Our most common application is highly integrated sensor or imaging SoCs (an exemplary block diagram is shown below with analog blocks in blue). These custom designs allow great reductions in size, cost and power over commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. A set of M low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) is used to amplify low-level analog signals from the sensor array for conversion by a smaller number of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Onchip logic and a microprocessor filter and packetize the data from the ADCs and pass it to high speed or wireless transmitters (XMTs). Support circuits minimize the need for external components, and include wire or wireless power management, voltage and current reference circuitry (Vref, Iref), and a phase-locked-loop (PLL) to generate clocks.
