Noise current feedforward for noise cancellation in the wideband transformer shunt feedback low noise amplifier

A noise current feedforward (NCF) technique for noise cancellation in the wideband transformer shunt feedback (TSF) low noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed. The NCF can detect and cancel the thermal noise of the TSF network. It is also suitable to cancel those noise contributed by the passive unilateral shunt feedback networks in common current mode LNAs. Implemented in SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS process and operated in the typical radio astronomy frequency range from 0.6 GHz to 1.6 GHz, the TSF LNA that employs the NCF shows approximately 0.2–0.5 dB lower noise figure than the overwhelming resistive shunt feedback LNA that exploits a conventional noise voltage feedforward technique when consuming the same power.     

10-Gb/s driver amplifier using a tapered gate line for improved input matching

The use of a tapered gate line in a distributed amplifier (DA) is investigated and applied to the design of a GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit 10-Gb/s optical driver amplifier. Improved input matching is achieved near the cutoff frequency by reducing the characteristic impedance successively along the gate line toward the termination. With the improved matching conditions, the voltage ripple on the final resistor termination is reduced. The degree of tapering that can be employed is limited by the low-frequency gain and matching requirements. Detailed analysis and simulation results are used to investigate the advantage of this technique. To demonstrate its practical use, the performance of a 10-Gb/s DA fabricated with Filtronic Compound Semiconductor's 0.5-/spl mu/m pseudomorphic high electron-mobility transistor technology is presented.     

Performance of a high-voltage DC amplifier for electrostatic levitation applications

High-voltage amplifiers as a means of amplifying the low-output voltage signals of the feedback controllers to the suspension voltages typically in the kilovolts range are often required for electrostatic force generation in electrostatic levitation. This paper proposes a high-voltage do amplifier including an amplitude modulator, a power amplifier, a step-up transformer, a pair of peak detectors, and a voltage feedback channel to stabilize the amplifier outputs in an effort to provide high suspension voltage and fast dynamic response. Since the various carrier frequencies have virtually no effect on the power consumption of the do amplifier by filtering out the high-frequency carrier components with peak detectors while keeping the input signal unaffected, satisfactory dynamic performance can be achieved by choosing a sufficiently high carrier frequency. The operating principle of the dc amplifier is analyzed, followed by an experimental performance evaluation and discussion for electrostatic levitation applications. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the high-voltage do amplifier over classical ac amplifiers in terms of dynamic response, force-voltage coefficient, voltage ripple, power consumption, and long-time stability using a carrier frequency of 30 kHz and the closed-loop control scheme.     

基才DC／DC开关稳压器的大功率LED恒流驱动设计

针对当前市面上DC／DCLED（发光二极管）专用恒流控制芯片价格高、不易购买的情况,阐述了基于市面常用DC／DC稳压器的高效率恒流稳压电源的通用设计方法,并给出了基于LM2596-ADJ开关稳压器的设计实例。与传统的恒压电源相比．电路增加了阻值很小的采样电阻以及由通用运算放大器组成的电压反馈回路和电流采样、放大反馈回路．同时增加了电压、电流反馈回路自动切换电路,使电路能根据负载大小在恒压和恒流模式之间自动切换。实验数据表明．基于该方法设计的LED恒流稳压电源恒流精度高,误差小于1％,效率超过87％,且电路工作稳定,元件取材广泛．价格低廉。     

A 20-/spl mu/W precision operational amplifier

A precision operational amplifier is described which draws 12 /spl mu/A of quiescent current and can operate from a 1.6-V supply while requiring no external components such as the usual biasing resistor. The amplifier has DC characteristics comparable to the industry standard OP-07 and AC characteristics as good as currently available micropower devices. The circuit has an input voltage range and an output swing which include the negative supply to facilitate its use in battery-powered and other single-supply applications.     

M.O.S. switched-capacitor amplifiers

Switched-capacitor voltage gain elements, in which the gain is precisely controlled by the ratio of two capacitors, are presented. The voltage gain is obtained by means of a transconductance element operating into a switched-capacitor resistor. Circuit configurations use a single operational amplifier or a unity-gain buffer. In some of these configurations, the offset voltage of the operational amplifier or the buffer is not amplified.     

Optimized transformer design: inclusive of high-frequency effects

Switching circuits, operating at high frequencies, have led to considerable reductions in the size of magnetic components and power supplies. Nonsinusoidal voltage and current waveforms and high-frequency skin and proximity effects contribute to power transformer losses. Traditionally, power transformer design has been based on sinusoidal voltage and current waveforms operating at low frequencies. The physical and electrical properties of the transformer form the basis of a new design methodology while taking full account of the current and voltage waveforms and high-frequency effects. Core selection is based on the optimum throughput of energy with minimum losses. The optimum core is found directly from the following transformer specifications: frequency; power output; and temperature rise. The design methodology is illustrated with a detailed design of a push-pull power converter     

On the limitations of transimpedance amplifiers as tools for low-frequency noise characterization

An experimental set-up for the characterization of low-frequency noise on two terminal devices is reported. The experimental set-up is based on the use of the commercial transimpedance amplifier (TA) EG&G5182. This paper addresses the influence of the TA on the noise characterization process by describing the TA as a non-ideal operational amplifier with a feedback resistor. The impact of the TA finite input resistance and voltage gain is highlighted through comparison with measurements carried out on resistors and diodes.     

Efficient Slew-Rate Enhanced Operational Transconductance Amplifier

Today, along with the prevalent use of portable equipment, wireless, and other battery powered systems, the demand for amplifiers with a high gain-bandwidth product (GBW), slew rate (SR), and at the same time very low static power dissipation is growing. In this work, an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with an enhanced SR is proposed. By inserting a sensing resistor in the input port of the current mirror in the OTA, the voltage drop across the resistor is converted into an output current containing a term in proportion to the square of the voltage, and then the SR of the proposed OTA is significantly enhanced and the current dissipation can be reduced. The proposed OTA is designed and simulated with a 0.5 m complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The simulation results show that the SR is 4.54 V/s, increased by 8.25 times than that of the conventional design, while the current dissipation is only 87.3%.     

A high-frequency two-switch forward converter with optimizedperformance

The analysis and design of a high-frequency two-switch forward converter topology with transformer flux balancing and extended duty cycle capability are presented. To improve converter performance, an auxiliary circuit connected in parallel with each power switch is proposed. This auxiliary circuit uses a low-power switch or a nonlinear resistor connected in series with a capacitor. As a result, the DC component of the magnetizing current is minimized, and the converter provides the means of recovering the energy associated with the parasitic inductances of the circuit components. Thus, higher than usual efficiency and higher operating frequencies are obtained. Experimental results are presented for a 4 kW, 40 kHz prototype unit     

基于电阻电流镜的低压灵敏放大器设计

提出一种适用于低压快闪存储器的电流模式的低压灵敏放大器.该灵敏放大器在基准电流产生电路中使用电阻电流镜代替传统的晶体管电流镜,使得基准电流产生电路的工作电压减少了一个阈值电压,从而降低灵敏放大器的工作电压.位线电压控制电路中运算放大器的使用减少了由于温度和工艺变化所引起的位线电压变化,进而提高读取操作的精度.采用中芯国际90nm工艺设计,提出的灵敏放大器在1.2V电源电压时的读取时间是14.7ns,相对于传统的结构,单个灵敏放大器的功耗被优化了13%.     

Calibration Technique for Maximum Power Harvest of Passive Wireless Microsystems

A calibration technique for maximizing radio-frequency power harvest of passive wireless microsystems with a step-up transformer is proposed. We show that both the impedance and resonant frequency of the step-up transformer matching network can be adjusted by varying the capacitance of a shunt varactor placed at the secondary winding of the transformer to maximize power transfer from the antenna to the transformer and the output voltage of the transformer subsequently the power efficiency of the voltage multiplier. A low-power current-mode tuning technique and a maximum peak amplitude detection technique to allocate the optimal tuning capacitance at which the maximum power harvest exists are introduced. The transformer matching network has been designed in IBM CMRF8SF 130-nm 1.2-V CMOS technology, and its performance is validated using both simulation and on-wafer measurement results.     

一种低漏感平面变压器

变压器的漏感是电磁干扰的主要来源之一,这是因为开关管在高速关断时,在变压器的漏感上产生感应电动势,叠加在变压器绕组的关断电压上,形成关断电压尖峰,这些电压尖峰不但造成电磁干扰,还会使开关管的电压应力增大,重者可能击穿开关管,并增大开关损耗,降低开关电源的效率。本文提出一种分布磁路结构的低漏感平面变压器,其原边绕组的匝数降低为一匝,副边绕组的等效匝数降低为小于一匝,因而漏感显著减小,这种分布磁路结构可以用于低压大电流电源的变压器,其有效性通过Maxwell 3D得到验证。     

Class E tuned power amplifier with shunt inductor

The `class E tuned power amplifier with a shunt inductor' is presented. It offers a DC-to-RF power conversion efficiency approaching 100 percent. The proposed circuit of the amplifier uses a shunt inductor instead of a shunt capacitor. The conditions for optimum operation are formulated and discussed. The following are determined: the waveforms, the fundamental-frequency components, the peak values of the collector current and voltage, the output power, and the values of the load network elements. Experimental results are also presented. The proposed amplifier circuit minimizes the power dissipated during the on-to-off transition, even if the switching time is an appreciable fraction of the signal period.     

Electronically tunable mutually coupled circuit using only two active components

A new circuit for realisation of the mutually coupled circuit, which is also called the synthetic transformer, is proposed. The proposed circuit uses two current controlled current conveyor transconductance amplifiers (CC-CCTAs), one grounded resistor and two grounded capacitors. The primary self-inductance, the secondary self-inductance and the mutual inductance can be independently controlled and can be tuned electronically by changing the biasing current of the CC-CCTAs. It uses two grounded capacitors which are suitable from the point of integrated circuit implementation. It has a good sensitivity performance with respect to tracking errors and passive components. The validity of the proposed circuit is demonstrated by PSpice simulations.     

A versatile power converter for high-frequency link systems

A single-phase high-frequency link appears to be an attractive alternative to the DC link commonly used in power conversion systems. The authors propose a power converter suitable for one-step conversion of the single-phase high-frequency link voltage to the three-phase low-frequency voltages typically required for interfacing with system sources and loads. The converter utilizes zero voltage switching principles to minimize switching losses and uses an easy-to-implement technique of pulse density modulation for the control of the amplitude, frequency, and waveshape of the synthesized low-frequency signals. Adaptation of the proposed topology for power conversion to single-phase AC and DC voltage or current outputs is shown to be straightforward. The feasibility of the proposed power circuit and the control technique have been experimentally verified     

A cellular-band CDMA 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS LNA linearized using active post-distortion

The theory of a linearization method using active post-distortion (APD) is explained for low-frequency and high-frequency applications. The low-frequency cancellation is explained in power series format and the high-frequency cancellation is explained in Volterra series format. The method is utilized for a cellular band (869-894 MHz) CDMA low-noise amplifier (LNA), which is implemented in 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The LNA achieves 1.2 dB NF, 16.2 dB power gain, and +8 dBm IIP3 while consuming 12 mA current from 2.6 V supply voltage. It shows 13.5 dB of IM3 product reduction with 0.15 dB NF penalty in comparison with an LNA which does not use the APD method.     

Fully Integrated CMOS Power Amplifier With Efficiency Enhancement at Power Back-Off

This paper presents a new approach for power amplifier design using deep submicron CMOS technologies. A transformer based voltage combiner is proposed to combine power generated from several low-voltage CMOS amplifiers. Unlike other voltage combining transformers, the architecture presented in this paper provides greater flexibility to access and control the individual amplifiers in a voltage combined amplifier. In this work, this voltage combining transformer has been utilized to control output power and improve average efficiency at power back-off. This technique does not degrade instantaneous efficiency at peak power and maintains voltage gain with power back-off. A 1.2 V, 2.4 GHz fully integrated CMOS power amplifier prototype was implemented with thin-oxide transistors in a 0.13 mum RF-CMOS process to demonstrate the concept. Neither off-chip components nor bondwires are used for output matching. The power amplifier transmits 24 dBm power with 25% drain efficiency at 1 dB compression point. When driven into saturation, it transmits 27 dBm peak power with 32% drain efficiency. At power back-off, efficiency is greatly improved in the prototype which employs average efficiency enhancement circuitry.     

Analysis and design of electronic transformers for electric powerdistribution system

A transformer performs many functions such as voltage transformation, isolation and noise decoupling, and it is an indispensable component in electric power distribution systems. However, at low frequencies (60/50 Hz), it is a bulky and expensive component. In this paper, the concept of electronic transformers is further extended and explored for its suitability in power distribution systems. It should be noted that from the input/output behavior, the electronic transformer and the conventional transformer are identical. Possible topologies employing static converters connected on the primary and secondary sides are explored to realize high-frequency operation of the magnetic core. To assist the commutation process, a four-step switching has been developed which does not require the use of snubbers. Reduced size, losses, higher efficiency, and better voltage regulation are some of the advantages of this approach. A 10 kVA design example along with experiment results are discussed. It is shown that a transformer designed with a conventional grain-oriented silicon-steel core can process three times the power at 1 kHz operating frequency as compared to 60 Hz. The proposed method is scalable in voltage/current with the currently available insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices connected in series without special snubbers     

A unity power factor resonant AC/DC converter for high-frequencyspace power distribution system

This paper presents analysis and design of a resonant AC/DC converter topology, suitable for use in an advanced single-phase, sine-wave voltage, high-frequency power distribution system of the type that was proposed for a 20 kHz space station primary electrical power distribution system. The converter comprises a transformer, a double-tuned resonant network comprising of series- and parallel-tuned branches, a controlled rectifier, and an output filter. Symmetrical phase control technique that generates fundamental AC current in phase with the input voltage is employed. Steady-state analysis of the converter in continuous current mode of operation is provided, and the performance characteristics presented. The proposed converter has close-to-unity rated power factor (greater than 0.98), a wide range of output voltage control (0%-100%), low total harmonic distortion in input current (less than 8%), and high conversion efficiency. Finally, selected experimental results of a bread-board converter are presented