In high-performance pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), the residue amplifiers dissipate the majority of the overall converter power. Therefore, finding alternatives to the relatively inefficient, conventional class-A circuit realization is an active area of research. One option for improvement is to employ class-AB amplifiers, which can, in principle, provide large drive currents on demand and improve the efficiency of residue amplification. Unfortunately, due to the simultaneous demand for high speed and high gain in pipelined ADCs, the improvements seen in class-AB designs have so far been limited. This dissertation presents the design of an efficient class-AB amplification scheme based on a pseudo-differential, single-stage and cascode-free architecture. Nonlinear errors due to finite DC gain are addressed using a deterministic digital background calibration that measures the circuit imperfections in time intervals between normal conversion cycles of the ADC. As a proof of concept, a 12-bit 30-MS/s pipelined ADC was realized using class-AB amplifiers with the proposed digital calibration. The prototype ADC occupies an active area of 0.36 mm2 in 90-nm CMOS. It dissipates 2.95 mW from a 1.2-V supply and achieves an SNDR of 64.5 dB for inputs near the Nyquist frequency. The corresponding figure of merit is 72 fJ/conversion-step.

This book shows that digitally assisted analog to digital converters are not the only way to cope with poor analog performance caused by technology scaling. It describes various analog design techniques that enhance the area and power efficiency without employing any type of digital calibration circuitry. These techniques consist of self-biasing for PVT enhancement, inverter-based design for improved speed/power ratio, gain-of-two obtained by voltage sum instead of charge redistribution, and current-mode reference shifting instead of voltage reference shifting. Together, these techniques allow enhancing the area and power efficiency of the main building blocks of a multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) based stage, namely, the flash quantizer, the amplifier, and the switched capacitor network of the MDAC. Complementing the theoretical analyses of the various techniques, a power efficient operational transconductance amplifier is implemented and experimentally characterized. Furthermore, a medium-low resolution reference-free high-speed time-interleaved pipeline ADC employing all mentioned design techniques and circuits is presented, implemented and experimentally characterized. This ADC is said to be reference-free because it precludes any reference voltage, therefore saving power and area, as reference circuits are not necessary. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of the techniques which enabled the implementation of area and power efficient circuits.

Analog Circuit Design contains the contribution of 18 tutorials of the 20th workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design. Each part discusses a specific to-date topic on new and valuable design ideas in the area of analog circuit design. Each part is presented by six experts in that field and state of the art information is shared and overviewed. This book is number 20 in this successful series of Analog Circuit Design, providing valuable information and excellent overviews of: Topic 1 : Low Voltage Low Power, chairman: Andrea Baschirotto Topic 2 : Short Range Wireless Front-Ends, chairman: Arthur van Roermund Topic 3 : Power Management and DC-DC, chairman : Michiel Steyaert. Analog Circuit Design is an essential reference source for analog circuit designers and researchers wishing to keep abreast with the latest development in the field. The tutorial coverage also makes it suitable for use in an advanced design course.

Artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and blockchain provide services to 6G in the form of radio resource management, mobility management, energy management, and network management. Moreover, 6G strengthens AI and blockchain-based applications. Further study on the benefits and potential opportunities of 6G for AI and blockchain is required to utilize the technology successfully. Role of 6G Wireless Networks in AI and Blockchain-Based Applications considers the role of the 6G wireless network deployed on AI and blockchain technology-based applications in fields such as the healthcare industry, agriculture, e-business, and transportation. The book specifically focuses on remote healthcare monitoring, online shopping preference, V2V communication, UAV, holographic application, and augmented and virtual reality as advanced services of 6G networks. Covering topics such as machine learning, smart cities, and virtual reality, this reference work is ideal for computer scientists, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Biomedical Engineering can be seen as a mix of Medicine, Engineering and Science. In fact, this is a natural connection, as the most complicated engineering masterpiece is the human body. And it is exactly to help our “body machine” that Biomedical Engineering has its niche. This book brings the state-of-the-art of some of the most important current research related to Biomedical Engineering. I am very honored to be editing such a valuable book, which has contributions of a selected group of researchers describing the best of their work. Through its 36 chapters, the reader will have access to works related to ECG, image processing, sensors, artificial intelligence, and several other exciting fields.