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%.     

一种基于低压差线性稳压器的放大器设计

设计了一种静态电流约为0.6μA的运算跨导放大器电路,并已经成功地应用于一款超低静态电流的新一代低压差线性稳压器芯片中。此放大器的突出优点是与Foldback过流保护电路融合在一起,使得芯片不需要专门的限流模块,大大减少了器件与电流支路,极大地提高了电流利用率,实现了超低功耗。     

An ultra-low power output capacitor-less low-dropout regulator with slew-rate-enhanced circuit

An ultra-low power output-capacitorless low-dropout (LDO) regulator with a slew-rate-enhanced (SRE)circuit is introduced.The increased slew rate is achieved by sensing the transient output voltage of the LDO and then charging (or discharging) the gate capacitor quickly.In addition,a buffer with ultra-low output impedance is presented to improve line and load regulations.This design is fabricated by SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS technology.Experimental results show that,the proposed LDO regulator only consumes an ultra-low quiescent current of 1.2 μA.The output current range is from 10 μA to 200 mA and the corresponding variation of output voltage is less than 40 mV.Moreover,the measured line regulation and load regulation are 15.38 mV/V and 0.4 mV/mA respectively.     

Full On-Chip CMOS Low-Dropout Voltage Regulator

This paper proposes a solution to the present bulky external capacitor low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulators with an external capacitorless LDO architecture. The large external capacitor used in typical LDOs is removed allowing for greater power system integration for system-on-chip (SoC) applications. A compensation scheme is presented that provides both a fast transient response and full range alternating current (AC) stability from 0- to 50-mA load current even if the output load is as high as 100 pF. The 2.8-V capacitorless LDO voltage regulator with a power supply of 3 V was fabricated in a commercial 0.35-mum CMOS technology, consuming only 65 muA of ground current with a dropout voltage of 200 mV. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed capacitorless LDO architecture overcomes the typical load transient and ac stability issues encountered in previous architectures.     

A Transient-Enhanced Low-Quiescent Current Low-Dropout Regulator With Buffer Impedance Attenuation

This paper presents a low-dropout regulator (LDO) for portable applications with an impedance-attenuated buffer for driving the pass device. Dynamically-biased shunt feedback is proposed in the buffer to lower its output resistance such that the pole at the gate of the pass device is pushed to high frequencies without dissipating large quiescent current. By employing the current-buffer compensation, only a single pole is realized within the regulation loop unity-gain bandwidth and over 65deg phase margin is achieved under the full range of the load current in the LDO. The LDO thus achieves stability without using any low-frequency zero. The maximum output-voltage variation can be minimized during load transients even if a small output capacitor is used. The LDO with the proposed impedance-attenuated buffer has been implemented in a 0.35-mum twin-well CMOS process. The proposed LDO dissipates 20-muA quiescent current at no-load condition and is able to deliver up to 200-mA load current. With a 1-muF output capacitor, the maximum transient output-voltage variation is within 3% of the output voltage with load step changes of 200 mA/100 ns.     

一种低功耗无电容型LDO的设计

提出了一种片上集成的低功耗无电容型LDO(low drop out)电路。该电路采用折叠型cascode运放作为误差放大器,通过消除零点的密勒补偿技术提高了环路稳定性;并在电路中加入了一种新的限流保护结构以保证输出电流过大时对LDO的输出进行保护。此外,在电路中加入了省电模式,可在保持LDO输出1.8 V情况下节省大于70%的功耗。该设计采用HHNEC 0.13μmCMOS工艺,仿真结果显示:在2.5~5.5 V电源供电、各个工艺角及温度变化条件下,LDO输出的线性调整率小于2.3 mV/V,负载调整率小于14μV/mA,温度系数小于27×10-6/℃;在正常工作模式下,整个LDO消耗85μA电流;在省电模式下仅消耗23μA电流。     

一种CMOS单片LDO线性稳压器的设计

提出了一种单片集成的高电源抑制比LDO线性稳压器,主要应用于PLL中VCO和电荷泵的电源供给.该稳压器采用RC补偿方案,与其他补偿方法相比,RC补偿几乎不消耗额外电流.误差放大器采用折叠共源共栅结构,可以提供较高的电源抑制比,并且使得设计的LDO为两级放大器结构,有利于简化补偿网络.所设计的LDO在低频时电源抑制比(PSR)为一69 dB,在lMHz处的电源抑制比为-19 dB.采用0.35 μm工艺流片,测试结果表明,该LDO可以为负载提供70 mA的电流.     

An output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator with subthreshold slew-rate enhancement technique

A low power output-capacitor-free low-dropout (LDO) regulator, with subthreshold slew-rate enhancement technique, has been proposed and simulated using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process in this paper. By utilizing such a technique, proposed LDO is able to achieve a fast transient response. Simulation results verify that the recovery time is as short as 7 μs and the maximum undershoot and overshoot are as low as 55 mV and 30 mV, respectively. In addition, the slew-rate enhancement circuit works in the subthreshold region at steady state, and proposed LDO consumes a 46.4-μA quiescent current to provide a maximum 100-mA load with a minimum 0.2-V dropout voltage. Besides, excellent line and load regulations are obtained and the values are 0.37 mV/V and 2 μV/mA, respectively.     

基于高摆率误差放大器的无片外电容LDO设计

为了解决无片外电容低压差线性稳压器(LDO)的瞬态响应性能较差的问题,采用跨导提高技术设计了一种高摆率的误差放大器.在误差放大器的基础上,通过电容将LDO的输出端耦合至电流镜构建瞬态增强电路,提升LDO的瞬态响应能力,且瞬态增强电路可以引入两个左半平面零点,改善环路的稳定性.同时,误差放大器采用动态偏置结构,进一步减小...     

High slew rate current mode transconductance error amplifier for low quiescent current output-capacitorless CMOS LDO regulator

This paper presents a CMOS low quiescent current output-capacitorless low-dropout regulator (LDO) based on a high slew rate current mode transconductance amplifier (CTA) as error amplifier. Using local common-mode feedback (LCMFB) in the proposed CTA, the order of transfer characteristic of the circuit is increased. Therefore, the slew rate at the gate of pass transistor is enhanced. This improves the LDO load transient characteristic even at low quiescent current. The proposed LDO topology has been designed and post simulated in HSPICE in a 0.18 µm CMOS process to supply the load current between 0 and 100 mA. The dropout voltage of the LDO is set to 200 mV for 1.2–2 V input voltage. Post-layout simulation results reveal that the proposed LDO is stable without any internal compensation strategy and with on-chip output capacitor or lumped parasitic capacitances at the output node between 10 and 100 pF. The total quiescent current of the LDO including the current consumed by the reference buffer circuit is only 3.7 µA. A final benchmark comparison considering all relevant performance metrics is presented.     

A fully on-chip 1-μW capacitor-free low-dropout regulator with adaptive output stage

A fully on-chip 1-μW fast-transient response capacitor-free low-dropout regulator (LDO) using adaptive output stage (AOS) is presented in this paper in standard 0.13-μm CMOS process. The AOS circuit is proposed to deliver extra four times of output current of the operational amplifier at medium to heavy load to extend the bandwidth of the LDO and enhance the slew rate at the gate of the power transistor. And the AOS circuit is shut off at light load to reduce the quiescent current and maintain the stability without requiring area-consuming on-chip capacitor. Meanwhile, the proposed AOS circuit introduces V_OUT offset at medium to heavy load to counteract the V_OUT drop, which is caused by I_LOAD increase. Hence, transient performances of LDO and V_OUT drop between light load and full load are improved significantly with 1.1-μA quiescent current at light load. From the post simulation results, the LDO regulates the output voltage at 0.7 V from a 0.9-V supply voltage with a 100-mA maximum load current. The undershoot, the overshoot and the recovery time of the proposed LDO with I_LOAD switching from 50 μA to 100 mA in 1 μs are about 130 mV, 130 mV and 1.5 μs, respectively. And the V_OUT drop between light load and full load reduces to 0.16 mV.     

一种超低静态电流LDO线性稳压器的设计

为了延长便携式、可穿戴医疗设备的待机时间,设计了一种具有超低静态电流的低压差(LDO)线性稳压器。采用误差放大器与基准电路相结合的结构,在降低静态电流的同时减小芯片面积;其次,利用负载检测模块,降低了空载及轻载时过温保护和过流保护等模块的静态电流。采用自适应偏置电流技术来动态调整稳压环路各支路的工作电流以及零点频率补偿方式,解决了静态功耗与瞬态响应和环路带宽间的矛盾。该LDO线性稳压器采用0.35μm CMOS工艺进行流片加工,测试结果表明,该LDO线性稳压器静态电流为700 nA,最大负载电流为150 mA,轻载与满载跳变时上过冲电压为63 mV,下过冲电压为55 mV。     

LDO线性稳压器中高性能误差放大器的设计

设计了一个共源共栅运算跨导放大器,并成功地将其应用在一款超低功耗LDO线性稳压器芯片中。该设计提高了电源抑制比(PSRR),并具有较高的共模抑制比(CMRR)。电路结构简单,静态电流低。该芯片获得了高达99 dB的电源抑制比。     

0.13μm BiCMOS低压差线性稳压器

设计了一种0.13μm BiCMOS低压差线性稳压器(LDO),包括BiCMOS误差放大器、带软启动的BiCMOS带隙基准源、"套筒式"共源-共栅补偿电路等。为了改善线性瞬态响应性能,在BiCMOS误差放大器的前级设置了动态电流偏置电路。由于所设计的BiCMOS带隙基准源对温度的敏感性较小,故能为LDO提供高精度的基准电压。对所设计的LDO进行了工艺流片。流片测试结果表明,该LDO可提供60 mA的输出电流且最小压差只有100 mV。测试同时验证了所设计LDO的负载和瞬态响应都得到改善:负载调整率为0.054 mV/mA,线性调整率为0.014%,而芯片面积约为0.094 mm2,因此特别适用于高精度、便携式片上电源系统。     

一种采用共栅频率补偿的轨到轨输入/输出放大器

提出了一种采用共栅频率补偿的轨到轨输入/输出放大器,与传统的Miller补偿相比,该放大器不仅可以消除相平面右边的低频零点,减少频率补偿所需要的电容,还可获得较高的单位增益带宽.所提出的放大器通过CSMC 0.6μm CMOS数模混合工艺进行了仿真设计和流片测试:当供电电压为5V,偏置电流为20μA,负载电容为10pF时,其功耗为1.34mW,单位增益带宽为25MHz;当该放大器作为缓冲器,供电电压为3V,负载电容为150pF,输入2.66 Vpp10kHz正弦信号时,总谐波失真THD为-51.6dB.     

A 200 mA CMOS low-dropout regulator with double frequency compensation techniques for SoC applications

This paper presents a 200 mA low-dropout(LDO) linear regulator using two modified techniques for frequency compensation.One technique is that the error amplifier uses a common source stage with variable load, which is controlled by the output current,is served as the second stage for a stable frequency response.The other technique is that the LDO uses a pole-zero tracking compensation technique at the error amplifier to achieve a good frequency response.The proposed circuit was fabricated and tested in HJTC 0.18μm CMOS technology. The designed LDO linear regulator works under the input voltage of 2.8-5 V and provides up to 200 mA load current for an output voltage of 1.8 V.The total error of the output voltage due to line and load variation is less than 0.015%.The LDO die area is 630×550μm~2 and the quiescent current is 130μA.     

A robust low quiescent current power receiver for inductive power transmission in bio implants

In this paper, a robust low quiescent current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) power receiver for wireless power transmission is presented. This power receiver consists of three main parts including rectifier, switch capacitor DC–DC converter and low-dropout regulator (LDO) without output capacitor. The switch capacitor DC–DC converter has variable conversion ratios and synchronous controller that lets the DC–DC converter to switch among five different conversion ratios to prevent output voltage drop and LDO regulator efficiency reduction. For all ranges of output current (0–10 mA), the voltage regulator is compensated and is stable. Voltage regulator stabilisation does not need the off-chip capacitor. In addition, a novel adaptive biasing frequency compensation method for low dropout voltage regulator is proposed in this paper. This method provides essential minimum current for compensation and reduces the quiescent current more effectively. The power receiver was designed in a 180-nm industrial CMOS technology, and the voltage range of the input is from 0.8 to 2 V, while the voltage range of the output is from 1.2 to 1.75 V, with a maximum load current of 10 mA, the unregulated efficiency of 79.2%, and the regulated efficiency of 64.4%.     

Full on-chip and area-efficient CMOS LDO with zero to maximum load stability using adaptive frequency compensation

A full on-chip and area-efficient low-dropout linear regulator (LDO) is presented. By using the proposed adaptive frequency compensation (AFC) technique, full on-chip integration is achieved without compromising the LDO's stability in the full output current range. Meanwhile, the use of a compact pass transistor (the compact pass transistor serves as the gain fast roll-off output stage in the AFC technique) has enabled the LDO to be very area-efficient. The proposed LDO is implemented in standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology and occupies an active area as small as 220×320 μm~2, which is a reduction to 58% compared to state-of-the-art designs using technologies with the same feature size. Measurement results show that the LDO can deliver 0-60 mA output current with 54 μA quiescent current consumption and the regulated output voltage is 1.8 V with an input voltage range from 2 to 3.3 V.     

A 3 A sink/source current fast transient response low-dropout Gm driven linear regulator

A 3 A sink/source G_m-driven CMOS low-dropout regulator(LDO),specially designed for low input voltage and low cost,is presented by utilizing the structure of a current mirror G_m(transconductance)driving technique,which provides high stability as well as a fast load transient response.The proposed LDO was fabricated by a 0.5μm standard CMOS process,and the die size is as small as 1.0 mm~2.The proposed LDO dissipates 220μA of quiescent current in no-load conditions and is able to deliver up to 3 A of load current.The measured results show that the output voltage can be resumed within 2μs with a less than 1mV overshoot and undershoot in the output current step from-1.8 to 1.8 A with a 0.1μs rising and falling time at three 10μF ceramic capacitors.     

一种快速响应低压差线性稳压器的设计

介绍了一种应用于DRAM芯片内部供电的新型低压差线性稳压器(LDO)。在传统LDO电路PMOS输出驱动管的栅端增加了一个开关电容电路,根据负载电流使能信号控制耦合电容的接入,使驱动管的栅端耦合到一个正向或者负向的电压脉冲,在负载电流急剧变化时能快速调整过驱动电压,以适应负载电流的变化。仿真结果显示,该电路有利于输出电压的快速稳定,恢复时间缩短了38%以上。采用45 nm DRAM 掩埋字线工艺进行流片。实测结果显示,该LDO输出电压恢复时间在10 ns以内。在DDR3-1600的数据传输速度下,DRAM芯片的数据输出眼图为280 ps,符合JEDEC标准。