Ultra-Low Power SAR ADC for Low-Activity Signals (I2I-Lab2Market - Market Assessment)

在物联网设备广泛应用的今天，设计低功耗的传感器信号接口是一个吸引人的课题。因此，设计一个低功耗的模数转换器(ADC)可以帮助在一个物联网应用中以紧张的功率预算涉及更多的传感器节点。该项目提出了一种新的逐次逼近寄存器(SAR)模数转换器(ADC)搜索方法及其集成电路实现，以促进物联网应用。现实世界中的自然信号大多是低活跃度的信号，如语音、心电、超声信号等，其中相邻两个样本之间的差值对于大多数样本来说接近于零。这项工作旨在利用低活性信号的统计特性来降低比较器活跃度和数模转换器(DAC)的开关能量，从而促进物联网的应用。针对语音信号的10位合成孔径雷达ADC仿真结果表明，与传统方法相比，该方法的比较器活动、DAC开关能量和DAC开关活动分别降低了62.09%、85.90%和39.66%。为了帮助我们开发的技术商业化，在这个项目中，我们建议进行市场研究和技术验证。我们将寻求以下信息：对技术与目前市场上可用的技术进行评估，确定和描述潜在的目标市场，确定潜在合作伙伴/许可的特定市场参与者，并以迄今进行的现有市场评估为基础。通过这样的市场评估，我们可以更客观地了解我们开发的技术对市场状况和商业化机会的利弊。根据对该项目的市场评估，我们的持续商业化战略包括进一步的市场实践和技术提升。该项目将把我们开发的SAR ADC技术推向市场，既具有技术进步，又具有相关的商业优势，因此将有利于纽芬兰和拉布拉多，进而有利于加拿大。

Nowadays designing low-power sensor signal interfaces for Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is an appealing subject owing to widespread utilization. Accordingly, devising a low-power analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can help facilitate more sensor nodes involved within one IoT application on a tight power budget. This proposed project presents a new successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) search methodology and its integrated circuit implementation for boosting IoT applications. Most of the natural signals in the real world are low-activity signals, such as voice, electrocardiogram (ECG), ultrasonic signals, etc., where the difference between two adjacent samples is near zero for most of the samples. This proposed work is aimed at low-activity signals for reducing comparator activity and switching energy of digital-to-analog converter (DAC) by using statistical characteristics of the low-activity signals for facilitating IoT applications. Our simulated 10-bit SAR ADC for voice signals shows that by using our proposed method, the comparator activity, DAC switching energy, and activity of DAC switches can be reduced by 62.09%, 85.90%, and 39.66%, respectively, compared to the conventional method. To help commercialize our developed technology, in this project we propose to conduct market research and technology validation. We will seek for the following information: an assessment of the technology versus what is currently available in the market, to identify and characterize potential target markets, to identify specific market players for potential partnership / licensing, and to build on existing market assessment conducted to date. With such a market assessment, we can more objectively understand the pros and cons of our developed technology towards market status and commercialization opportunities. Based on the market assessment in this project, our continued commercialization strategy includes further market practice and technology enhancement. This project will be beneficial to Newfoundland and Labrador, and in turn to Canada by introducing our developed SAR ADC technology to the market for both technology advancement and associated commercial advantages.