Square‐root domain linear transformation filters

A new systematic method for designing square‐root domain (SRD) linear transformation (LT) filter is introduced in this paper. For this purpose, a substitution table containing the SRD LT equivalent of each passive element has been introduced. The proposed equivalents have been realized by employing appropriate SRD building blocks with low‐voltage operation capability. As a design example, a 3rd‐order SRD LT filter has been realized and its performance has been evaluated through simulation results. In addition, the most important performance factors of the SRD filter have been compared with those achieved by the SRD filters derived according to the leapfrog, wave, and topological emulation methods. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Realization of log‐domain high‐order transfer functions using first‐order building blocks and complementary operators

High‐order log‐domain filters could be easily designed by using the functional block diagram (FBD) representation of the corresponding linear prototype and a set of complementary operators. For this purpose, lossy and lossless integrator blocks have been already introduced in the literature. Novel first‐order log‐domain highpass and allpass filter configurations, which are fully compatible with the already published integrator blocks, are introduced in this paper. These are realized using integration and subtraction blocks or a novel differentiation configuration. As a result, a complete set of first‐order building blocks would be available for synthesizing any arbitrary high‐order transfer function. In order to verify the correct operation of the proposed structures, the performance of the introduced highpass filters was evaluated through simulation results. In addition, a fifth‐order log‐domain bandpass filter was designed and simulated using one of the introduced first‐order highpass filter configurations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the transposition of Gm–C filters to DC stabilized log‐domain filters

High‐order log‐domain filters could be designed by transposing the already known linear‐domain G_m–C filter topologies to the corresponding topologies in the log‐domain. This is achieved by using a non‐linear transconductor configuration, where the output current is exponentially related to its input and output voltages. A drawback of the non‐linear transconductor configuration already introduced in the literature is that a number of the transposed log‐domain filter topologies suffer from DC instability, while in some others a DC offset current appears at their output. In order to eliminate the aforementioned problems a modified non‐linear transconductor configuration for transposing G_m–C filter topologies to log‐domain filter topologies is introduced in this paper. The achieved improvements are demonstrated through a number of log‐domain filter configurations derived using the already introduced and the proposed transposition schemes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Square‐root domain wave filters

In this paper the wave method is used for designing high‐order square‐root domain filters, which emulate the topology of the corresponding LC ladder prototypes. This is achieved by transposing the signal flow graph that corresponds to the wave equivalent of the elementary two‐port subnetwork in the linear domain to the corresponding one in the square‐root domain, by employing an appropriate set of complementary operators. As the equivalents of the other reactive elements are derived from the wave equivalent of the elementary subnetwork, by interchanging the terminals of the appropriate wave signals and/or using inverters, an advantage offered by the proposed technique is the modularity of the derived filter configurations. As an example, a fifth‐order lowpass square‐root domain wave filter was designed and its behaviour was studied through simulation results in order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed design technique. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design of square‐root domain filters by substituting the passive elements of the prototype filter by their equivalents

A novel technique for designing square‐root domain (SRD) filters is introduced in this paper. The concept of the proposed method is based on the substitution of the passive elements of the corresponding prototype filter by their SRD equivalents. The signal processing performed by the proposed SRD equivalents achieves that the voltage at each terminal of the SRD equivalent is the compressed version of the voltage at the corresponding terminal of the passive element, and that the current that flows through the SRD equivalent is the same as that flows through the passive element. The main attractive characteristic of the proposed method is that a quick procedure for designing SRD filters is offered. The validity of the proposed technique was verified by studying the behaviour of a 5th‐order SRD low‐pass filter. In order to demonstrate the benefits offered by the proposed technique, a SRD leapfrog filter was also designed and its performance is compared with that of the active filter that topologically simulates the same prototype filter. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1.5 V square‐root domain universal biquad filters

Square‐root domain universal biquad topologies are introduced in this paper. One of them is single input multiple output, while the other one is multiple input single output biquad. Important benefits offered by the proposed topologies are the electronic adjustment of the resonant frequency and the capability for operating in a low‐voltage environment; also, the resonant frequency could be adjusted without disturbing the Q factor and vice‐versa. Simulation results using the Spectre simulator of the Analog Design Environment of Cadence software validate the correct operation of the proposed topologies and provide important performance characteristics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wave log‐domain filters using lattice sections

In this paper, the design of log‐domain filters with uncommon transfer functions is considered, using the wave log‐domain design method. To this end, the concept of log‐domain wave equivalent of a lattice section is introduced, as a new building block, in order to enable the design of filters with transfer functions dealing with amplitude and phase response at the same time. This building block is very useful when the phase and the group delay response of the filter is significant. The functionality of this design approach is verified through a design example and simulation results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current‐mode filters based on current mirror arrays

A technique is proposed for obtaining current‐mode filters based on current mirror arrays that operate as unity gain current amplifiers. These amplifiers by properly driving capacitors realize active lossless integrators which are the basic active elements for the derivation of filters according to the leapfrog method. Due to the fact that both the structure of the amplifiers and the adapted method for filter design are simple, the proposed technique is attractive for filter design and implementation. A design and the implementation of two third‐order low‐pass filters are presented. The array of the amplifiers has been implemented in a 0.8 µm CMOS technology. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A DC stabilized log‐domain nth‐order multifunction filter based on the decomposition of nth‐order HP filter function to FLF topology

The design of high‐order log‐domain filters can be easily accomplished by transposing already known linear‐domain G_m‐C filter topologies to their counterparts in the log‐domain through the employment of a set of complementary operators. To achieve the G_m‐C filter topologies, the multiple feedback approach is widely used due to its accrued advantages. In this paper a synthesis approach for the development of an nth‐order multifunction log‐domain filter comprising lowpass (LP), highpass (HP) and bandpass (BP) filter functions is proposed. The approach is based on the decomposition of nth‐order HP filter function to follow‐the‐leader‐feedback (FLF) topology. The design is simple and simultaneously achieves nearly all of the chief advantages. The design offers superior performance factors vis‐à‐vis the ones recently reported. To verify the high‐order behavior of the topology, a 5th‐order multifunction filter was designed and the achieved simulated results verify the theory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Explicit design formulas for current‐mode leap‐frog OTA‐C filters and 300 MHz CMOS seventh‐order linear phase filter

The leap‐frog (LF) configuration is an important structure in analogue filter design. Voltage‐mode LF OTA‐C filters have recently been studied in the literature; however, general explicit formulas do not exist for current‐mode LF OTA‐C filters and there is also need for current‐mode LF‐based OTA‐C structures for realization of arbitrary transmission zeros. Three current‐mode OTA‐C structures are presented, including the basic LF structure and LF filters with an input distributor or an output summer. They can realize all‐pole characteristics and functions with arbitrary transmission zeros. Explicit design formulas are derived directly from these structures for the synthesis of, respectively, all‐pole and arbitrary zero filter characteristics of up to the sixth order. The filter structures are regular and the design formulas are straightforward to use. As an illustrative example, a 300 MHz seventh‐order linear phase low‐pass filter with zeros is presented. The filter is implemented using a fully differential linear operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) based on a source degeneration topology. Simulations in a standard TSMC 0.18µm CMOS process with 2.5 V power supply have shown that the cutoff frequency of the filter ranges from 260 to 320 MHz, group delay ripple is about 4.5% over the whole tuning range, noise of the filter is 420nA/√Hz, dynamic range is 66 dB and power consumption is 200 mW. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fractional‐order electronically controlled generalized filters

Novel topologies of fractional‐order generalized filters are introduced in this paper. These offer the following benefits: (1) realization of lowpass, highpass, bandpass, allpass, or bandstop filter functions by the same topology; (2) resistorless realizations; (3) electronic adjustment of their frequency characteristics as well as their order; and (4) employment of only grounded capacitors. All the above have been achieved using Operational Transconductance Amplifiers as active elements and appropriate multi‐feedback topologies. The behavior of the proposed designs is verified through simulation results using the Cadence IC design suite and the Design Kit provided by the Austrian Micro Systems 0.35‐µm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Balanced Gm‐C filters with improved linearity and power efficiency

A novel G_m‐C filter design technique is presented. It is based on floating‐gate metal oxide semiconductor (FGMOS) transistors and consists in a topological rearrangement of conventional fully differential G_m‐C structures without modifying the employed transconductors at transistor level. The proposed method allows decreasing the number of active elements (transconductors) of the filter. Moreover, high linearity is obtained at low and medium frequencies of the pass band. Drawbacks inherent to the use of FGMOS transistors are analyzed, such as large occupied area, high sensitivity to mismatch, or parasitic zeros in transfer functions. The features of the proposed technique are fully exploited in all‐pole G_m‐C filter design, specially implementing unity gain Butterworth transfer functions. Thus, two low‐power second‐order Butterworth G_m‐C filters have been designed and fabricated to compare the proposed FGMOS technique with their equivalent topologies obtained by a conventional design method. Measurement results for a test chip prototype in a 0.5‐µm standard complementary MOS process are presented, confirming the advantages of the proposed FGMOS design technique. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bandwidth extension,linearity enhancement,and cost reduction techniques for continuous‐time channel‐select filters

Achieving a wide bandwidth in a conventional active‐RC filter requires large power consumption and is often accompanied by significant performance degradation. In this paper, a new structure to implement active‐RC continuous‐time filters and also a new frequency compensation scheme for the operational amplifiers that are the main building blocks of active‐RC filters are proposed. Exploiting these techniques increases the maximum possible bandwidth with lower power consumption in comparison with the conventional architectures, reduces die area, and enhances the dynamic range. The effectiveness of these methods has been verified by analysis and simulation of the conventional and proposed filters under identical conditions. Both the analytical investigations and extensive simulation results prove that the adopted techniques improve the performance of continuous‐time filters considerably in terms of bandwidth and linearity while reducing the die area. Simulations have been carried out in a standard 90‐nm CMOS process by using Advanced Design System (ADS), and the proposed filter features 11.08‐dB spurious‐free dynamic range improvement and 5.9 times bandwidth enhancement. Also, the total on‐chip capacitance is made 2.4 times smaller by using the new biquad structure. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simulation study of high‐order CMOS hyperbolic‐sine filters

This paper advances the field of externally linear–internally nonlinear (ELIN) filters by introducing a synthesis method that enables the design of high‐order class‐AB sinh filters by means of complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) weak‐inversion sinh integrators comprising only one type of devices in their translinear loops. The proposed transistor‐level synthesis approach is demonstrated through the examples of (1) a biquadratic and (2) a fifth‐order filter, and their simulated performance is studied. The biquadratic filter achieves a dynamic range of 94 dB and has a tunable quality factor Q up to the value of 8, whereas its natural frequency can be tuned for four orders of magnitude. Its static power consumption amounts to 6.2 μW for Q = 1 and f_o = 2 kHz. The fifth‐order Chebyshev sinh CMOS filter with a cut‐off frequency of 100 Hz, a pass band ripple of 1 dB, and a power consumption of ~300 nW is compared head‐to‐head with its pseudo‐differential class‐AB CMOS log domain counterpart. The sinh filter achieves similar or better signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and signal‐to‐noise‐plus‐distortion ratio (SNDR) performances with half the capacitor area but at the expense of higher power consumption from the same power supply level. All three presented filter topologies are novel. Cadence design framework simulations have been performed using the commercially available 0.35 µm AMS (austriamicrosystems) process parameters. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design of Sinh‐Domain filters using complementary operators

A new systematic method for designing Sinh‐Domain filters is introduced in this paper. This is achieved by employing an appropriate set of complementary operators, in order to transpose the conventional functional block diagram representation of each linear operation to the corresponding one into the Sinh‐Domain. The proposed method offers the benefits of facilitating the design procedure of high‐order Sinh‐Domain filters and of the absence of any restriction concerning the type and/or the order of the realized filter function. As an example, a third‐order Sinh‐Domain leapfrog filter is designed by employing the proposed set of operators. Two possible realizations are given and their performance has been evaluated and compared through simulation results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the dynamics of log‐domain circuits

Log‐domain filters are an intriguing form of externally linear, internally nonlinear current‐mode circuits, in which a compression stage is first used to convert the input currents to the logarithmic domain, then analogue processing is carried out on the resulting voltages, and finally input–output linearity is restored by mapping the output voltages to current form through an expansion stage. The compressing and expanding operations confer on log‐domain filters a number of desirable features, but they may be responsible for the loss of external linearity. In this paper, sufficient conditions for the external linearity of log‐domain LC‐ladders are established, and the local nature of this external linearity is highlighted. Certain log‐domain LC‐ladders employing floating capacitors may exhibit externally nonlinear behaviour even for zero input and very small initial conditions. We show how transistor parasitic capacitances are central to the emergence of this behaviour, and must be incorporated in the circuit model. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On oscillation‐based test structures of active RC filters

The recently proposed oscillation‐based test structures of active RC filters assume ideal opamps and test switches. In this letter, feasibility case study of the oscillation‐based test structure of the resonant bandpass filter is presented in which non‐ideal characteristics of the employed opamps and MOS switches are considered. Based on the dominant pole model for the opamps, we derive expression for the minimum value of the resistance required to put the filter stage into oscillation and expression for the frequency of the undamped pole. Derived expressions describe the conditions for the implementation of the oscillation‐based test in practice. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low‐power,low‐noise,active‐RC band‐pass filters using a ‘lossy’ LP–BP transformation

A new and straightforward design procedure for simple canonical topologies of allpole, active‐RC, low‐selectivity band‐pass (BP) filters, with low sensitivity to component tolerances is presented. The procedure is primarily intended for discrete‐component, low‐power filter applications using just one amplifier for relatively high‐order filters. The design procedure starts out with an ‘optimized’ low‐pass (LP) prototype filter, yielding an ‘optimized’ BP filter, whereby the wealth of ‘optimized’ single‐amplifier LP filter designs can be exploited. Using a so‐called ‘lossy’ LP–BP transformation, closed‐form design equations for the design of second‐ to eighth‐order, single‐amplifier BP filters are presented. The low sensitivity, low power consumption, and low noise features of the resulting circuits, as well as the influence of the finite gain‐bandwidth product and component spread, are demonstrated for the case of a fourth‐order filter example. The optimized single‐opamp fourth‐order filter is compared with other designs, such as the cascade of optimized Biquads. Using PSpice with a TL081 opamp model, the filter performance is simulated and the results compared and verified with measurements of a discrete‐component breadboard filter using 1% resistors, 1% capacitors, and a TL081 opamp. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical synthesis and comparison of voltage‐mode Nth‐order OTA‐C universal filter structures

Complementary single‐ended‐input operational transconductance amplifier (OTA)‐based filter structures are introduced in this paper. Through two analytical synthesis methods and two transformations, one of which is to convert a differential‐input OTA to two complementary single‐ended‐input OTAs, and the other to convert a single‐ended‐input OTA and grounded capacitor‐based one to a fully differential OTA‐based one, four distinct kinds of voltage‐mode nth‐order OTA‐C universal filter structures are proposed. TSMC H‐Spice simulations with 0.35µm process validate that the new complementary single‐ended‐input OTA‐based one holds the superiority in output precision, dynamic and linear ranges than other kinds of filter structures. Moreover, the new voltage‐mode band‐pass, band‐reject and all‐pass (except the fully differential one) biquad structures, all enjoy very low sensitivities. Both direct sixth‐order universal filter structures and their equivalent three biquad stage ones are also simulated and validated that the former is not absolutely larger in sensitivity than the latter. Finally, a very sharp increment of the transconductance of an OTA is discovered as the operating frequency is very high and leads to a modified frequency‐dependent transconductance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.