A 0.5 V bulk-input OTA with improved common-mode feedback for low-frequency filtering applications

This paper presents the design of a two-stage pseudo-differential operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) and its application in low-frequency continuous time filters. The OTA was designed in a 0.18 μm, 0.45 V V _T CMOS process. An improved bulk-mode common-mode feedback (CMFB) circuit has been designed which does not load the OTA compared to prior art. A self cascode load structure and partial positive feedback provide higher gain. The bulk terminals of all transistors have been biased to lower their threshold voltages (V_T) and maximize signal swing. The OTA operates at a supply voltage of 0.5 V and consumes only 28 μW of power. Rail-to-rail input is made possible by using the transistor’s bulk terminal as the input. For a load of 20 pF the OTA has a measured DC gain of 63 dB and a gain-bandwidth product of 570 kHz. To demonstrate the use of the OTA in practical circuits, three active RC filters were designed: a 10 kHz Butterworth filter, a 10 kHz Bessel filter, and a 2.5 kHz Tschebycheff filter.     

A monolithic based NIRS front-end wireless sensor

This paper concerns a novel analog front-end of a wireless brain oxymeter smart sensoring instrument based on near-infrared spectroreflectometry (NIRS). The NIRS sensor makes use of dynamic threshold transistors (DTMOS) for low voltage (1 V), low power and low noise enhancement. The design is composed of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA). The OTA differential input pairs use DTMOS devices for input common mode range enhancement. The OTA was fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process technology. Measurements under a 5 pF capacitive load for the OTA gave a DC open loop gain of 67 dB, unity frequency gain bandwidth of 400 kHz, input and output swings of 0.58 and 0.7 V, a power consumption of 18 μW, and an input referred noise of 134 nV/√Hz at 1 kHz without any extra noise reduction techniques. The achieved features of the proposed oxymeter front-end will allow ultra low-light level measurements, high resolution and good temperature stability.     

Low-voltage high-gain differential OTA for SC circuits

A new differential operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) for SC circuits that operates with a supply voltage of less than two transistor threshold voltages is presented. Its simplicity relies on the use of a low-voltage regulated cascode circuit, which achieves very high output impedance under low-voltage restrictions. The OTA has been designed to operate with a supply voltage of V/sub DD/=1.5 V, using a 0.6 /spl mu/m CMOS technology with transistor threshold voltages of V/sub TN/=0.75 V and V/sub TP/=-0.85 V. Post-layout simulation results for a load capacitance (C/sub L/) of 2 pF show a 75 MHz gain-bandwidth product and 100 dB DC gain with a quiescent power consumption of 750 /spl mu/W.     

Ultra low voltage, high performance operational transconductance amplifier and its application in a tunable Gm-C filter

This paper presents an ultra low voltage, high performance Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA) and its application to implement a tunable Gm-C filter. The proposed OTA uses a 0.5 V single supply and consumes 60 μw. Employing special CMFF and CMFB circuits has improved CMRR to 138 dB in DC. Using bulk driven input stage results in higher linearity such that by applying a 500 mv_p-p sine wave input signal at 2 MHz frequency in unity gain closed loop configuration, third harmonic distortion for output voltage is −46 dB and becomes −42.4 dB in open loop state for 820 mv_p-p output voltage at 2 MHz. DC gain of the OTA is 47 dB and its unity gain bandwidth is 17.8 MHz with 20 pF capacitance load due to both deliberately optimized design and special frequency compensation technique. The OTA has been used to realize a wide tunable Gm-C low-pass filter whose cutoff frequency is tunable from 1.4 to 6 MHz. Proposed OTA and filter have been simulated in 0.18 μm TSMC CMOS technology with Hspice. Monte Carlo and temperature dependent simulation results are included to forecast the mismatch and temperature effects after fabrication process.     

High voltage gain CMOS OTA for micropower SC filters

The letter describes a single stage operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with cascoded output transistors, designed for micropower switched-capacitor filters. The device features high voltage gain (>90 dB) under capacitive load, large output swing, very low power consumption (5 ?W at 3 V supply voltage for 100 kHz bandwidth with 10 pF load) and reduced circuit area (<0.1 mm2).     

A low-power,wide-range variable gain CMOS RF transmitter for 900 MHz wireless communications

This paper presents a low-power, wide-range variable gain RF transmitter for 900 MHz-band wireless communication applications based on a standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. A very wide-range variable gain and high linearity up-conversion mixer is obtained by using a newly transconductance stage. High linearity at low power dissipation driver amplifier can be obtained by adopting a folded cascode topology with an additional gate-source capacitor. The measured results show conversion gain of 16 dB, dB-linear gain variation of 47 dB with the linearity error less than ±0.5 dB, output P-1 dB of 2 dBm, and OIP3 of 12 dBm while dissipating 4 mA from 1.25 V supply.     

低压工作的轨到轨输入／输出缓冲级放大器

本文提出了一种低压工作的轨到轨输入／输出缓冲级放大器。利用电阻产生的输入共模电平移动,该放大器可以在低于传统轨到轨输入级所限制的最小电压下工作,并在整个输入共模电压范围内获得恒定的输入跨导;它的输出级由电流镜驱动,实现了轨到轨电压输出,具有较强的负载驱动能力。该放大器在CSMCO．6-μmCMOS数模混合工艺下进行了HSPICE仿真和流片测试,结果表明：当供电电压为5V,偏置电流为60uA,负载电容为10pF时,开环增益为87．7dB,功耗为579uw,单位增益带宽为3．3MHz;当该放大器作为缓冲级时,输入3VPP10kHz正弦信号,总谐波失真THD为53．2dB。     

单片化低压低功耗Si CMOS运算放大器的实现

基于新型的折叠共栅共源PMOS差分输入级拓扑、轨至轨AB类低压CMOS推挽输出级模型、低压低功耗LV/LP技术特别考虑和EDA平台的实验设计与模拟仿真,并设计配置了先进的Si 2 mm P阱硅栅CMOS集成工艺技术。已经得到一种具有VT = 0.7 V、电源电压1.1~1.5 V、静态功耗典型值330 mW、75 dB开环增益和945 kHz单位增益带宽的LV/LP运算放大器。该运放可应用于ULSI库单元和诸多相关技术领域,其实践有助于Si CMOS低压低功耗集成电路技术的进一步开发与交流。     

A 1-V low power gain boosted self-cascoding current mirror operational transconductance amplifier

A low-voltage, micro-power, low-noise, high-gain, high-output swing current mirror-based operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is presented. The proposed OTA achieves high DC gain and output swing by the adoption of gain boosted current mirroring and self-cascoding techniques. From the simulation, the proposed OTA implemented on a 0.18 μm CMOS shows the DC gain up to 90 dB with a gain bandwidth of 700 KHz for a load capacitor of 1 pF and an output voltage swing of 600 mV. The OTA dissipates only 750 nW from 1.0 V supply.     

Modeling and designing of high-gain,wide-band and fast-speed operational transconductance amplifier

Based on the analysis of the inherent limitations of conventional OTA, this paper introduces a basic strategy by combinating linear-nonlinear adaptive current mirror and local cross-pair to solve the mutual restraint between AC and DC characteristics of the circuit. In order to simplify the multi-mode complicated circuit design, an analytical model for the new OTA is proposed, which is consistent with SPICE simulation results. Under the limitation of the static current consumption, the maximum limit of the circuit performance can be predicted by the proposed model. Under the condition of 29 μA quiescent current and 30 pF load capacitance, a chip is implemented in 0.18 μm CMOS technology, and the test results show that the DC gain, GBW and slew rate achieve 73 dB, 6 MHz and 14 V/μS, respectively, and the optimal performance of DC, AC and transient can be obtained almost simultaneously.     

Design of 0.5 V voltage-combiner based OTA with 60 dB gain 250 kHz UGB in CMOS

A gain enhancement technique for a pseudo differential OTA based on voltage combiner, suitable for sub-1 V supply is presented in this letter. The proposed technique uses a G _m boosted voltage combiner. Unlike the typical voltage combiner which has an approximated gain of \(2\,\frac{{\text{V}}}{{\text{V}}}\), this voltage combiner can produce gain more than \(5\,\frac{{\text{V}}}{{\text{V}}}\). So it help us achieve nearly 60 dB DC gain with 250 kHz UGB for the pseudo differential OTA at a capacitive load of 10 pF. Power dissipation is very low i.e. 716 nW at supply of 0.5 V. So as to facilitate maximum swing at 0.5 V supply and lower the power consumption, MOS transistors are biased in weak/moderate inversion. The OTA is designed in standard 45 nm CMOS process. Phase margin of is more than \(55^{\circ }\) for a typical load of 10 pF. The input referred noise is \(150\,\upmu {\text{V}}{/}\sqrt{{\text{Hz}}}\) at 10 Hz and slew rate \(0.02\,{\text{V}}{/}\upmu{\text{s}}\) for 10 pF load.     

Current reuse topology in UWB CMOS LNA

Low power low voltage operation is found to be the bottleneck of future CMOS system implementations. To comply with these constrains, a current reuse configuration is here reported to design UWB Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA). A resistive feedback topology is first proposed performing an 11.5 dB gain over a 2 to 9 GHz range. Consuming a 17 mW under 1.4 V, this circuit achieves a 4.45 dB minimum Noise Figure (NFmin). Current reuse approach is then combined with LC ladder technique to cover the upper band of European UWB—i.e. 6 to 10 GHz-. This second LNA provides a 12.2 dB, 4.4 dB NFmin, from 5.6 to 8.8 GHz. Operating under 1.6 V it solely consumes 5 mW. Considering a 1.2 V supply voltage case, the two circuits still exhibit a more than 9 and 11 dB gain respectively. Implemented in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology, silicon areas are 0.6 mm2 for resistive feedback amplifier, and 1 mm2 for LC ladder, with PADS.     

Area-efficient CMOS transimpedance amplifier for optical receivers

In this letter, a broadband area-efficient transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for optical receivers is designed using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. A new shunt–shunt peaking technique is used at the input transimpedance stage, which is followed by a gain stage and a capacitive degeneration stage. The amplifier achieves a wide bandwidth with only one inductor; hence a smaller silicon area is maintained. The proposed TIA has a measured transimpedance gain of 50 dB Ohm and a −3 dB bandwidth of 6.5 GHz for 0.25 pF input photodiode capacitance. It consumes DC power of 14 mW from a 1.8 V supply voltage and occupies only 0.09 mm² silicon area.     

A low voltage CMOS RF front-end for IEEE 802.11b WLAN transceiver

A low voltage CMOS RF front-end for IEEE 802.11b WLAN transceiver is presented. The problems to implement the low voltage design and the on-chip input/output impedance matching are considered, and some improved circuits are presented to overcome the problems. Especially, a single-end input, differential output double balanced mixer with an on-chip bias loop is analyzed in detail to show its advantages over other mixers. The transceiver RF front-end has been implemented in 0.18 um CMOS process, the measured results show that the Rx front-end achieves 5.23 dB noise figure, 12.7 dB power gain (50 ohm load), −18 dBm input 1 dB compression point (ICP) and −7 dBm IIP3, and the Tx front-end could output +2.1 dBm power into 50 ohm load with 23.8 dB power gain. The transceiver RF front-end draws 13.6 mA current from a supply voltage of 1.8 V in receive mode and 27.6 mA current in transmit mode. The transceiver RF front-end could satisfy the performance requirements of IEEE802.11b WLAN standard. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 90407006 and No. 60475018.     

A low-power multi-band CMOS RF receiver front-end for ubiquitous sensor network applications

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a low-power multi-band RF receiver including a multi-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a down-conversion mixer based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for sensor node applications. A multi-band LNA with two inputs is tuned to two resonant frequencies by controlling the voltage on a switched MOS. The implemented RF receiver front-end achieves a maximum voltage conversion gain of 38 and 30 dB, NF of 6.2 and 9.2 dB at the 868/915 MHz and the 2.45 GHz bands, respectively. The RF receiver front-end dissipates total 3.0 mA (including I/Q mixers) under supply voltage of 1.8 V at both operation bands.     

一种高增益三级运算放大器

提出了一种高增益三级运算放大器。采用五管全差分、套筒式共源共栅、典型共源级结构作为运算放大器的放大级,采用共模抑制电路、频率补偿电路、高摆幅偏置电路,提高了运算放大器的性能。结果表明,在3 V电源电压、4 pF负载电容的条件下,该运算放大器的开环直流增益为155 dB,单位增益带宽为112 MHz,相位裕度为84.1°,电源抑制比为151 dB,共模抑制比为-168 dB。该运算放大器的补偿电容较小,节省了面积。     

一款高性能共源共栅运算放大器设计

基于CSMC 0.5μm标准CMOS工艺,采用复用型折叠式共源共栅结构,设计一种折叠式共源共栅运算放大器。该电路在5V电源电压下驱动5pF负载电容,采用Cadence公司的模拟仿真工具Spectre对电路进行仿真。结果表明,电路开环增益达到了71.7dB,单位增益带宽为52.79MHz,开环相位裕度为60.45°。     

A highly linear bulk-driven CMOS OTA for continuous-time filters

In this paper we present a bulk-driven CMOS triode-based fully balanced operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) and its application to continuous-time filters. The proposed OTA is linearly tunable with the feature of low distortion and high output impedance. It can achieve wide input range without compromising large transconductance tuning interval. Using a 0.18 μm n-well CMOS process, we have implemented a third-order elliptic low-pass filter based on the proposed OTA. Both the simulation and measurement results are reported. The total harmonic distortion is more than −45 dB for fully differential input signals of up to 0.8 V peak–peak voltage. A dynamic range of 45 dB is obtained under the OTA noise integrated over 1 MHz.     

0.5-V analog circuit techniques and their application in OTA and filter design

We present design techniques that make possible the operation of analog circuits with very low supply voltages, down to 0.5 V. We use operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) and filter design as a vehicle to introduce these techniques. Two OTAs, one with body inputs and the other with gate inputs, are designed. Biasing strategies to maintain common-mode voltages and attain maximum signal swing over process, voltage, and temperature are proposed. Prototype chips were fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process using standard 0.5-V V/sub T/ devices. The body-input OTA has a measured 52-dB DC gain, a 2.5-MHz gain-bandwidth, and consumes 110 /spl mu/W. The gate-input OTA has a measured 62-dB DC gain (with automatic gain-enhancement), a 10-MHz gain-bandwidth, and consumes 75 /spl mu/W. Design techniques for active-RC filters are also presented. Weak-inversion MOS varactors are proposed and modeled. These are used along with 0.5-V gate-input OTAs to design a fully integrated, 135-kHz fifth-order elliptic low-pass filter. The prototype chip in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process with V/sub T/ of 0.5-V also includes an on-chip phase-locked loop for tuning. The 1-mm/sup 2/ chip has a measured dynamic range of 57 dB and draws 2.2 mA from the 0.5-V supply.     

Time-variant analysis and design of a power efficient ISM-band quadrature receiver

In this work a 2.2 GHz quadrature receiver front-end suitable for low-power applications is presented. The low-noise amplifier, the mixer and the voltage-controlled oscillator are merged into a single stage, making the circuit capable of extreme current reuse while keeping it still functional at low supply voltage. A careful linear time-variant analysis is proven to be necessary to accurately predict the conversion gain and the bandwidth of the downconverter. A prototype, implemented in a 90 nm CMOS technology, validates the theoretical analysis, showing 27 dB of downconversion gain over a 14 MHz base-band bandwidth; the noise figure is 13 dB with a flicker corner frequency of 200 kHz; the input-referred 1 dB compression point is −23.7 dBm. The circuit draws only 1.3 mA from a 1.0 V supply.