In this paper, a review and analysis of different design techniques for (ultra) low-voltage integrated circuits (IC) are performed. This analysis shows that the most suitable design methods for low-voltage analog IC design in a standard CMOS process include techniques using bulk-driven MOS transistors, dynamic threshold MOS transistors and MOS transistors operating in weak or moderate inversion regions. The main advantage of such techniques is that there is no need for any modification of standard CMOS structure or process. Basic circuit building blocks like differential amplifiers or current mirrors designed using these approaches are able to operate with the power supply voltage of 600 mV (or even lower), which is the key feature towards integrated systems for modern portable applications.

Many people live under stressful conditions which has an adverse effect on their health. Human stress, especially long-term one, can lead to a serious illness. Therefore, monitoring of human stress influence can be very useful. We can monitor stress in strictly controlled laboratory conditions, but it is time-consuming and does not capture reactions, on everyday stressors or in natural environment using wearable sensors, but with limited accuracy. Therefore, we began to analyze the current state of promising wearable stress-meters and the latest advances in the record of related physiological variables. Based on these results, we present the concept of an accurate, reliable and easier to use telemedicine device for long-term monitoring of people in a real life. In our concept, we ratify with two synchronized devices, one on the finger and the second on the chest. The results will be obtained from several physiological variables including electrodermal activity, heart rate and respiration, body temperature, blood pressure and others. All these variables will be measured using a coherent multi-sensors device. Our goal is to show possibilities and trends towards the production of new telemedicine equipment and thus, opening the door to a widespread application of human stress-meters.

An explicit formula for the resistance between two nodes in a network described by non-symmetric Laplacian matrix L is obtained. This is of great advantage eg in electronic circuit fault analysis, where non-linear systems have to be solved repeatedly. Analysis time can be greatly reduced by utilization of the obtained formula. The presented approach is based on the “mutual orthogonality” of the full system of left and right-hand eigenvectors of a diagonalizable matrix L. Simple examples are given to demonstrate the accuracy of this approach to circuit networks

A new on-chip oscillation test strategy for analog and mixed-signal circuits is presented. In the proposed method, onchip Schmitt trigger is used as the on-chip frequency reference to compensate the influence of process parameter variations. Furthermore, this solution also brings the possibility to implement Oscillation-based Built-In Self-Test (OBIST) for analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. The proposed OBIST strategy has been experimentally applied to active analog integrated filters, and its efficiency in detecting hard-detectable catastrophic faults is presented. To demonstrate applicability of the proposed method also in nanoscale technologies, the method has been used to test a noninverting amplifier designed in 90 nm CMOS technology. Consequently, the impact of scaling was analyzed and the method efficiency in covering catastrophic faults achieved for 0.35 μm and 90 nm CMOS technology were compared.