Low-Voltage Rail-to-Rail Tunable FGMOS Transconductor

A compact, tunable CMOS transconductor is presented. The combined use of a Floating-Gate MOS (FGMOS) differential pair and a floating DC level shifter allows the use of low supply volatages while maintaining at the same time a rail-to-rail input range, low distortion and high linearity. Measurement results for a prototype fabricated using a 0.8 m CMOS technology are provided, confirming on silicon the validity of the proposed approach.     

Very Low Voltage Rail-to-Rail Programmable-Gain CMOS Amplifier

A novel design technique for operating closed-loop amplifier circuits at very low supply voltages is proposed. It is based on the use of quasi-floating gate transistors, avoiding issues encountered in true floating-gate structures such as the initial floating-gate charge, offset drift with temperature, and the gain-bandwidth product degradation. A programmable-gain differential amplifier is designed and implemented following this method. Measurement results of an experimental prototype fabricated in a 0.5-m CMOS technology validate on silicon the proposed technique.     

Low-Voltage Analog Circuits Based on Wideband Capacitive Coupling

A technique for wideband low-voltage analog circuit operation based on capacitive signal coupling is discussed. Circuits based on this technique do not show the GB degradation of other low-voltage approaches based on floating-gate transistors. The technique is validated with simulations of a new CMOS mixer and experimental results of a test chip in a 0.5 m CMOS technology.     

A 2.4-GHz CMOS Monolithic VCO with an MOS Varactor

A 2.4-GHz CMOS VCO is presented employing pMOS transistors as voltage-controlled capacitances and on-chip hollow spiral inductors. The design was implemented in a standard digital 0.8m CMOS process and exhibits a 15% tuning range at 2.5 V supply voltage and 9 mA supply current. Phase-noise measurements show a phase-noise of about –118 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz from the carrier.     

A High Speed, Low Voltage CMOS Offset Comparator

A high speed, low voltage offset comparator is presented. No common mode tracking circuit is used and the offset is added without compromising the high input impedance nature of the circuit. The circuit operates at 480 Mbps with 3.0–3.6 V and 1.6–2.0 V supplies and –40 to 125°C temperature range on a typical 0.5 m technology.     

Low-Voltage Low-Power Integrated Phase-Shifter as Resistive Sensor Transducer

In this paper, we present a CMOSlow-voltage low-power phase shiftertopology, to be used as an integratedresistive sensor interface for portableapplications. The circuit furnishes an outputsquare wave whose time delay and shift arelinear with the value of the sensorresistance. Shifter non-idealities havebeen also considered. The circuit can be alsotransformed into an oscillator by a simpleterminal connection. In this case, theoscillation frequency is inverselyproportional to the same resistance. The proposed topology has been designed andfabricated in CMOS Mietec 0.5 technologyand can operate at supply voltages lowerthan 3 V. The minimum operating supplyvoltage is 1.2 V, the power consumptionbeing only 1 W for the shifter. Thecircuit shows good insensitivity to both thesupply voltage and temperature variations,so it can be applied as an alternativetopology for portable-system integratedinterfaces for typical resistive sensors ofM range.     

A CMOS Four Quadrant Current/Transconductance Multiplier

This paper describes a highly linear current four quadrant multiplier. The circuit is designed to operate in a fully differential way. It is based on the square-law characteristic of MOS transistors in saturation region. Experimental results for 2 m CMOS technology are provided.     

Low Voltage Class AB Output Stage for CMOS Op-Amps Using Multiple Input Floating Gate Transistors

A new class AB output stage for CMOS op-amps is proposed with simple and accurate quiescent current control using floating gate transistors. The proposed stage can be operated with a supply voltage close to a transistor's threshold voltage. Experimental results are provided showing a 15 MHz gain-bandwidth product when it is used as the second stage of an op-amp with 1.5 V supply voltage in a standard 0.8 m CMOS technology.     

High Performance CMOS Analog Arithmetic Circuits

Unique designs for CMOS analog arithmetic circuits are presented which perform addition (V₁ + V₂), subtraction (V₂ – V₁), add/invert –(V₁ + V₂), and multiply (V₁ × V₂). The circuit operation is based on the inherent square law of MOS transistor drain current when operating in the saturation region. Key features include: good linearity and accuracy, single ended voltage inputs and output, wide input and output range and no input bias voltages. The circuits can be directly coupled (no buffer) and serve as basic building blocks for analog signal processing implementations such as analog filters and adaptive equalizers. All circuits were implemented in 1.2 m CMOS technology.     

CMOS Analog Implementation of a Discrete-Time 9-Tap FIR Filter with Circular Buffer Architecture

This paper presents the design and simulation of a 9-Tap CMOS Analog Discrete-Time Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter system. This unique design features a Circular Buffer Architecture which achieves high sampling rate that can be easily expanded to improve speed and extended to higher order filters. Novel area-efficient four quadrant CMOS analog adder and multiplier circuits are employed to respond for high frequency and wide linear range inputs. The layout for all circuits has been realized using the design tool MAGIC with a 1.2 m CMOS process. The performance for each circuit and the whole system are characterized using HSPICE simulation based on the extracted MAGIC netlist. The 9-tap filter was designed to achieve 5 MHz sampling rate. The implemented design requires a total chip area of 1690.9 m by 2134.2 m and ±5 volt power supply.     

A 3 V Wideband CMOS Switched-Current A/D-Converter Suitable for Time-Interleaved Operation

The simulated and measured performance of an experimental 10-b wideband CMOS A/D converter design is presented. Fully-differential first-generation switched-current circuits with common-mode feedforward were used to implement a 1.5-b/stage pipelined architecture in order to evaluate the switched-current technique for digital radio applications. With f _in = 1.83, the measured spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is 60.3 dB and the signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) = 46.5dB at 3 MS/s. Although this 3 V design was fabricated in a standard digital 5 V, 0.8 m CMOS process, a high bandwidth was achieved. Since the ADC maintains an SNDR 40 dB for input frequencies of more than 20 MHz, it has the highest input bandwidth reported for any CMOS switched-current A/D-converter implementation. Its sample rate can be increased by parallel, time-interleaved, operation. Measurement results are compared with the measured performance of other wideband switched-current A/D converters and found to be competitive also with respect to area and power efficiency.     

IC Voltage to Current Transducers with Very Small Transconductance

This paper deals with the design of very small ac transconductance voltage to current transducers intended for the design of low frequency continuous-time filters, very large resistors and other applications. The first type of Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTA) is based on a triode biased transistor and a current division technique. The second one uses partial positive feedback which allows to reduce transistor dimensions but the sensitivity to transistor mismatches increases. The proposed techniques can be used for the design of high-order low frequency IC filters, ladder or based on biquads, with moderated transistor dimensions while the dynamic range-cutoff frequency performance is comparable to previously reported structures. A 10 Hz third order lowpass ladder filter has been designed with these techniques, and it shows a dynamic range of 62 dB. Besides, a novel biasing technique for capacitive sources coupled preamplifiers is proposed. Experimental results for a prototype, fabricated in a 1.2 m 1 level below 15 _RMS and dynamic range of 63 dB. The power consumption is only 10 watts and the supply voltages are ± 1.5 volts.     

Design Theory and Performance of 1-GHz CMOS Downconversion and Upconversion Mixers

A CMOS mixer topology capable of both downconversion and upconversion mixing for use in integrated wireless transceivers is presented. The mixing is based on two cross-coupled differential pairs as commutators with two source-followers as current modulators. Independence of the input and output bandwidths allows this topology to be optimized separately for either downconversion or upconversion mixer. The prototypes of both upconversion and downconversion mixers, optimized for linearity and realized in 0.8 m CMOS technology, have been demonstrated to fully operate at 1 GHz with good linearity and low power consumption. In addition, another mixer, optimized for noise figure and realized in 0.5 m CMOS technology, has been designed to achieve a NF of around 12 dB.     

Low Voltage Micropower Log-Domain Filters

A design technique for low-voltage, micropower continuous-time filters implementing CMOS devices operating in weak inversion is presented. The basic building block is the CMOS log-domain integrator. The effects of the MOS device nonidealities on the integrator are investigated and verified by HSPICE simulations. A 5th-order Chebyshev lowpass ladder filter was designed and simulated. The filter operates with low supply voltage of 1.5 V to achieve a cutoff frequency tunable range of 100 Hz–100 kHz, and it has a power dissipation of 254 nW/pole at the cutoff frequency of 100 kHz. The filter was laid out using the 0.35-m mixed-mode polycide CMOS technology and occupies a die area of 0.04 mm² without the i/o pads     

A Locally Adaptive Multimode Photodetector Circuit

Photodetection circuits form the first stage of the artificial image acquisition process. The image acquisition circuits discussed in this paper pertain to circuits fabricated in a standard CMOS process. Such circuits offers advantages such as random access to a pixel, faster readout, integration of processing circuitry on the same die, low voltage and low power dissipation, and lower cost over the conventional Charge Coupled Device (CCD) process. We describe a new locally adaptive multimode photodetector circuit. The advantages of the circuit are local adaptation, wide dynamic range, excellent sensitivity, and large output voltage swing. The circuit was fabricated in the 2 CMOS process through MOSIS. Simulation and experimental results of the circuit are given.     

Ultra Low Voltage Class AB Switched Current Memory Cells Based on Floating Gate Transistors

A proposal for a class AB switched current memory cell, suitable for ultra-low-voltage applications is presented. The proposal employs transistors with floating gates, allowing to build analog building blocks for ultra-low supply voltage operation also in CMOS processes with high threshold voltages. This paper presents the theoretical basis for the design of V_T0n = | V_T0p | = 0.9VV_{T0n} = \left| {V_{T0p} } \right| = 0.9V for the n- and p-channel devices. Both hand calculations and PSPICE simulations showed that the designed example switched current memory cell allowed a maximum signal range better than ±18 A with a supply voltage down to 1 V, and relatively small device dimensions. In spite of the relatively large signal processing range, the class AB operation of the cell enabled a very low quiescent current consumption, 1 A in this design, resulting in a very high current efficiency and effective power consumption, as well as good noise performance.     

High-Selectivity Switched-Capacitor Bandpass Filter with Quasi-Continuous Quality Factor Tunability

This paper describes the design and implementation of a second-order switched-capacitor (SC) bandpass (BP) filter with very wide quality factor (Q) programmability range. The filter selectivity is digitally programmed by varying the effective sampling frequency of an SC branch, without modifying any capacitor value. The proposed approach allows a quasi-continuous Q-factor tunability avoiding, in principle, the inherent quantization error associated to any traditional programming technique. Automatic Q-factor tuning is performed by using a scheme based on an amplitude-locking loop approach. Experimental results obtained from a 0.8-m CMOS integrated prototype demonstrate the versatility of the proposed technique for high-Q SC BP filters.     

Novel Architectures of Class AB CMOS Mirrors with Programmable Gain

Two schemes for power-efficient gain-programmable V-I conversion based on class AB CMOS mirrors are introduced. The proposed topologies also allow for high-speed gain-programmable precision rectification. Experimental results from a test chip prototype in 0.5- m CMOS technology with ±1 V supplies are shown that validate the proposed circuits.     

Characterization of Floating Gate Defects in Analog Cells

A unified approach to tackle the characterization of the floating gate defect in analog and mixed-signal circuits is introduced. An electrical level model of the defective circuit is proposed extending previous models used effectively in the digital domain. The poly-bulk, poly-well, poly-power rail and metal-poly capacitances are significant parameters in determining the behavior of the floating gate transistor. The model is used to analyze the feasibility of testing a simple analog cell with the floating gate defects through the observation of the quiescent current consumption and the dynamic behavior.     

A Design of a Low-Voltage Current-Mode Fully-Differential Analog CMOS Integrator Using FG-MOSFETs and Its Implementation

In the field of analog signal processing, there is a strong need for low-voltage and low-power integrated circuits. Especially in the mobile communication circuitry, an analog signal processing circuit must be fed by dry batteries of 1–1.5 V. This paper presents a design and implementation of a current-mode fully-differential analog CMOS integrator operable with such a low supply voltage. This integrator is built with a cross-coupled matched pair of 3-input FG(Floating Gate)-MOSFETs, a matched pair of 2-input FG-MOSFETs, and four bias current sources. In this circuit, both a low apparent threshold voltage of FG-MOSFETs and voltage signal summation at the floating gates are effectively utilized to enable the circuit operation with a low supply voltage and to simplify the circuit configuration. The influence of the common-mode signal and noise to the signal processing are minimized by adopting fully-differential structure. The performance of the proposed integrator circuit is predicted by theoretical analysis and by HSPICE simulations. The circuit works as an integrator in the frequency range 4–750 MHz at a 1.5 V supply voltage and dissipates DC power of about 70 W. The proposed circuit was fabricated by a Motorola 1.2 m double-poly CMOS process in the chip fabrication program of VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC).