Rapid Design Exploration of Low Pass Highly Efficient Single Loop Single Bit Sigma Delta (Σ∆) Modulators
Abstract
A rapid design and verification of sigma delta modulators are presented at the system level with high accuracy and computational efficiency. Sigma delta analog to digital converters showcased an excellent choice for low bandwidth applications from near DC to high bandwidth standard 5G applications. The conceptualization of the graphical user interface (GUI) in the efficient selection of integrator weights has been proposed, which solves various tradeoffs between various abstraction levels. The sigma delta modulator of the 5th order is designed and simulated using the proposed design methodology of calculating integrator weights for targeted specifications. The efficiency of design exploration and optimum selection of integrator coefficients has been investigated on single loop architectures. Power and performance of the selected modulator has been verified in the time domain behavioral simulation. The discrete time circuit technique has been adopted for design of distributed feedback, feed forward architectures and comparison of performance metrics done between selected architectures. A huge design space is computed for the best design parameters that offers ultra-low power and high performance. The proposed virtual instruments supported the methodology for designing delta sigma modulators at the system level achieving SNDR of 122 dB over a bandwidth of 5 kHz at a clock frequency of 1 MHz.
Keywords
sigma delta modulator, single loop, time domain, virtual instruments, biomedical applications,References
1. R. Schreier, S. Pavan, G.C. Temes, The Magic of Delta-Sigma Modulation, [in:] Understanding Delta-Sigma Data Converters, 2 ed., Wiley-IEEE Press, Ch. 1, pp. 1–26, 2017, doi: 10.1002/9781119258308.ch1.2. S. Lee et al., All-day mobile healthcare monitoring system based on heterogeneous stretchable sensors for medical emergency, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 67(10): 8808–8816, 2020, doi: 10.1109/TIE.2019.2950842.
3. D.D. Roel, M. Kumar, Design and implementation of higher order sigma delta modulator circuits using FPAA, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, 104: 169–182, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s10470-020-01667-0.
4. A.F. Yeknami, F. Qazi, A. Alvandpour, Low-power DT ∆Σ modulators using SC passive filters in 65 nm CMOS, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 61(2): 358–370, 2014, doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2013.2278346.
5. A. Hussain, S. Sin, C. Chan, S. Ben U., F. Maloberti, R.P. Martins, Active–passive ∆Σ modulator for high-resolution and low-power applications, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 25(1): 364–374, 2017, doi: 10.1109/TVLSI.2016.2580712.
6. Y. Yoon, H. Roh, H. Lee, J. Roh, A 0.6-V 540-nW delta-sigma modulator for biomedical sensors, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, 75: 323–327, 2013, doi: 10.1007/s10470-013-0053-7.
7. A.F. Yeknami et al., A 0.3V biofuel-cell-powered glucose/lactate biosensing system employing a 180 nW 64 dB SNR passive δς ADC and a 920MHz wireless transmitter, [in:] 2018 IEEE International Solid – State Circuits Conference – (ISSCC), pp. 284–286, 2018, doi: 10.1109/ISSCC.2018.8310295.
8. J.L.A. de Melo, N. Paulino, J. Goes, Continuous-time delta-sigma modulators based on passive RC integrators, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 65(11): 3662–3674, 2018, doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2018.2855649.
9. L. Somappa, M.S. Baghini, A compact fully passive loop filter-based continuous time ΔΣ modulator for multi-channel biomedical applications, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 67(2): 590–599, 2020, doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2019.2944272.
10. F. Qazi, J.J. Dabrowski, Passive SC sigma delta modulators revisited: Analysis and design study, IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 5(4): 624–637, 2015, doi: 10.1109/JETCAS.2015.2502169.
11. K. Matsukawa, Y. Mitani, M. Takayama, K. Obata, S. Dosho, A. Matsuzawa, A fifthorder continuous-time delta-sigma modulator with single-opamp resonator, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 45(4): 697–706, 2010, doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2010.2042244.
12. J.M. de la Rosa et al., A CMOS 110-dB@40-kS/s programmable-gain chopper-stabilized third-order 2-1 cascade sigma-delta Modulator for low-power high-linearity automotive sensor ASICs, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 40(11): 2246–2264, 2005, doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2005.857356.
13. R. Suszynski, K. Wawryn, Prototyping of higher order ΔΣ ADC based on implementation of a FPAA, [in:] International Conference on Signals and Electronic Systems (ICSES), pp. 1–4, 2012, doi: 10.1109/ICSES.2012.6382239.
14. Z. Yang, L. Yao, Y. Lian, A 0.5-V 35-μW 85-dB DR double-sampled ΔΣ modulator for audio applications, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 47(3): 722–735, 2012, doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2011.2181677.
15. A. Hussain, M. Hanif, Active-passive delta-sigma modulator ADC for MEMS accelerometers, [in:] 2017 International Symposium on Recent Advances in Electrical Engineering (RAEE), pp. 1–5, 2017, doi: 10.1109/RAEE.2017.8246036.
16. A. Sukumaran, S. Pavan, Low power design techniques for single-bit audio continuous-time delta sigma ADCs using FIR feedback, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 49(11): 2515–2525, 2014, doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2014.2332885.
17. Y. Yoon, Q. Duan, J. Yeo, J. Roh, J. Kim, D. Kim, A delta–sigma modulator for low-power analog front ends in biomedical instrumentation, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 65(7): 1530–1539, 2016, doi: 10.1109/TIM.2016.2534358.
18. V. Lima, N. Brito, F.S. Alves, J. Cabral, J. Gaspar, L.A. Rocha, Performance comparison of sigma-delta modulator architectures for MEMS accelerometers using a fully-digital approach, Procedia Engineering, 168: 814–817, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.280.
19. M. Zhang, H. Quan, F. Zhang, Comparisons of feed-forward and multiple-feedback sigma-delta modulators for MEMS accelerometers, [in:] MATEC Web of Conferences, Vol. 56, Article no. 08003, 2016, doi: 10.1051/matecconf/20165608003.
20. Slim Tahri, Nizar Khitouni, Med Slim Bouhlel, New 2-2 sigma-delta modulators for different applications, International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 10(4): 269–272, 2021, doi: 10.35940/ijrte.D6629.1110421.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.