CMOS-based devices. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the progress in miniaturized IoT sensors in various applications, the market requirements and the (material) challenges facing the device development.

About Marcel Zevenbergen

Marcel Zevenbergen obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Delft University of Technology in 2005 and 2009 respectively. Afterwards, he joined imec, The Netherlands where he developed novel sensor platforms for various applications, in close collaboration with industrial partners. His current position is Program Manager both at imec and OnePlanet leading the advanced sensor development for applications ranging from precision agriculture to water quality to bioreactor monitoring.

Capacitive Power Management Circuits for Miniaturized Energy Harvesting IoT Systems, Man-Kay Law, University of Macau: Abstract:
The continuous growth of IoT has enabled billions of sensor-enabled devices with diverse connectivity and energy harvesting capability. With the next generation IoT targeting on smart solutions with embedded intelligence at the edge, efficient energy conversion within an ultra-compact volume is necessary to meet the ever increasing energy needs. This presentation will first introduce the energy requirements of IoT devices, followed by energy harvesting basics. We will then discuss power delivery topologies and elaborate on the recent advances in capacitive power management circuits for miniaturized IoT systems.

About Man-Kay Law

Man-Kay Law received the B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Since 2011, he has been with the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI, University of Macau, Macau, China, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research interests include ultra-low power sensing circuits and systems, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, and energy harvesting techniques. He is a co-recipient of the A-SSCC Distinguished Design Award in 2015, and also the advisor for student awards including the SSCS Pre-doctoral Achievement Award and the ISSCC Silk-Road Award. He is an IEEE Senior Member and serves on the ISSCC Technical Program Committee.

Getting the Most Out of a Little: Ultra-Low Power Circuit Techniques for the IoT, Drew A. Hall, University of California, San Diego: Abstract:
Advances in semiconductor technology over the last several decades have caused an influx of electronic devices into our daily lives, leading to the emergence of the IoT era. The IoT is a cluster of many miniaturized devices (also called sensor nodes) that unobtrusively capture data from our lives and the surrounding environment. The IoT will have a transformative impact on a wide variety of applications ranging from biological sensing such as wearable sensors to track our well-being, to physical sensors for industrial and environmental monitoring, to entertainment and infrastructure-related devices for smart-homes and smart-cities. From a circuit design perspective, enabling the IoT requires overcoming a significant technological hurdle: maximizing energy efficiency. This has steered the focus of research towards sub-µW operation to extend the battery life or support wireless/harvested power for long-term continuous monitoring. Unfortunately, ultra-low-power consumption often comes at the expense of temperature robustness. Techniques to reduce power consumption while maintaining robustness to temperature variation will be covered in this talk. Emphasis is placed on analog front-ends, oscillators, and RF transmitters with examples of each.

About Drew A. Hall

Drew A. Hall received the B.S. degree in computer engineering with honors from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA, in 2005, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, in 2008 and 2012, respectively. From 2011 to 2013, he was a Research Scientist in the Integrated Biosensors Laboratory at Intel. Since 2013, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at San Diego, where he is currently an Associate Professor leading the Biosensors and Bioelectronics Group. His research interests include bioelectronics, biosensors, analog circuit design, medical electronics, and sensor interfaces. Dr. Hall won First Place in the Inaugural International IEEE Change the World Competition and First Place in the BME-IDEA invention competition, both in 2009. He received the Analog Devices Outstanding Designer Award in 2011, an Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014, the Hellman Fellowship Award in 2014, an NSF CAREER Award in 2015, and an NIH Trailblazer Award in 2019. Dr. Hall is also a Tau Beta Pi Fellow. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Integrated Circuits since 2015, a member of the CICC Technical Program Committee since 2017, and a member of the ISSCC Technical Program Committee since 2020.

Low Power and Energy-Efficient Digital CMOS for Mixed-Signal Sensor Interfaces, Segio Bampi, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul: Abstract:
Autonomic devices require ultra-low energy operation over their lifetime. Digital and mixed-signal circuit design techniques for IoT interfaces at the analog-to-digital domain transition are reviewed. How to design digital circuits (like MCUs) for a wide dynamic range of voltage-frequency power modes will be stressed. The nano-power range which is achievable in deca-nanometer CMOS requires applying very specific logic design techniques such as performance-efficiency modes and near-threshold (NVT) operation for low-frequency and maximum energy efficiency. The strategy for sizing transistors in digital cells and maximizing static noise margin in NVT modes will be explained. Recent mixed-signal approaches, with mostly digital operators to implement UL-energy operational transconductance amplifiers, comparators, voltage references, and A/D converters with dyadic pulse modulation schemes will be focused in this talk. These circuits allow processing of low-frequency analog signals, typical of sensor interfaces, at unprecedented levels of energy efficiency.

About Sergio Bampi

Sergio Bampi received the B.Sc in electronics engineering and the B.Sc. in physics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, 1979), and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. He is currently a full professor in the areas of digital systems and mixed-signal design at UFRGS. He served as Graduate Program Coordinator, Technical Director of the Microelectronics Center CEITEC (2005-2008) and is the Past President of the FAPERGS Research Funding Foundation and of the SBMICRO Microelectronics Society (2002-2006). He is a former technical staff member at Hewlett-Packard and a visiting research faculty at Stanford University (1998-99). His research interests are in the areas of IC design, ultra-low power digital design, dedicated complex algorithms, architectures, and ASICs for image and video processing, RF CMOS design and mixed-signal IC design for IoT. He has co-authored more than 420 papers in these fields and in MOS devices and EDA. He is a senior member of IEEE, SBC, SBMICRO, IEEE CAS and SSC societies.

IC-Chip Level Physical Attack Protections for IoT Security, Makoto Nagata, Kobe University: Abstract:
IC chips are key enablers of a densely networked smart society by securing digital data with cryptography and authentication functionality. However, security devices are threatened by adversarial attempts in practical utilization environment. This talk will focus on the protection schemes of IC chips in the vertical unification of systems, circuits, and packaging technologies. Topics include attack models on crypto systems and associated design principles of on-chip monitoring circuits to sense and detect malicious attempts. Further, the backside buried metallization is exploited to achieve secure IC chip structures. Silicon experiments will be detailed for passive and active attacks, respectively through electromagnetic emissions and laser fault injections.

About Makoto Nagata

Makoto Nagata received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Gakushuin University, Tokyo, in 1991 and 1993, respectively, and a Ph.D. in electronics engineering from Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, in 2001. He was a research associate at Hiroshima University from 1994 to 2002, an associate professor at Kobe University from 2002 to 2009 and promoted to a full professor in 2009. He is currently a Professor in the Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan. He is a senior member of IEICE and IEEE. His research interests include design techniques targeting high-performance mixed analog, RF, and digital VLSI systems with particular emphasis on power/signal/substrate integrity and electromagnetic compatibility, testing and diagnosis, three-dimensional system integration, as well as their applications for hardware security and safety. Dr. Nagata has been a member of a variety of technical program committees of international conferences such as the Symposium on VLSI Circuits (2002-2009), CICC (2007-2009), A-SSCC (2005-2009), ISSCC (2014-), ESSCIRC (2020-), and many others. He is chairing the ISSCC Technology Directions subcommittee (2018-present). He was a technical program chair (2010-2011), a symposium chair (2012-2013) and an executive committee member (2014-2015) for the Symposium on VLSI Circuits. He is the past chair for IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Kansai Chapter (2017-2018) and currently an SSCS AdCom member (2020-) and also serves as a SSCS Distinguished Lecturer (2020-). He is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems (2015-present).

Image Sensor Technologies for Computer Vision Systems to Realize Smart Sensing, Atsushi Nose, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation: Abstract:
CMOS image sensors are widely used not only in video cameras, digital still cameras, and smartphones, but also in security-monitoring, in-vehicle, and medical applications. Their productivity and performance have been improving through the development of basic semiconductor technology and stacked structural technology. In particular, the stacked CMOS image sensor has made possible the inclusion of various processing functions on sensor edge and has been expanding its applications. In this presentation, we explain the evolution of CMOS image sensors, Vision Sensor with AI processing, and the features of intelligent vision sensors that realize smart sensing.

About Atsushi Nose

Atsushi Nose received the Master of Engineering degree from Waseda University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1998. In 1998, He joined Sony Corporation Japan. He was involved in the design and development of System on Chip (SoC). Now he belongs to Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. He is in charge of the design and development of back-illuminated CMOS image sensors and back-illuminated stacked CMOS image sensors and its systems.

Design Considerations for Battery-Free and Crystal-Less Bluetooth-LE Sensors for Low-Cost Labels, Alon Yehezkely, Wiliot: Abstract:
Adding wireless sensing capabilities to products can scale the IoT market towards a trillion units. However, this requires the enablement of extremely low-cost wireless sensors and an infrastructure which is available and affordable. RFID technology has enabled the manufacturing of billions of labels with integrated circuits at a price that goes below 5 cents, but it lacks the infrastructure commoditization and availability of WiFi or Bluetooth-LE (BLE). As BLE technology is presently not targeting the implications of extreme cost reduction, we will discuss the system-level considerations of the development of ultra-low-cost BLE sensor tags: selection of the wireless technology, radio architecture, crystal-less operation, RF-based energy harvesting, power management, and sensors.

About Alon Yehezkely

Alon Yehezkely received the B.Sc. in electrical engineering in 2001 from The Technion, Israel. In 2007, he received the M.Sc. degree from the Delft University of Technology. He worked in several R&D positions in the field of analog and RF circuit design. From 2001 to 2005, he was with Intel Israel. During 2006-2007, he was an intern at Catena, Delft. In 2007, he joined Wilocity, Israel which was acquired by Qualcomm on 2014, where he remained until 2017. In 2017, he co-founded Wiliot where he is now the CTO.