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The Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) is an electronic instrument that measures the impedance of a dipole antenna immersed in a plasma environment. Measurements made by the PIP provide valuable information regarding the plasma environment. Knowledge of ionospheric plasma density and density disturbances is required to understand radio frequency communication with satellites. The impedance curve provides us with significant plasma characteristics such as the electron-neutral collision frequency and plasma electron density. The work proposed here is a transistor-level implementation of the analog front-end, the non-inverting amplifier that is used to drive the antenna. The antenna immersed in plasma is excited with a sinusoidal/pulse stimulus and the output from the non-inverting configuration is fed into the difference amplifier. In the difference amplifier the output signal from the non- inverting amplifier is subtracted from the original stimulus and then fed into a high-speed pipeline data converter. The entire analog and mixed signal components are integrated on a single chip. The obvious advantages with this design are that it eliminates several sources of analog signal processing errors, thereby improving stability. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is then applied on the sampled input stimulus as well as the processed signal. The input voltage FFT is then divided by the current FFT to obtain the antenna impedance. The FFT method helps in reducing transient errors and improves noise immunity of the system. The antenna impedance span curves over the frequency range from 100 kHz to 20MHz. The approach for the tranistor-level design is implementing short-channel design tech- niques using the gm/ID method. This is the primary focus of the thesis where the emphasis has been on using a simple and intuitive method to design the front-end amplifier in the TSMC .35 um technology. The design specifications for this amplifier are derived from the system-level simulations. The transition from a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)-based design to System on Chip (SOC) implementation is explored. This makes the design components highly specific to the application. The following are the design approaches used for the analog front-end design. * A detailed study of the various factors affecting the PIP instrument measurement capabilities from the previous works. * System-level simulation of the the entire PIP system to completely characterize the analog front-end. * Exploration of the possible design topologies for the transistor-level implementation. * A novel method of analog amplifier design using the gm/ID methodology. Miniaturization of the instrument and using a pulse-based measurement scheme also offer an immediate benefit to sounding rocket missions. The reduction of power, mass, and volume will enable the instrument to be flown on many more sounding rockets than at present. The faster measurement is especially valuable since the ionospheric plasma changes in character most rapidly with altitude.

Afin de réaliser un appareil innovant pour la mesure de gaz polluants, la société SVS@CAP s’est associée avec le laboratoire de physique corpusculaire en 2009 pour la création du projet EREBUS. Ce projet a pour but la réalisation d’un ensemble de dispositifs sans fil permettant d’effectuer une surveillance de la concentration de gaz polluants. L’autonomie et la compacité d’un tel dispositif étant essentielles, la problématique principale porte sur la réduction de la consommation. A partir d’une première étude menée sur les différentes technologies existantes, les capteurs électrochimiques ont été identifiés comme les moins consommateurs d’énergie. Pour chacun des gaz cibles, un modèle électrique du capteur associé a été déterminé. A partir de ces modèles, une architecture dédiée et épurée a pu être déduite. Pour atteindre et même dépasser les objectifs de consommation, les efforts ont aussi été portés sur un dimensionnement avec la méthode gm/id. La réalisation de cette électronique intégrée a permis d’atteindre une consommation de l’ordre du μW pour chaque voie de mesure. Enfin, pour compléter la chaîne de lecture, plusieurs architectures de convertisseurs ont été étudiées et réalisées pour fonctionner à des fréquences déchantillonnage proches du Hz. Les consommations obtenues pour les convertisseurs sont limitées avec comme ordre de grandeur la centaine de nW. / In order to realize an innovative product for pollutants in the atmosphere, SVS@CAP company started in 2009 the EUREBUS project in collaboration with the "Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire". The aim of this project is to design a wireless equipement to measure gas concentrations. The key issues of this project are concerning the autonomy as well as the small size of the product. In consequence an integrated and low power electronics remains essential. From a first study of the existing technologies to detect gaz concentrations, electrochemical sensors were selected because of their low power consumption. For each of the target gas, an electrical model was determined. From those models, a specific architecture was designed. A special effort was made on the energy consumption thanks to the use of the gm/id methodology which was necessary to achieve and exceed the specifications. The final order of the power consumption of the front-end developped and realized is around the μW. Finally, in order to complete the chain of acquisition, some architectures of analog to digital converter were studied, developped and realized with sample frequencies close to the Hz. The power consumptions of the converters developped are limited to the order of the hundreds of nW.

Este trabalho descreve o projeto de um modulador Analógico-Digital (A/D) Sigma-Delta de 16 bits (98 dB de SNR) de baixo consumo em tecnologia CMOS para a aquisição de sinais de áudio. Para projetar o modulador foi utilizada a metodologia top down, a qual consiste em projetar desde o nível de sistema até os blocos básicos em nível de transistores. O sistema foi analizado e projetado utilizando equacões e modelos comportamentais para obter as especificações de cada bloco do modulador. Considerando um baixo consumo de potência foi escolhida a topologia CIFF (do inglês Chain of Integrator with FeedForward) de terceira ordem e quatro bits implementado com capacitores chaveados. O modulador projetado é composto por três integradores chaveados, um somador analógico, um weigthed DAC e um quantizador de quatro bits. A técnica de Chopper é incluida no modulador para diminuir o ruído Flicker na entrada do modulador. Os blocos de maior consumo dentro do modulador são as OTAs. Por esta razão eles são projetados utilizando a metodologia gm/ID reduzindo assim o consumo de potência. O projeto foi realizado na tecnologia IBM 0,18 \'mü\'m sendo utilizado o simulador spectre do Cadence. O modulador Sigma-Delta atinge um SNR de 98 dB para uma banda de 20 kHz e um consumo de potência de 2,4 mW para uma fonte de alimentação de 1,8 V. / This work describes the design of a 16 bits low power Sigma-Delta modulator (98 dB SNR) in a CMOS technology for the acquisition of audio signals. To design the modulator it was used the top-down methodology, which consists on the design from system level to the transistor-level basic blocks. The system was analyzed and designed using behavioral models and equations to obtain the specifications of each block of the modulator. Considering a low power consumption it was chosen a third-order four bits CIFF topology (Chain Integrator with feedforward) implemented with switched capacitors. The modulator is composed by three integrators, one analog adder, one weigthed DAC and one four bit quantizer. The Chopper technique is included in the modulator to reduce the Flicker noise at the input of the modulator. The blocks of higher consumption within the modulator are the OTAs. Hence, they was designed using the methodology gm/ID to reduce power consumption. It was designed on the 0.18 \'mü\'m IBM technology and using the Cadence Spectre simulator. The Sigma-Delta modulator achieves a SNR of 98 dB for a bandwidth of 20 kHz and a power consumption of 2.4 mW with a 1.8 V power supply.

Afin de réaliser un appareil innovant pour la mesure de gaz polluants, la société SVS@CAP s'est associée avec le laboratoire de physique corpusculaire en 2009 pour la création du projet EREBUS. Ce projet a pour but la réalisation d'un ensemble de dispositifs sans fil permettant d'effectuer une surveillance de la concentration de gaz polluants. L'autonomie et la compacité d'un tel dispositif étant essentielles, la problématique principale porte sur la réduction de la consommation. A partir d'une première étude menée sur les différentes technologies existantes, les capteurs électrochimiques ont été identifiés comme les moins consommateurs d'énergie. Pour chacun des gaz cibles, un modèle électrique du capteur associé a été déterminé. A partir de ces modèles, une architecture dédiée et épurée a pu être déduite. Pour atteindre et même dépasser les objectifs de consommation, les efforts ont aussi été portés sur un dimensionnement avec la méthode gm/id. La réalisation de cette électronique intégrée a permis d'atteindre une consommation de l'ordre du microwatt pour chaque voie de mesure. Enfin, pour compléter la chaîne de lecture, plusieurs architectures de convertisseurs ont été étudiées et réalisées pour fonctionner à des fréquences d'échantillonnage proches du Hz. Les consommations obtenues pour les convertisseurs sont limitées avec comme ordre de grandeur la centaine de nW.

Este trabalho descreve o projeto de um modulador Analógico-Digital (A/D) Sigma-Delta de 16 bits (98 dB de SNR) de baixo consumo em tecnologia CMOS para a aquisição de sinais de áudio. Para projetar o modulador foi utilizada a metodologia top down, a qual consiste em projetar desde o nível de sistema até os blocos básicos em nível de transistores. O sistema foi analizado e projetado utilizando equacões e modelos comportamentais para obter as especificações de cada bloco do modulador. Considerando um baixo consumo de potência foi escolhida a topologia CIFF (do inglês Chain of Integrator with FeedForward) de terceira ordem e quatro bits implementado com capacitores chaveados. O modulador projetado é composto por três integradores chaveados, um somador analógico, um weigthed DAC e um quantizador de quatro bits. A técnica de Chopper é incluida no modulador para diminuir o ruído Flicker na entrada do modulador. Os blocos de maior consumo dentro do modulador são as OTAs. Por esta razão eles são projetados utilizando a metodologia gm/ID reduzindo assim o consumo de potência. O projeto foi realizado na tecnologia IBM 0,18 \'mü\'m sendo utilizado o simulador spectre do Cadence. O modulador Sigma-Delta atinge um SNR de 98 dB para uma banda de 20 kHz e um consumo de potência de 2,4 mW para uma fonte de alimentação de 1,8 V. / This work describes the design of a 16 bits low power Sigma-Delta modulator (98 dB SNR) in a CMOS technology for the acquisition of audio signals. To design the modulator it was used the top-down methodology, which consists on the design from system level to the transistor-level basic blocks. The system was analyzed and designed using behavioral models and equations to obtain the specifications of each block of the modulator. Considering a low power consumption it was chosen a third-order four bits CIFF topology (Chain Integrator with feedforward) implemented with switched capacitors. The modulator is composed by three integrators, one analog adder, one weigthed DAC and one four bit quantizer. The Chopper technique is included in the modulator to reduce the Flicker noise at the input of the modulator. The blocks of higher consumption within the modulator are the OTAs. Hence, they was designed using the methodology gm/ID to reduce power consumption. It was designed on the 0.18 \'mü\'m IBM technology and using the Cadence Spectre simulator. The Sigma-Delta modulator achieves a SNR of 98 dB for a bandwidth of 20 kHz and a power consumption of 2.4 mW with a 1.8 V power supply.