News


PERTE Chip Chairs Call
The call for PERTE Chip Chairs has been provisionally resolved

The Universidad de Sevilla obtains a PERTE Chip Chair (€4.2M), with the third best score out of 17 proposals, with a project led by IMSE professors and whose team includes 39 researchers from our center.
March 6, 2024

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Eros Camacho Doctoral Thesis
Announcement Public Defense of Doctoral Thesis

The public defense event of the Doctoral Thesis of Eros Camacho Ruiz within the framework of the doctoral program in Physical Sciences and Technologies of the Universidad de Sevilla will be held on March 13, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla.

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FAMA Award
The US recognizes five of its researchers with the FAMA Awards

Prof. Ángel Rodríguez Vázquez has been awarded the FAMA Award for Research and Transfer Career in the Area of Engineering and Architecture.
March 5, 2024

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Oscillatory neural networks
Post on the La Cuadratura del Círculo blog

Oscillatory neural networks represent an exciting step forward in our journey toward understanding and emulating the complexity of the human brain, and their impact promises to be profound and lasting.
Juan Núñez Martínez
February 1, 2024

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GoIT Panel IMSE
GoIT Project activity

A panel around open-source hardware to build Root-of-Trust components will be held next Dec 14 at IMSE "Salón de Grados", as part of our activities in the GoIT project.
December 7, 2023

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3 Minutes Thesis Contest Winner
Santiago Fernández Scagliusi wins the "Tesis en 3 Minutos" contest at the US

Santiago Fernández Scagliusi, from the doctoral program in Computer Engineering, has been the winner of the fifth edition of the "Tesis en 3 Minutos" competition of the Universidad de Sevilla. His thesis was co-directed by Pablo Pérez and Gloria Huertas, both belonging to the IMSE in the "Biomedical Circuits and Systems" line.
December 7, 2023

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PREVIOUS EVENTS & NEWS

New Director of the IMSE-CNM


IMSE researcher Teresa Serrano Gotarredona has been appointed as the new Director of the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla.

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Education at IMSE


- Doctoral Studies
- Master Studies
- Degree Studies
- Final Degree Projects
- Internships

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Recent publications


A Control-Bounded Quadrature Leapfrog ADC
H. Malmberg, F. Feyling and J.M. de la Rosa
Journal Paper · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 2024
IEEE    ISSN: 1549-8328
abstract      doi      

In this paper, the design flexibility of the control-bounded analog-to-digital converter principle is demonstrated. A band-pass analog-to-digital converter is considered as an application and case study. We show how a low-pass control-bounded analog-to-digital converter can be translated into a band-pass version where the guaranteed stability, converter bandwidth, and signal-to-noise ratio are preserved while the center frequency for conversion can be positioned freely. The proposed converter is validated with behavioral simulations on several filter orders, center frequencies, and oversampling ratios. Additionally, we consider an op-amp circuit realization where the effects of first-order op-amp non-idealities are shown. Finally, robustness against component variations is demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulations.

Reliability improvement of SRAM PUFs based on a detailed experimental study into the stochastic effects of aging
A. Santana-Andreo, P. Saraza-Canflanca, R. Castro-Lopez, E. Roca and F.V. Fernandez
Journal Paper · AEU - International Journal of Electronics and Communications, Volume 176, 155147, 2024
ELSEVIER    ISSN: 1434-8411
abstract      doi      

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) have gained attention as a lightweight hardware security primitive. In particular, the SRAM-based PUF uses the unpredictable power-up value of the cells within an SRAM. Although these values should ideally be always the same within each SRAM to accomplish a correct PUF operation, this is often not the case, especially when factors like circuit aging are considered. While certain studies explore the effects of aging on SRAM PUFs, they often simplify the analysis. For instance, some studies assume that only Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) contributes to circuit degradation while others evaluate the overall degradation without accounting for the stochastic effects of aging on each individual cell. In this work, we first perform a detailed characterization of the nature of aging in SRAM PUFs, demonstrating that the impact of Non-Conductive Hot-Carrier Injection cannot be neglected. We also show that different cells degrade differently, highlighting the importance of accounting for the stochasticity of aging. After that, a method based on the Data Retention Voltage metric to select the cells with the most stable power-up response is introduced. Using these cells to generate the PUF identifier will result in a more stable response, and thus a better PUF performance.

 


On the Use of Artificial Neural Networks for the Automated High-Level Design of ΣΔ Modulators
P. Díaz-Lobo, G. Liñán-Cembrano and J.M. de la Rosa
Journal Paper · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 2023
IEEE    ISSN: 1549-8328
abstract      doi      

This paper presents a high-level synthesis methodology for Sigma-Delta Modulators (ΣΔ Ms) that combines behavioral modeling and simulation for performance evaluation, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to generate high-level designs variables for the required specifications. To this end, comprehensive datasets made up of design variables and performance metrics, generated from accurate behavioral simulations of different kinds of ΣΔ Ms, are used to allow the ANN to learn the complex relationships between design-variables and specifications. Several representative case studies are considered, including single-loop and cascade architectures with single-bit and multi-bit quantization, as well as both Switched-Capacitor (SC) and Continuous-Time (CT) circuit techniques. The proposed solution works in two steps. First, for a given set of specifications, a trained classifier proposes one of the available ΣΔ M architectures in the dataset. Second, for the proposed architecture, a Regression-type Neural Network (RNN) infers the design variables required to produce the requested specifications. A comparison with other optimization methods - such as genetic algorithms and gradient descent - is discussed, demonstrating that the presented approach yields to more efficient design solutions in terms of performance metrics and CPU time.

On the Use of FIR Feedback in Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulators
J. Gorji, S. Pavan and J.M. de la Rosa
Journal Paper · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 2023
IEEE    ISSN: 1549-8328
abstract      doi      

This paper presents a new architecture for bandpass delta-sigma modulators (BP-ΔΣMs) featuring finite impulse response (FIR) filters in the feedback path. The effectiveness of FIR feedback in lowpass delta-sigma modulators (LP-ΔΣMs) has been well-established in improving loop-filter linearity and robustness to clock jitter. Building upon these findings, we explore the application of bandpass FIR filters in single-bit BP-ΔΣMs. By contrast to conventional BP-ΔΣMs, the proposed technique significantly reduces out-of-band quantization error contents in the feedback signal. This approach is applicable to both discrete-time and continuous-time implementations. Further, we show that performance does not improve by increasing the number of FIR taps beyond a certain point. However, we can enhance filtering performance by employing non-equal coefficients within the filter. To validate the efficacy of the presented approach, the paper includes electrical simulation of a 4th-order active-RC BP-ΔΣM.

ALL PUBLICATIONS

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What we do


Our main area of specialization is the design of CMOS analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and their use in different application contexts such as wireless communications, data conversion, smart imagers & vision sensors, biomedical devices, cybersecurity, neuromorphic computing and space technologies.

The IMSE-CNM staff consists of approximately one hundred people, including scientists and support personnel. IMSE-CNM employees are involved in advancing scientific knowledge, designing high level scientific-technical solutions and in technology transfer.

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