The novel photo-acoustic CO2 sensor SCD4x launched by Sensirion in early 2021 represents a major innovation step in the miniaturization and cost-reduction of selective and long-term stable CO2 sensor technology. Being the first optical CO2 sensor compatible with surface-mounting technology and made for reflow soldering, the sensor allows for a broader adoption of indoor air quality monitoring both in residential air conditioning as well as internet of things devices. In my talk I will address how MEMS and CMOS technology combined with tailored assembly and packaging designs has enabled shrinking a measurement system previously reserved for scientific laboratories to an SMD component of the size smaller than a sugar cube.

Breaking the size barrier in CO2 sensing: the photo-acoustic CO2 sensor “SCD4x”

In less than a decade, optical sensing has become a key topic because of the growing potential in spectroscopy, chemical and biomolecular sensing, security and industry applications. This talk presents recent results on the chip level integration of the building blocks for chemical detection.

Challenges and Opportunities in the Miniaturization of the Optical Sensing

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical recording method to measure a number of vital signs in a very unobtrusive manner. While PPG has been employed in a clinical setting already for a few decades, it has regained popularity in the last decade specifically for wearable health applications. This talk will discuss the latest-state-of-the-art on ASIC readout architectures for low-power, high performance PPG readout circuits.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) readout interface circuit design techniques

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIS) of the future will be used to treat neurological disorders for which a cure does not exist yet. For this futuristic view to become a reality, we must overcome many technological challenges. A major goal is to increase the number of neurons that we can simultaneously interact with. To do so, future systems will record from more than a thousand channels at the same time. These systems will create a massive amount of raw data that needs to be compressed on the implant to lower the power consumption of the wireless link. As custom signal specifications for BMI applications become clearer and are diverging from those needed for basic neuroscience, there is an opportunity for application-specific lossy compression that improves further the power efficiency of these implants. In this workshop, we will cover the basic aspects of compression for BMIs and describe two different compression schemes for a motor BMI and an artificial retina.

Near-sensor compression in high-bandwidth brain-computer interface

The hardware in fiber-optic communication typically consists of multiple chips in dedicated optical and electronic technologies packaged together.
While this approach leads to excellent performance, it is not as cost-effective compared to having both optics and electronics integrated on a single chip.
From this perspective, bulk CMOS technology is arguably the most cost-effective integrated platform available, though is not very well suited for optics.
Nevertheless, there have been multiple demonstrations of gigabit fully-integrated fiber-optic receivers in bulk CMOS, even for the telecom wavelengths with an energy below the silicon band gap.
In this talk we delve deeper in the relevant optical photodetector devices, as well as the circuits involved to realize such opto-electric integrated circuits.

Fiber-Optic Receivers in Bulk CMOS - More than just pn-diodes

Many smart-power, medical and power applications require full galvanic isolation between various power domains. Traditionally this isolation is accomplished by capacitive coupling, magnetic coupling or by optocoupling that all have their specific pros and cons. In this talk, the focus is on single-chip fully integrated opto-coupling in a commercial CMOS technology, aiming at smart power applications. Firstly the physics behind light generation and light detection in silicon are reviewed, which leads to a number of challenges for silicon-integrated opto-coupling systems. Secondly a number of solutions for these challenges are presented, at layout, device, circuit and system level that, combined, enable opto-couplers in commercial SOI CMOS technology. Lastly, measurement results are discussed.

Optocoupling in CMOS

Thick, reach-through CMOS SPADs will be introduced, which possess a large photon detection probability (PDP) for red and near-infrared wavelengths. Circuits for fast active quenching and reduction of afterpulsing will be shown. In addition, quenchers for excess biases up to four times the nominal supply voltage will be described. Furthermore, an outstanding model for PDP calculation inclusive optical transmission in isolation and passivation stacks will be presented. First results of thick-SPAD sensors in TOF applications will be added.

Thick SPADs and Readout Circuits for High Excess Bias

This presentatio in an introduction to Silicon Photonics for Datacommunication.
Objective is be to review the basics of Silicon Photonics : optical interconnects in datacenter, datarate evolution, the interest of silicon photonics, basic process and main devices physics.


An introduction to Silicon Photonics for Datacommunication

For a long time, there was high expectation of being able to integrate monolithically photonic devices on a single chip, following the path traced by the microelectronics industry.
Unfortunately, process complexity to manufacture photonic chips prevent large-scale production of PICs and the industry remained focused on the single components.
Nowadays the technology allows high level of integration to target a wide variety of applications through the standardization of photonic integration processes for InP and the introduction of process design kits.


Indium Phosphide Technology Platform for Photonics

A semiconductor laser can be modeled as a current controlled oscillator since it can be tuned using its gain section current. Therefore, a semiconductor laser can be phase and frequency locked to a reference laser using an electro-optical phase locked loop (EOPLL). In this talk, some of the EOPLL design challenges such as the effect of the loop delay and laser FM response will be discussed and applications of EOPLLs in optical synthesis and coherent communication will be presented.

Relative Phase Control of Lasers; From Optical Synthesis to Coherent Communication

In this talk, the design of jointly optimized broadband electronics and photonics underlying next-generation (>100GBaud) coherent transceivers is addressed. It is shown how to use SiGe BiCMOS to achieve complex functionality such as interleaving and equalization at analog bandwidths as high as 90GHz. Examples are provided how functionality such as equalization traditionally implemented in the electronics domain can be implemented in a photonic integrated circuit. Finally, options such as micro-transfer printing to densely integrate front-end electronics with optical modulators and detectors are presented.

Underline digital video library

Breaking the size barrier in CO2 sensing: the photo-acoustic CO2 sensor “SCD4x”

Challenges and Opportunities in the Miniaturization of the Optical Sensing

Photoplethysmography (PPG) readout interface circuit design techniques

Near-sensor compression in high-bandwidth brain-computer interface

Fiber-Optic Receivers in Bulk CMOS - More than just pn-diodes

Optocoupling in CMOS

Thick SPADs and Readout Circuits for High Excess Bias

An introduction to Silicon Photonics for Datacommunication

Indium Phosphide Technology Platform for Photonics

Relative Phase Control of Lasers; From Optical Synthesis to Coherent Communication

Co-design and integration of broadband electronic and photonic IC’s for next-generation optical transceiver applications

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