Course Content "Integrated Circuits in Automotive Industry - Lectures"
1. Overview: objectives, content, methodology. Current trends in integrated circuits used in the automotive industry
2. Frequency synthesizers based on PLL circuits: principle of operation, main parameters, system level analysis and design
3. Frequency synthesizers based on PLL circuits: circuit implementation. Analysis and design of phase detectors, charge pumps, voltage-controlled oscillators, frequency dividers
4. Integrated radio receivers: principle of operation, architectures, main parameters
5. The cumulative effect of noise and non-linearity of blocks in the signal path of a radio receiver. Determining the key parameters of the functional blocks from the system-level specs
6. Low noise amplifiers (LNA) and frequency-conversion mixers: function and features, parameters, main design issues, classical implementation solutions
7. Baseband circuits: channel select analog filters, controlled-gain amplifiers
8. Transceivers for serial communications. Analog sections of high-speed serial communication systems: function and features, general requirements
9. Clock-and-Data Recovery (CDR) Systems
10. Analog front-ends for automotive sensors: principle of operation, main parameters, system level analysis and design and circuit implementation. Analysis and design of low-noise precision and instrumentation amplifiers and continuous-time analog filters
11. Analog front-ends for automotive sensors - Design example: Analog front-end for Hall sensors used in automotive systems
12. Power management for automotive sensors: principle of operation, main parameters, system level analysis and design and circuit implementation.
13. Voltage references and linear voltage regulators: function and features; key parameters; main ideas for circuit implementation
14. Switched-capacitor DC-DC converters: function and features; key parameters; main ideas for circuit implementation
Project Content "Integrated Circuits in Automotive Industry - Project"
1. Project specs; design methodology
2. System-level design of PLL-based frequency synthesizers: determining the specs of the functional blocks
3. Block-level sizing of the loop filter and frequency divider, targeting an optimum tradeoff between bandwidth and noise performance
4. Time-domain analysis of the frequency synthesizer: determine the lock time and phase noise
5. Transistor-level implementation of the functional blocks: phase detectors, charge pumps, voltage-controlled oscillators, frequency dividers
6. Optimization of the designed frequency synthesizer, targeting the minimization of power consumption and phase noise. Functional verification and characterization
7. Project presentation and grading
