A low-power third-order ΔΣ modulator using a single operational amplifier
An architecture for low-power ΔΣ modulators suitable for high-resolution portable sensor systems is presented. The circuit uses a single operational amplifier to achieve a third-order noise shaping. The two-stage op-amp employs a boosting technique that increases by 5 the slew-rate. The circuit, simulated at the transistor level using a conventional 0.18-µm CMOS technology, obtains a peak SNDR of 88 dB over an input signal bandwidth of 100 kHz. The simulated power consumption is 125 µW with a 1.5-V supply voltage. The achieved Figure of Merit (FoM) is 31 fJ/conversion-level.
Noise-shaped multbit D/A convertor employing unit elements
By appropriately selecting the elements used to form each output sample of a multibit digital-to-analogue convertor, the spectrum of the error caused by element mismatch can be noise-shaped. Simulations indicate that first-order, second-order and bandpass noise-shaping are all possible. The technique enables the use of multibit feedback in delta-sigma A/D and D/A convertors.
The honesty of thinking : reflections on critical thinking in Nietzsche's middle period and the later Heidegger
This dissertation engages with contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche and Heidegger on the issue of self-knowing with respect to the notions of honesty and authenticity. Accounting for the two philosophers' developing conceptions of these notions allows a response to interpreters who conceive the activity of self-knowing as a primarily personal problem. The alternative accounts proposed take as a point of departure transitional texts that reveal both thinkers to be engaged in processes of revision. The reading of honesty in Chapters 1 and 2 revolves around Nietzsche's groundwork on prejudice in Morgenrothe (1880-81), where he first problematizes the moral-historical forces entailed in actuating the 'will to truth'. The reading of authenticity in Chapters 3 and 4 revolves around Heidegger's lectures on what motivates one's thinking in Was heist Denken? (1951-52). The lectures call into question his previous formal suppositions on what calls forth one's 'will-to-have-a-conscience', in an interpretation of Parmenides on the issue of thought's linguistic determination, discussed further in the context of Unterwegs zur Sprache (1950-59). Chapter 5 shows how Heidegger's confrontation with Nietzsche contributed to his ongoing revisions to the notion of authenticity, and to the attending conceptions of critique and its authority. Particular attention is given to the specific purposes to which distinct Nietzschean foils are put near the confrontation's beginning--in Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche's second Unzeitgemasse Betrachtung (1938), and in the monograph entitled Besinnung (1939) which they prepare--and near its end, in the interpretation of Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-85) presented in the first half of Was heist Denken? Chapter 6 recapitulates the developments traced from the vantage point of the retrospective texts Die Zollikoner Seminare (1959-72) and the fifth Book of Die frohliche Wissenschaft (1887). Closing remarks are made in relation to recent empirical research on the socio-environmental structures involved in determining self-identity.