Time-based sensor interface circuits in carbon nanotube technology

Carbon nanotube technology is a promising technology to further reduce the energy consumption in electronics, as it is projected to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in energy-delay product compared to Silicon CMOS at highly-scaled technology nodes. In addition, CNTs are excellent candidates to be functionalized as sensors, and can potentially improve the energy efficiency of sensors and sensor interfaces for future autonomy-demanding applications. This paper presents an overview of time-based sensor interfaces implemented in a CNT technology. Time-based sensor interfaces yield highly-digital architectures, allowing for scalable and robust designs. All of the presented CNFET-based sensor interface circuits have been fabricated in a VLSI-compatible manner and have been validated through measurements.