Advances of microelectronics has made possible the realization of entire systems in a single chip, reducing production costs, dimensions and power consumption. An example of these developments is the consumer electronics industry, where the idea of all digital is increasingly being reported. The integrated circuit designed in PADS is an essencial module in many of these applications: it implements the operations of sampling and pre-filtering of the incoming analog signal for its posterior digital processing. Basically, the circuit samples the incoming signal at a sampling rate of 48 MHz, removes the unwanted frequency components, and outputs a signal at 16 MHz, ready to be converted to the digital domain.

    The prototype was fabricated in a MOS 0.8 µm technology and its dimensions are 2.99 × 2.22 mm. Unique in Latin America, this integrated circuit has a distinctive edge over other competitors: it is less sensitive to variations of the fabrication process, has smaller die area and less power consumption.

       This project was developed in cooperation with the Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, Portugal, and with the University of California. It was supported by the CAPES/ICCTI Program and by CNPq.