7-decade tuning range CMOS OTA-C sinusoidal VCO

A new operational transconductance amplifier-capacitor (OTA-C) based sinusoidal voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) has been designed and fabricated. The oscillation frequency of which can be tuned from 74 mHz to 1 MHz. The VCO uses a new OTA whose transconductance is adjusted by using a set of special current mirrors. These current mirrors operate in weak inversion and their gain can be controlled continuously through a gate voltage over many decades. This is the first report of such a wide tuning range for CMOS sinusoidal oscillators. Experimental results are provided     

A low-power, high-frequency, all-NMOS all-current-mirror sinusoidal quadrature oscillator

A low-power, high-frequency, sinusoidal quadrature oscillator is presented through the use of only current mirrors where the small-signal paths are realized through all NMOS transistors. The technique is relatively simple based on (i) inherent time constant of current mirrors, i.e. the internal capacitances and the transconductance of a diode-connected NMOS, (ii) a negative resistance formed by a transconductance of a diode-connected NMOS load of a current mirror. No external passive components are required. As a particular example, a 2.83 GHz, 0.374 f_T, 0.38 mW sinusoidal quadrature oscillator is demonstrated. Total harmonic distortions are less than 0.8%. The oscillation frequency is current-tunable over a range of 640 MHz or 22.62%. The amplitude matching and the quadrature phase matching are better than 0.04 dB and 0.17°, respectively. A figure of merit called a normalized carrier-to-noise ratio is 158.23 dBc/Hz at the 2 MHz offset from 2.83 GHz. Comparisons to other approaches are also presented.     

Dual-band ultra-wide tuning range CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator

A dual-band wide-tuning range LC CMOS voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) topology is proposed. Dual-band operation is realised by employing a double-tuned double-driven transformer as a resonator. The proposed approach eliminates MOS switches, which are typically used in multi-standard oscillators, and thus improves phase noise and tuning range characteristics. The concept is demonstrated through the design of an LC VCO in a standard 0.18 mum CMOS process. Two frequency bands are realised (2.4 and 6 GHz) with 740 MHz tuning range in the first band and 1.56 GHz tuning range in the second band. Operating from a 1.8 V supply, the VCO has a simulated phase noise of -119 dBc/Hz in the 2.4 GHz band and -110 dBc/Hz in the 6 GHz band at 600 KHz offset from the carrier     

A 5-GHz low-voltage and low-power CMOS LC voltage controlled oscillator for 802.11a wireless LAN applications

In this paper, a low phase noise and low power 5.15?GHz LC-tank VCO is presented and analysed. The phase noise achieved is??91,??116 and??126?dBc/Hz at 100?KHz, 1?MHz and 3?MHz offsets respectively from the carrier frequency of 5.15?GHz, with 1.8?V power supply voltage and giving a very low power consumption of about 2.5?mW by considering the proposed oscillator topology, which consumes less power than the classical oscillator using the traditional differential transconductor pair. A broad tuning range has been achieved by means of standard mode PMOS varactors. The tunability of the designed VCO covers 530?MHz, from 4.78?GHz up to 5.31?GHz. Predicted performance has been verified by analyses and simulations using ELDO-RF tool with 0.35?µm CMOS TSMC parameters.     

A CMOS low-voltage low-power temperature sensor

Temperature sensing circuits are used in a wide range of applications such as in the biomedical area, cold chain monitoring and industrial applications. In the biomedical area, temperature patient monitoring systems can be found in a wide range of hospital applications such as the intensive care unit, surgery rooms and clinical analysis. When the systems also incorporate also communication features, they form a telemedicine system in which the patients can be remotely monitored. The need of portability promotes a demand for sensors and signal conditioners that can be placed directly on the patient or even implanted. Implanted systems provide comfort for the patient during the physiologic data acquisition. These systems should operate preferably without a battery, in which the energy is obtained by inductive coupling (RF link). Implanted devices require low-voltage and low-power operation in a small silicon area in order to offer safety to the patient, mainly in terms of excessive exposure to RF. This work presents a low-voltage low-power temperature sensor, suitable for implanted devices. The circuit topology is based on the composite transistors operating in weak inversion, requiring extremely low current, at low-voltage (0.8 V), with just 100 nW power dissipation. The circuit is very simple and its implementation requires a small silicon area (0.062 mm²). The tests conducted in the prototypes validate the circuit operation.     

Microwave multidiode integral oscillator modules with a controlled range of varactor frequency tuning

Three-and six-diode integral oscillator modules were considered the designs of which ensure the possibility of electric tuning of both the output signal and the bandwidth of varactor frequency tuning. In addition, the six-diode oscillator module simultaneously ensures both the efficient combining of power of diodes with negative resistance at the level of semiconductor chips. Such oscillator modules are designed for operation in the centimeter and millimeter wavelength bands. The results of experimental investigations of prototypes of integral multidiode IMPATT-oscillator modules manufactured with due regard for the results of mathematical simulation were presented.     

Tunable MEMS LC resonator with large tuning range

A tunable resonator based on MEMS technology is reported. The resonator is a parallel LC type resonator, in which the capacitor is made up of two metal bridges and the inductor is made up of a shorted stub. The length of the shorted stub is changed by shunt DC contact switches and therefore inductance values of the resonator can be varied. As a result, the resonant frequency of the resonator can be shifted from 8 to 14 GHz with 75% tunable range. The whole size of the resonator is 6/spl times/0.9 mm/sup 2/.     

A 900-MHz 1.5-V CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator using switched resonators with a wide tuning range

A 900-MHz fully integrated VCO was fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m foundry CMOS process. Under 1.5 V power supply, this VCO can be tuned from 667 MHz to 1156 MHz which corresponds to a 53.6% tuning range. The VCO has nearly constant phase noise over the whole tuning frequency, credit to the switched resonators used in this VCO. The phase noise at a 600 kHz offset is -123.1 dBc/Hz at 1125 MHz center frequency and -124.2 dBc/Hz at 667 MHz center frequency.     

A low-power voltage-controlled oscillator with current-switched technique

A low-power voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with current-switched technique is presented. The circuit is implemented in 0.18-μm CMOS technology. In the design, a large inductor is used for low-power and low-phase-noise application, whereas a switched capacitor bank and two pairs of MOS varactors are adopted for coarse tuning and fine tuning respectively. The proposed VCO is biased at the boundary of the current and voltage limited region for a good trade-off between power consumption and phase noise. The phase noise of the proposed VCO is reduced in each sub-band by a current-switched technique, and a phase noise improvement of as much as 2.75 dB has been achieved. The proposed VCO has a measured tuning range of 15.2 % from 4.34 to 5.05 GHz and dissipates an average power of 3.78 mW at 1.2 V supply voltage, whereas its measured phase noise and figure of merit FOM_T are ?113.0 dBc/Hz and ?183.7 at 1 MHz offset from the frequency of 4.36 GHz respectively.     

Method of improving tuning range obtained from a varactor-tuned Gunn oscillator

The letter proposes that the technique of reactance compensation, previously applied successfully to improve the bandwidth of parametric amplifiers, can be applied to varactor-tuned oscillators, such as Gunn oscillators, with significant improvement in the electronic-tuning range.     

A low-voltage 40-GHz complementary VCO with 15% frequency tuning range in SOI CMOS technology

The design of a low-voltage 40-GHz complementary voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with 15% frequency tuning range fabricated in 0.13-/spl mu/m partially depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technology is reported. Technological advantages of SOI over bulk CMOS are demonstrated, and the accumulation MOS (AMOS) varactor limitations on frequency tuning range are addressed. At 1.5-V supply, the VCO core and each output buffer consumes 11.25 mW and 3 mW of power, respectively. The measured phase noise at 40-GHz is -109.73 dBc/Hz at 4-MHz offset from the carrier, and the output power is -8 dBm. VCO performance using high resistivity substrate (/spl sim/300-/spl Omega//spl middot/cm) has the same frequency tuning range but 2 dB better phase noise compared with using low resistivity substrate (10 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm). The VCO occupies a chip area of only 100 /spl mu/m by 100 /spl mu/m (excluding pads).     

A reduced-area low-power low-voltage single-ended differential pair

In analog very large scale integration (VLSI), a high computational density is important. Area savings can be obtained by operating the MOS transistor in the triode region, thus exploiting its symmetrical nature. Applying this theory to a single-ended differential pair results in an area reduction of up to a factor 1.5, which can be significant, e.g., for neural networks, where the basic cells are repeated many times on a single chip. The proposed circuit also has advantages with respect to low-power and low-voltage operation     

A low-voltage low-power current-mode high-pass leapfrog filter

A low-power bipolar continuous-time low-frequency high-pass second-order Butterworth filter is presented that works in the current domain and operates from a single 1.3-V battery. The filter contains two adjustable integrators. These integrators are realized by means of a capacitance and an adjustable transconductance amplifier with an indirect output. The complete filter, including all capacitances needed, can be integrated in an ordinary full-custom IC process. A semicustom realization is shown. The filter demonstrates operation down to 1 V with less than 16µW power consumption and a dynamic range of 50 dB. Its cutoff frequency can be exponentially tuned with a control current over a range from 100 Hz to 1 kHz.     

基于单个CDCTA的低压电控调谐电流模式多相位正弦振荡器的设计

提出了一种全新的电流模式多相位正弦振荡器电路。该电路仅使用一个电流差分级联跨导放大器(CDCTA)和接地无源元件,能产生n(n为奇或偶)个等相位差的电流信号,电路结构简单、工作电压低、输出阻抗高、振荡频率高,而且振荡条件和振荡频率独立可调。计算机CADENCE软件仿真和流片测试结果验证了理论分析的正确性。     

A low-voltage, low-power CMOS delay element

A low-voltage, low-power CMOS delay element is proposed. With a unit CMOS inverter load, a delay from 2.6 ns to 76.3 ms is achieved in 0.8 μm CMOS technology. Based on a CMOS thyristor concept, the delay value of the proposed element can be varied over a wide range by a control current. The inherent advantage of a CMOS thyristor in low voltage domains enables this delay element to work down to the supply voltage of 1 V while the threshold voltage of the nMOS and pMOS transistors are 840 mV and -770 mV, respectively. The designed delay value is less sensitive to supply voltage and temperature variation than RC-based or CMOS inverter-based delay elements. Temperature compensation and jitter performance in a noisy environment are also discussed     

A log-domain multiphase sinusoidal oscillator

A novel multiphase sinusoidal oscillator topology, realized by employing the concept of log-domain filtering, is introduced in this paper. The realization of the oscillator's topology is achieved by establishing a loop constructed from an inverting and non-inverting log-domain lossy integrators. Attractive benefits offered by the novel topology are the ability for independent electronic tuning of the condition of oscillation and the frequency of oscillation, and the ability for realizing both even- and odd-order oscillators without any manipulation of the basic configuration. The operation of the proposed oscillator has been verified through simulation results.     

A comparative analysis of low-power low-voltage dual-edge-triggered flip-flops

This paper compares four previously published static dual-edge-triggered flip-flops (DETFFs) with a proposed design for their performance, power dissipation, and low-voltage low-power applications. For each DETFF, the optimal delay, power consumption, and power-delay product are determined as the primary figures of merit. The proposed design is shown to have the least energy at low voltages.     

A reconfigurable OTA-C baseband filter with wide digital tuning for GNSS receivers

The design of a digitally-tunable sixth-order reconfigurable OTA-C filter in a 0.18-μm RFCMOS process is proposed.The filter can be configured as a complex band pass filter or two real low pass filters.An improved digital automatic frequency tuning scheme based on the voltage controlled oscillator technique is adopted to compensate for process variations.An extended tuning range(above 8:1) is obtained by using widely continuously tunable transconductors based on digital techniques.In the complex band pas...