A Hybrid Energy-Efficient, Area-Efficient, Low-Complexity Switching Scheme in SAR ADC for Biosensor Applications

A hybrid energy-efficient, area-efficient, low-complexity switching scheme in SAR ADC for biosensor applications is proposed. This scheme is a combination of the monotonic technique, the MSB capacitor-splitting technique, and a new switching method. The MSB capacitor-splitting technique, as well as the reference voltage Vaq allow for more options for reference voltage conversion, resulting in higher area savings and higher energy efficiency. In a capacitor array, the circuit performs unilateral switching during all comparisons except for the second and last two comparisons, reducing the difficulty in designing the drive circuit. The proposed switching scheme saves 98.4% of the switching energy and reduces the number of unit capacitors by 87.5% compared to a conventional scheme. Furthermore, the SAR ADC employs low-noise and low-power dynamic comparators utilizing multi-clock control, low-sampling error-sampling switches based on the bootstrap technique, and dynamic SAR logic. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed SAR ADC achieves 61.51 dB SNDR, 79.21 dB SFDR and consumes 0.278 μW of power in a 180 nm process with a 1 V power supply, a full swing input signal frequency of 23.33 kHz, and a sampling rate of 100 kS/s.

Stability Study of Multi-Level Grayscales Based on Driving Waveforms for Electrowetting Displays

Electrowetting Display (EWD) is a new reflective display with an outstanding performance of color video playback. However, some problems still exist and affect its performance. For instance, oil backflow, oil splitting, and charge trapping phenomena may occur during the driving process of EWDs, which would decrease its stability of multi-level grayscales. Therefore, an efficient driving waveform was proposed to solve these disadvantages. It consisted of a driving stage and a stabilizing stage. First, an exponential function waveform was used in the driving stage for driving the EWDs quickly. Then, an alternating current (AC) pulse signal waveform was used in the stabilizing stage to release the trapped positive charges of the insulating layer to improve display stability. A set of four level grayscale driving waveforms were designed by using the proposed method, and it was used in comparative experiments. The experiments showed that the proposed driving waveform could mitigate oil backflow and splitting effects. Compared to a traditional driving waveform, the luminance stability was increased by 8.9%, 5.9%, 10.9%, and 11.6% for the four level grayscales after 12 s, respectively.

A Fast-Response Driving Waveform Design Based on High-Frequency Voltage for Three-Color Electrophoretic Displays

Three-color electrophoretic displays (EPDs) have the characteristics of colorful display, reflection display, low power consumption, and flexible display. However, due to the addition of red particles, response time of three-color EPDs is increased. In this paper, we proposed a new driving waveform based on high-frequency voltage optimization and electrophoresis theory, which was used to shorten the response time. The proposed driving waveform was composed of an activation stage, a new red driving stage, and a black or white driving stage. The response time of particles was effectively reduced by removing an erasing stage. In the design process, the velocity of particles in non-polar solvents was analyzed by Newton's second law and Stokes law. Next, an optimal duration and an optimal frequency of the activation stage were obtained to reduce ghost images and improve particle activity. Then, an optimal voltage which can effectively drive red particles was tested to reduce the response time of red particles. Experimental results showed that compared with a traditional driving waveform, the proposed driving waveform had a better performance. Response times of black particles, white particles and red particles were shortened by 40%, 47.8% and 44.9%, respectively.

Design of Driving Waveform for Shortening Response Time of Black Particles and White Particles in Three-Color Electrophoretic Displays

The shortage of color in traditional electrophoretic displays (EPDs) can be compensated by three-color EPDs. However, the response time of black particles and white particles is increased. A new driving waveform based on the principle of three-color EPDs and electrophoresis theory was proposed to shorten the response time of black particles and white particles. The proposed driving waveform consisted of an erasing stage, an activation stage, a red driving stage, and a white or a black driving stage. The activation stage was mainly optimized in this paper. Firstly, the motion characteristics of the particles were analyzed using Stokes law and electrophoresis theory. Secondly, an optimal high frequency oscillation voltage was tested in order to improve the activity of the particles. Then, the influence of oscillation period and oscillation times on the activation stage were analyzed for optimizing the reference grayscale. According to the luminance of pixels, an oscillation period of 30 ms and an oscillation time of 30 were determined. The experimental results showed that the response time of black particles was shortened by 45%, and the response time of white particles was shortened by 40% compared with a traditional driving waveform.