Introduction to the special issue on “High performance analog circuits and design methodologies”

Abstract

This special issue of the SPRINGER Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing includes a special section composed of four papers related to ‘‘High performance analog circuits and design methodologies’’. They are selected among those presented at the Joint Conference of 4S-2014/2014 International Conference on Analog VLSI Circuits (AVIC 2014). This conference was jointly organized by Vietnam National University HCMC (VNU-HCM) Integrated Circuit Design Research and Education Center (ICDREC) and Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) as an event for commemorating the 20 anniversary of VNU-HCM and 10th anniversary of ICDREC. The conference is the successor of the former International Analog VLSI Workshop. Its purpose is to exchange information, ideas and recent research results on analog VLSI circuits and their applications. The first paper, ‘‘An Improvement of the Current– Voltage Conversion Technique in Over-Current Sensing Circuit for Low-Power Low Dropout Linear Voltage Regulators’’, by Ho Quang Tay, proposes a resistance-less over-current sensing circuit using current–voltage conversion technique for CMOS low dropout linear voltage (LDO) regulators with PMOS as pass device. The second paper, ‘‘Delta-Sigma DAC with Jitter-Shaper-Reducing Jitter Noise’’, by Yuki Watanabe et al., describes a novel delta-sigma digital-to-analog converter (DSDAC) using a jitter shaper to augment the noise caused by clock jitter. The third paper, ‘‘Design of a Symmetry-type Floating Impedance Scaling Circuits for a Fully Differential Filter’’, by Fujihiko Matsumoto et al., proposes the impedance scaling techniques in order to realize a small-size low frequency active filter. The final paper, ‘‘A Low-Power and Low-Gm Linear Transconductor Utilizing Control of a Threshold Voltage’’, by Takeshi Ohbuchi et al., proposes a linear transconductor that is realized by the scheme that the threshold voltages of the transistors are changed by the attenuated input voltage using body effect and reverse short-channel effect. On behalf of the editorial committee of this special section, we would like to express our great thanks to all the authors of the submitted manuscripts and all the reviewers for their great contribution and helpful effort. We also would like to thank all of the committee members for their valuable effort expended in this editorial work. Finally, we would like to express our special thanks to the Guest Editorial Secretary, Professor Cosy Muto, Nagasaki University and Professor Hiroo Sekiya, Chiba University, and the Advisor, Professor Takeshi Shima, Kanagawa University, for all their contributions and efforts.