1. Title: PRIMARY ENTRY ------------- Catalogue of Variable Frequency and Single-Resistance-Controlled Oscillators Employing A Single Differential Difference Complementary Current Conveyor BACKGROUND AND SUPPORTING PAPERS -------------------------------- V. Aggarwal, “Novel Canonic Current Mode DDCC based SRCO synthesized using Genetic Algorithms”, in Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Vol: 40, 83–85, 2004 V. Aggarwal, “Evolving Sinusoidal Oscillators Using Genetic Algorithms”, in Proc., The 2003 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware, Chicago, USA, 2003, pp. 67-76. 2. Authors: AUTHORS FOR PRIMARY ENTRY -------------------------- Selçuk KILINÇ Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Dokuz Eylül University Kaynaklar Campus, 35160 Buca, Izmir Turkey E-mail: selcuk.kilinc@eee.deu.edu.tr Tel: +90 232 4127177 Varun JAIN Affliation: Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi Postal Address: 48, Rishabh Vihar Vikas Marg Extn. Delhi-110092, IndiaE-mail: varunjain.dce@gmail.com Varun AGGARWAL Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, #32-380 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 USA E-mail: varun_ag@mit.edu Tel: 01-857-998-8184 Ugur ÇAM Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Dokuz Eylül University Kaynaklar Campus, 35160 Buca, Izmir Turkey E-mail: ugur.cam@eee.deu.edu.tr Tel:+90 232 4127197 BACKGROUND AND SUPPORTING PAPERS -------------------------------- Varun AGGARWAL Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, #32-380 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 USA E-mail: varun_ag@mit.edu Tel: 01-857-998-8184 3. Corresponding author: Varun Aggarwal 4. Abstract for Primary entry A set of fourteen current-mode sinusoidal oscillators employing a single differential difference complementary current conveyor (DDCCC) is proposed. This is the largest catalogue of sinusoidal oscillators with single resistor frequency control, that use only a single active building block (ABB) and minimum number of passive components. The proposed topologies were automatically designed by a genetic algorithm rather than by a human designer. Some of the synthesized networks have very attractive topological features. PSPICE simulation results and non-ideal analysis of the oscillators has been included. 5. (B) The result is equal to or better than a result that was accepted as a new scientific result at the time when it was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. (D) The result is publishable in its own right as a new scientific result ¾ independent of the fact that the result was mechanically created. (E) The result is equal to or better than the most recent human-created solution to a long-standing problem for which there has been a succession of increasingly better human-created solutions. (F) The result is equal to or better than a result that was considered an achievement in its field at the time it was first discovered. 6. A statement stating why the result satisfies the criteria Sine-wave generators have widespread use in communication systems (for instance, modulation/demodulation), control and measurement (e.g., oscilloscopes), signal processing circuits, etc. Design of high-performance integrable oscillators consuming low power and area has been a constant challenge for analog designers. In our work, a genetic algorithm automatically invents a family of new sine-wave oscillators which meet design requirements and are high-performance with respect to area and power consumption. It is the largest family of current-mode, variable frequency sinusoidal oscillators designed using a single active element. One of the invented oscillators is unique, since it uses the lowest number of passive and active elements ever reported in literature. This gives it power and area advantage over all other topologies. This oscillator design was not anticipated and was a surprise find of the evolutionary algorithm. The relevant literature and results are now discussed in detail. Design of integrable (inductor-less) sine-wave oscillators has been of keen interest since the late 1970's. Analog designers need oscillators which fulfill the following criteria, a. Control of frequency by single resistance (henceforth called VFO, Variable Frequency Oscillator), b. Single active element, c. Least number of capacitors (equal to 2), d. Least number of resistors. The first criteria is a design requirement, while the next three are desired for low power and area. In the late 1970's, researchers came up with oscillators using a single opamp, which needed 5 resistors and 2 capacitors to implement a VFO. This limit was pushed down by invention of 2 oscillators using a single 'second generation current conveyor' (CCII, new active element), which needed 3 resistors and 2 capacitors. Similarly 8 oscillators using Current-Feedback Opamp (CFOA) were invented, which used 3 resistors and 2 capacitors. With invention of a new active element, there is intensive activity in the analog research community to invent new oscillator topologies based on the active element, so that the state-of-art in oscillator design can be improved. Another impetus for the research community is to design oscillators which give an explicit current output, which became necessary with the advent of current-mode signal processing in the early 90's. Oscillators using CCII or CFOA did not provide an explicit current output. In our work, a genetic algorithm automatically designed 14 new topologies of oscillators using a new active element, Differential Difference Complementary Current Conveyor (DDCCC). All topologies use 3 (or fewer) resistors and 2 capacitors. All oscillators provide an explicit current-mode output. This is a significant result for the following reasons: a. This is the largest family of oscillators using a single active element with an explicit current output which combines all desirable properties mentioned above. The analog designers have an array of new oscillators to choose from. b. One of the oscillators designed, reported as Oscillator-6 in the paper uses only 2 resistors and 2 capacitors and retains all desired properties. It sacrifices independent control of condition of oscillation which is not important. The decrease in number of resistors gives advantage in both power and area. No VFO using a single active element and 4 passive elements has ever been published before. The result was not anticipated and was a surprise find of the evolutionary algorithm! The oscillator also has added advantage of grounded-resistance frequency control. The designed GA is a general tool to design oscillators using any linear building block. It can be conceived as a push-button invention tool to invent topologies using an active element. Other GA invented novel oscillators were published in work cited below (included in background work), while more are under review: V. Aggarwal, “Novel Canonic Current Mode DDCC based SRCO synthesized using Genetic Algorithms”, in Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Vol: 40, 83–85, 2004 (This is the only DDCC based current-mode VFO ever published (an unanticipated result synthesized by the GA). All other previous topologies use a DDCCC, which requires additional power and area) V. Aggarwal, “Evolving Sinusoidal Oscillators Using Genetic Algorithms”, in Proc., The 2003 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware, Chicago, USA, 2003, pp. 67-76. (Contains GA details; Re-invented all opamp based SFOs and new opamp-based oscillators; OTRA and DDCC based topologies) In view of the preceding assertions, the result satisfies the following criteria: (B) The result is equal to or better than a result that was accepted as a new scientific result at the time when it was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. (The significance of the result is evident by the fact that invention of a single new oscillator topology with the features mentioned calls for publication in analog electronics journal (for instance, see reference [13] [16] [18] [27] in paper). Here we have presented a catalogue of 14 oscillators combining all the desired properties.) (D) The result is publishable in its own right as a new scientific result ¾ independent of the fact that the result was mechanically created. (This paper has been accepted in Journal of RF Engineering and Telecommunications, which is not concerned with the method of synthesizing oscillators, but for its value in enhancing the state-of-art in circuit design. Similarly the DDCC based oscillator has been published in Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing (Springer), which is an electronics journal) (E) The result is equal to or better than the most recent human-created solution to a long-standing problem for which there has been a succession of increasingly better human-created solutions. (Oscillator design with lesser power and area is a long-standing problem in analog design and the telecommunication industry. Invention of 14 VFOs with minimum components, single ABB and current-mode output is a significant leap in the field. There is no other larger catalogue of current-mode VFOs. Oscillator-6 is the first oscillator of its type, a 4-element VFO using a single active element.) (F) The result is equal to or better than a result that was considered an achievement in its field at the time it was first discovered. (Evident in the points mentioned above) 7. Full citation of paper Selçuk KILINÇ, Varun JAIN, Varun AGGARWAL, Ugur CAM, "Catalogue of Variable Frequency and Single-Resistance-Controlled Oscillators Employing A Single Differential Difference Complementary Current Conveyor", Unconditional Acceptance, to appear in Frequenz: Journal of RF-Engineering and Telecommunications (Germany), July-August, 2006 Supporting Papers ----------------- 8. Prize Money Division: Selcuk Kilinc: 20% Varun Jain: 20% Ugur Cam: 20% Varun Aggarwal: 40% 9. Why 'best' in comparison of other entries: (a) The entry solves the problem of sinusoidal oscillator design. Sinusiodal oscillators have widespread use in the telecommunication and signal processing industry. Automation of oscillator design is significant since it was considered an art by designers and unyielding to automation. (b) All the 14 oscillator designs are interpretable and comprehensible by human designers, which makes them acceptable to the analog design community. They are backed by rigorous simulations, which makes them useful and mature for industrial use. Thus, the results are not only of scientific or intellectual value, but have practical use. (c) All the inventions are completely new and state-of-art. It is open to question, if humans could come up with them. (d) Oscillator-6 reported in the paper shows the ability of evolution to explore realms of non-intuitive designs. The idea of having a single active element based VFO with four passive components is unfound in literature. It improves upon the state-of-art and provides a new design idea to analog designers.