A Spread Spectrum Clock Generator (SSCG) using Digital Tracking scheme (DT-SSCG) is described. Using digital tracking control outside a PLL, DT-SSCG can realize stable modulation characteristic independent of the PLL constants. Moreover, DT-SSCG can apply to various modulation profiles easily by brief change of the digital tracking parameters. A test chip has realized the fitting of 5000 ppm downspread with 6.02 dB and 8.02 dB spectrum peak reduction for triangle and Non-Linear modulation.

Circuit techniques for realizing fast cycle time of DRAM are described. 1) A high-speed and high-efficiency word-line level Vpp supply can be obtained by a unique static CMOS double-boosted level generator (SCDB) which controls the Vpp charge supply gate. 2) A new write-control scheme eliminates the timing overhead of a read access time after write cycle in a fast page mode operation. 3) A floor plan that minimizes the load of signal paths by employing the lead-on-chip (LOC) assembly technique. These techniques are implemented in an address-multiplexed 16 Mbit CMOS DRAM using a 0.5-µm CMOS technology. A 31-ns RAS cycle time and a 19-ns fast page mode cycle time at Vcc3.3 V, and also even at Vcc1.8 V, a 53-ns RAS cycle time and a 32-ns fast page mode cycle time were achieved. This DRAM is applicable to battery-operated computing tools.

To evaluate DRAM memory-cell data retention characteristics, measuring the leakage current of the individual memory-cell is important. However, the leakage current of a DRAM memory-cell cannot be measured directly, because its value is on the order of femtoamperes. This paper describes a Plate Bumping (PB) method that can measure the leakage current of a specific memory-cell using the relationship between the shifted value of memory-cell-plate potential and the retention period. By using the PB method, it can be confirmed that the leakage current of the short-retention cell (bad cell) depends on its storage-node potential. With regards to cells with "0" data stored in them ("0" cells), it appears that the relaxed junction biasing (RJB) scheme which can extend refresh interval increases the number of misread "0" cells due to the lowering of the sense amplifier's sensing threshold.

An experimental latch circuit is fabricated by using a 0.35µm MT-CMOS technology. This latch circuit has a volume smaller by 30%, a delay time shorter by 10%, and has an active power consumption smaller by 10% over those of a conventional MT-CMOS circuit. Furthermore, at a operation frequency of 100 MHz, an SRAM employing this IPS scheme has a standby current which is 0.4% of SRAM's without using IPS scheme.

We first describe fundamental results about submodular functions and submodular flows, which lay a basis for devising efficient algorithms for submodular flows. We then give a comprehensive survey on algorithms for submodular flows and show some possible future research directions.