Hybrid cascode feedforward compensation for nano-scale low-power ultra-area-efficient three-stage amplifiers

A modified frequency compensation technique is proposed for low-power area-efficient three-stage amplifiers driving medium to large capacitive loads. Coined hybrid cascode feedforward compensation (HCFC), the total compensation capacitor is divided and shared between two internal high-speed feedback loops instead of only one loop as is common in prior art. Detailed analysis of this technique shows significant improvement in terms of bandwidth and stability. This is verified for a 1.2-V amplifier driving a 500-pF capacitive load in 90-nm CMOS technology, where HCFC reduces the total capacitor size and improves the gain-bandwidth by at least 30% and 40% respectively, compared to the prevailing schemes.     

Hybrid cascode compensation with feedforward stage for high-speed area-efficient three-stage CMOS amplifiers

Hybrid cascode feedforward compensation (HCFC) is proposed for low-power area-efficient three stage amplifiers driving large capacitive loads. With no overhead in power or area, the total compensation capacitor is divided and shared between two internal high-speed loops instead of solely one loop as is common in prior art. Detailed analysis of HCFC shows significant improvement in terms of stability and bandwidth. This is verified for a 1.2-V amplifier driving a 500-pF capacitive load in 90-nm CMOS technology, where HCFC reduces the total capacitor size and improves the gain-bandwidth by at least 30 and 40 %, respectively, compared to the prevailing schemes.     

Single-Capacitor Active-Feedback Compensation for Small-Capacitive-Load Three-Stage Amplifiers

This brief presents a single-capacitor active-feedback compensation (SCAFC) scheme for three-stage internal amplifiers driving small capacitive loads. The proposed SCAFC scheme can stabilize the three-stage amplifier by using only a single small-value compensation capacitor, thereby significantly reducing the amplifier implementation area. With the small-value compensation capacitor, the wide gain-bandwidth product (GBW) of the SCAFC amplifier can also be achieved under low-power conditions. Implemented in a standard 0.35-mum CMOS process, the proposed three-stage SCAFC amplifier achieves over 100-dB dc gain, 9.6-MHz GBW, and 6.1-V/mus average slew rate, by only dissipating 90 muW at 1.5 V and using a 1-pF compensation capacitor, when driving a 500-kOmega // 20-pF load. The proposed SCAFC amplifier experimentally improves both bandwidth-to-power and slew-rate-to-power efficiencies by more than 14 times and 9 times, respectively, as compared to a conventional three-stage nested-Miller-compensated amplifier.     

A dual-path bandwidth extension amplifier topology with dual-loop parallel compensation

A dual-path amplifier topology with dual-loop parallel compensation technique is proposed for low-power three-stage amplifiers. By using two parallel high-speed paths for high-frequency signal propagation, there is no passive capacitive feedback network loaded at the amplifier output. Both the bandwidth and slew rate are thus significantly improved. Implemented in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process, the proposed three-stage amplifier has over 100-dB gain, 7-MHz gain-bandwidth product, and 3.3-V//spl mu/s average slew rate while only dissipating 330 /spl mu/W at 1.5 V, when driving a 25-k/spl Omega///120-pF load. The proposed amplifier achieves at least two times improvement in bandwidth-to-power and slew-rate-to-power efficiencies than all other reported multistage amplifiers using different compensation topologies.     

Positive feedback frequency compensation for low-voltage low-power three-stage amplifier

The use of a new frequency compensation scheme for a three-stage operational amplifier is presented. The use of a positive feedback compensation (PFC) is employed to improve frequency response when compared to nested Miller compensation. A set of design equations is derived to give insight into the sizing of the amplifier. In addition, some characteristics relevant to the low-voltage low-power circuits using operational amplifiers have been modeled. Finally, an optimization algorithm was used with the purpose of extracting the most efficient solution. The PFC is especially suitable for driving large capacitance loads. It improves frequency response, slew rate (SR), and settling time. Small compensation capacitors make it appropriate for integration in commercial CMOS processes. With an active area of 0.03 mm/sup 2/ and working at 1.5 V, the circuit dissipates 275 /spl mu/W, has more than a 100-dB gain, a gain bandwidth of 2.7 MHz, and 1.0 V/spl mu/s average SR while driving a 130-pF load. Both measured frequency and transient step response show that the amplifier is stable.     

A robust feedforward compensation scheme for multistage operational transconductance amplifiers with no Miller capacitors

A multistage operational transconductance amplifier with a feedforward compensation scheme which does not use Miller capacitors is introduced. The compensation scheme uses the positive phase shift of left-half-plane (LHP) zeroes caused by the feedforward path to cancel the negative phase shift of poles to achieve a good phase margin. A two-stage path increases further the low frequency gain while a feedforward single-stage amplifier makes the circuit faster. The amplifier bandwidth is not compromised by the absence of the traditional pole-splitting effect of Miller compensation, resulting in a high-gain wideband amplifier. The capacitors of a capacitive amplifier using the proposed techniques can be varied more than a decade without significant settling time degradation. Experimental results for a prototype fabricated in an AMI 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process show DC gain of around 90 dB and a 1% settling time of 15 ns for a load capacitor of 12 pF. The power supply used is /spl plusmn/1.25 V.     

Active-feedback frequency-compensation technique for low-power multistage amplifiers

An active-feedback frequency-compensation (AFFC) technique for low-power operational amplifiers is presented in this paper. With an active-feedback mechanism, a high-speed block separates the low-frequency high-gain path and high-frequency signal path such that high gain and wide bandwidth can be achieved simultaneously in the AFFC amplifier. The gain stage in the active-feedback network also reduces the size of the compensation capacitors such that the overall chip area of the amplifier becomes smaller and the slew rate is improved. Furthermore, the presence of a left-half-plane zero in the proposed AFFC topology improves the stability and settling behavior of the amplifier. Three-stage amplifiers based on AFFC and nested-Miller compensation (NMC) techniques have been implemented by a commercial 0.8-/spl mu/m CMOS process. When driving a 120-pF capacitive load, the AFFC amplifier achieves over 100-dB dc gain, 4.5-MHz gain-bandwidth product (GBW) , 65/spl deg/ phase margin, and 1.5-V//spl mu/s average slew rate, while only dissipating 400-/spl mu/W power at a 2-V supply. Compared to a three-stage NMC amplifier, the proposed AFFC amplifier provides improvement in both the GBW and slew rate by 11 times and reduces the chip area by 2.3 times without significant increase in the power consumption.     

A frequency compensation scheme for LDO voltage regulators

A stable low dropout (LDO) voltage regulator topology for low equivalent series resistance (ESR) capacitive loads is presented. The proposed scheme generates a zero internally instead of relying on the zero generated by the load capacitor and its ESR combination for stability. It is demonstrated that this scheme realizes robust frequency compensation, facilitates the use of multilayer ceramic capacitors for the load of LDO regulators, and improves transient response and noise performance. Test results from a prototype fabricated in AMI 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS technology provide the most important parameters of the regulator viz., ground current, load regulation, line regulation, output noise, and start-up time.     

A New Method Modifying Single Miller Feedforward Frequency Compensation to Drive Large Capacitive Loads: Putting an Attenuator in the Path

A new method to compensate three-stage amplifier to drive large capacitive loads is proposed in this paper. Gain Bandwidth Product is increased due to use an attenuator in the path of miller compensation capacitor. Analysis demonstrates that the gain bandwidth product will be improved significantly without using large compensation capacitor. Using a feedforward path is deployed to control a left half plane zero which is able to cancel out first non-dominant pole. A three stage amplifier is simulated in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The purpose of the design is to compensate three-stage amplifier loading 1000 pF capacitive load. The simulated amplifier with a 1000 pF capacitive load is performed in 3.3 MHz gain bandwidth product, and phase margin of 50. The compensation capacitor is reduced extremely compared to conventional nested miller compensation methods. Since transconductance of each stage is not distinct, and it is close to one another; as a result, this method is suitable low power design methodology.     

Dual-Miller Parallel Compensation for Low-Power Three-Stage Amplifier with a Wide Range of Capacitive Loads

In this paper, a dual-Miller parallel compensation (DMPC) technique for low-power three-stage amplifier is presented with detailed theoretical analysis. A feedback network realized by capacitor and transconductance is added between the first and third stage, which improves significantly the performance when driving large capacitive loads. Furthermore, it is found to be stable for a wide range of capacitive loads. The proposed DMPC amplifier has been implemented in a 0.13-μm CMOS process and the chip area is 0.17×0.11 mm². It achieves a 0.87 MHz gain-bandwidth product by consuming a total current of 41 μA. The DMPC amplifier is verified to be stable when the load capacitor ranges from 8 pF to 2 nF.     

Design of low-power analog drivers based on slew-rate enhancement circuits for CMOS low-dropout regulators

Low-power analog driver based on a single-stage amplifier with an embedded current-detection slew-rate enhancement (SRE) circuit is presented. By developing a systematic way to design both the response time and optimal sizing of driving transistors in the SRE circuit, the SRE circuit can be controlled to turn on or turn off properly. In addition, the analog driver only dissipates low static power and its transient responses are significantly improved without transient overshoot when driving large capacitive loads. Implemented in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process, a current-mirror amplifier with the current-detection SRE circuit has achieved over 43 times improvement in both slew rate and 1% settling time when driving a 470-pF load capacitor. When the proposed analog driver is employed in a 50-mA CMOS low-dropout regulator (LDO), the resultant load transient response of the LDO has 2-fold improvement for the maximum load-current change, while the total quiescent current is only increased by less than 3%.     

CMOS low-voltage class-AB operational transconductance amplifier

The authors present a new low-voltage class-AB operational transconductance amplifier (OTA). The proposed OTA achieves a fast non slew-rate limited settling time with low power consumption. The circuit is power efficient when driving large capacitive loads. The OTA circuit is well suited for low-voltage low-power switched capacitor applications. Experimental results of the proposed circuit are included     

A Novel Frequency Compensation Technique for Three-Stage Amplifier

Multistage amplifiers are urgently needed with the advance in technology, due to the fact that single-stage cascode amplifier is no longer suitable in low-voltage designs. Moreover, the short-channel effects of the sub-micro CMOS transistor cause output-impedance degradation and hence the gain of an amplifier is reduced dramatically[1~6]. For multistage amplifiers, most of the compensation methods are based on pole splitting and pushing the right-half-plane zero to high frequencies or pole-ze…     

Advances in active-feedback frequency compensation with power optimization and transient improvement

This paper presents a low-power stability strategy to significantly reduce the power consumption of a three-stage amplifier using active-feedback frequency compensation (AFFC). The bandwidth of the amplifier can also be enhanced. Simulation results verify that the power dissipation of the AFFC amplifier is reduced by 43% and the bandwidth is improved by 32.5% by using the proposed stability strategy. In addition, a dynamic feedforward stage (DFS), which can be embedded into the AFFC amplifier to improve the transient responses without consuming extra power, is proposed. Implemented in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process, experimental results show that both AFFC amplifiers with and without DFS achieve almost the same small-signal performances while the amplifier with DFS improves both the negative slew rate and negative 1% settling time by two times.     

用于低功耗三级放大器的嵌套式密勒有源电容频率补偿技术

提出了一种新的用于低功耗,节省面积的三级放大器频率补偿技术.该技术将有源电容进行嵌套连接从而克服了传统的嵌套式密勒补偿与反嵌套式密勒补偿的缺点.当将这一技术用标准的0.35μm工艺设计成电路并负载150pF电容时,放大器实现了105dB直流增益,3.3M的增益带宽积,68°相位裕度以及2.56V/μs的平均转换速率.而这一切的实现是在2V电源电压仅消耗40μW的功耗以及使用了很小的补偿电容.     

CMOS low dropout linear regulator with single Miller capacitor

A 2-5V 150 mA CMOS low dropout (LDO) linear regulator with a single Miller capacitor of 4pF is presented. The proposed LDO regulator with a bandgap voltage reference has been fabricated in a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process and the active chip area is 485/spl times/586 /spl mu/m. The maximum output current is 150 mA and the regulated output voltage is 1.8 V.     

A high-performance all-enhancement NMOS operational amplifier

An NMOS operational amplifier has been designed and fabricated using only enhancement mode MOSFETs in a circuit that employs a novel feedforward compensation scheme. Specifications achieved include high open loop gain (2200), low-power (15 mW or less depending on the load), fast settling time (0.1 percent settling time in 3 /spl mu/s for a 4 V input step and a 10 pF load), and small area. While this amplifier uses only a small number of transistors, its performance is comparable to that of recent depletion load amplifiers. Fewer critical steps are needed to fabricate this amplifier, making it attractive for large analog/digital LSI circuits.     

高稳定性无片外电容低压差线性稳压器的设计

设计了一款无片外电容低压差线性稳压器(LDO),与传统的LDO相比,此LDO消除了传统结构中所需的片外电容,可更好地应用于全集成低功耗的片上系统(SoC)中。针对无片外电容LDO没有外部等效零点补偿这一特点,采用一种折叠输入推挽输出误差放大器结构,结合密勒补偿以及一阶RC串联零点补偿两种方案,有效地改善了无片外电容LDO的稳定性。电路采用SMIC0.18μm CMOS工艺实现,面积为0.11 mm2,最大负载电容100 pF,输入电压为1.8 V时,输出电压为1.5 V,静态电流31.8μA,压差为160 mV。     

An efficient CMOS buffer for driving large capacitive loads

A CMOS class AB high-drive buffer suitable for driving large capacitive and moderate resistive loads is presented. The buffer, designed using 3-/spl mu/m technology, occupies only 100 mils/SUP 2/ of area and dissipates 1.5 mW of DC power from a /spl plusmn/2.5-V supply, yet it is capable of driving a 5000-pF capacitor at over 100-kHz clocking frequency. The buffer achieves good slew rate and fast settling by entering into a high-drive state during slewing and returning to a low-power wide-band state during the settling period. Unconditional stability is attained when C/SUB L//spl ges/100 pF and R/SUB L//spl ges/10 k/spl Omega/. Total harmonic distortion is below 0.5% for over 70% of the full supply range.     

Three-stage large capacitive load amplifier withdamping-factor-control frequency compensation

A novel damping-factor-control frequency compensation (DFCFC) technique is presented in this paper with detailed theoretical analysis, This compensation technique improves frequency response, transient response, and power supply rejection for amplifiers, especially when driving large capacitive loads, Moreover, the required compensation capacitors are small and can be easily integrated in commercial CMOS process. Amplifiers using DFCPC and nested Miller compensation (NMC) driving two capacitive loads, 100 and 1000 pF, were fabricated using a 0.8-μm CMOS process with V_tn=0.72 V and V_tp=-0.75 V. For the DFCFC amplifier driving a 1000-pF load, a 1-MHz gain-bandwidth product, 51° phase margin, 0.33-V/μs slew rate, 3.54-μs settling time, and 426-μW power consumption are obtained with integrated compensation capacitors. Compared to the NMC amplifier, the frequency and transient responses of the DFCFC amplifier are improved by one order of magnitude with insignificant increase of the power consumption