IC Voltage to Current Transducers with Very Small Transconductance

This paper deals with the design of very small ac transconductance voltage to current transducers intended for the design of low frequency continuous-time filters, very large resistors and other applications. The first type of Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTA) is based on a triode biased transistor and a current division technique. The second one uses partial positive feedback which allows to reduce transistor dimensions but the sensitivity to transistor mismatches increases. The proposed techniques can be used for the design of high-order low frequency IC filters, ladder or based on biquads, with moderated transistor dimensions while the dynamic range-cutoff frequency performance is comparable to previously reported structures. A 10 Hz third order lowpass ladder filter has been designed with these techniques, and it shows a dynamic range of 62 dB. Besides, a novel biasing technique for capacitive sources coupled preamplifiers is proposed. Experimental results for a prototype, fabricated in a 1.2 m 1 level below 15 _RMS and dynamic range of 63 dB. The power consumption is only 10 watts and the supply voltages are ± 1.5 volts.     

On-Chip Testing Techniques for RF Wireless Transceivers

This article describes a set of on-chip testing techniques and their application to integrated wireless RF transceivers. The objective is to reduce final product cost and accelerate time to market by providing means of testing the entire transceiver system as well as its major building blocks without using off-chip analog or RF instrumentation. On-chip test devices fabricated in a standard CMOS process and experimentally evaluated support the proposed test strategy.     

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 63 dB SNR, 75-mW Bandpass RF Σ∆ ADC at 950 MHz Using 3.8-GHz Clock in 0.25-μm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

A fourth-order continuous-time LC bandpass sigma-delta ADC is designed using a new architecture with only non-return-to-zero feedback DACs to mitigate problems associated with clock jitter, along with individual control of coefficients in the noise transfer function. The ADC performs direct digitization of RF signals around 950-MHz center frequency with a 3.8-GHz clock. The operation of the proposed ADC architecture is examined in detail and extra design parameters are introduced to enhance the operating range and improve the stability of the ADC. Measurement results of the ADC, implemented in IBM 0.25-mum SiGe BiCMOS technology, show SNR of 63 dB and 59 dB in signal bandwidths of 200 kHz and 1 MHz, respectively, around 950 MHz, while consuming 75 mW of power from plusmn1.25-V supply     

A 1.1 GHz Fifth Order Active-LC Butterworth Type Equalizing Filter

This paper describes architectural and design considerations for low power, GHz range wideband low-pass active filters. A series LC resonator based biquad is proposed and its power efficiency is shown to be over 7 times better than an equivalent Gm-C biquad. Reduced number of active elements and readily available bandpass and low-pass signals make this topology particularly suitable for efficient realization of equalizing functions. Also demonstrated is a common-mode feedback scheme that allows for a stable, high accuracy common-mode control with loop bandwidth which can exceed twice the filter's bandwidth. A fifth order active-LC Butterworth filter prototype is fabricated in a standard 0.18 CMOS technology. It provides a bandwidth of 1.1 GHz and features equalization gain programmable over a 0-23 dB range. It is experimentally verified to achieve 47 dB SNR and 48 dB IM3 with 250 mVpp swing while consuming 72 mW of power.     

Low-voltage low-power LVDS drivers

Two low-voltage low-power LVDS drivers used for high-speed point-to-point links are discussed. While the previously reported LVDS drivers cannot operate with low-voltage supplies, the proposed double current sources (DCS) LVDS driver and the switchable current sources (SCS) LVDS driver are suitable for low-voltage applications. Although static current consumption is greater than the minimum amount required by the signal swing, the DCS LVDS driver is simple and fast. The SCS LVDS driver, by dynamically switching the current sources, draws minimum static current and reduces the power consumption by 60% compared to previously reported realizations. Both drivers were fabricated in a standard 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process; they are compliant with LVDS standards and can operate at data rates up to gigabits-per-second.     

A 2.4-GHz monolithic fractional-N frequency synthesizer with robust phase-switching prescaler and loop capacitance multiplier

The design of a 2.4-GHz fully integrated /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ fractional-N frequency synthesizer in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process is presented. The design focuses on the prescaler and the loop filter, which are often the speed and the integration bottlenecks of the phase-locked loop (PLL), respectively. A 1.5-V 3-mW inherently glitch-free phase-switching prescaler is proposed. It is based on eight lower frequency 45/spl deg/-spaced phases and a reversed phase-switching sequence. The large integrating capacitor in the loop filter was integrated on chip via a simple capacitance multiplier that saves silicon area, consumes only 0.2 mW, and introduces negligible noise. The synthesizer has a 9.4% frequency tuning range from 2.23 to 2.45 GHz. It dissipates 16 mW and takes an active area of 0.35 mm/sup 2/ excluding the 0.5-mm/sup 2/ digital /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator.     

Continuous-time common-mode feedback for high-speed switched-capacitor networks

This paper deals with the design of a continuous-time common-mode feedback (CMFB) for switched-capacitor networks. Its reduced input capacitance decreases the capacitive load at the output of the fully differential amplifier, improving its achievable gain-bandwidth (GBW) product and slew rate. This topology is more suitable for high-speed switched-capacitor applications when compared to a conventional switched-capacitor CMFB, enabling operation at higher clock frequencies. Additionally, it provides a superior rejection to the negative power supply noise (PSRR/sup -/). The performance of the CMFB is demonstrated in the implementation of a second-order 10.7-MHz bandpass switched-capacitor filter and compared with that of an identical filter using the conventional switched-capacitor CMFB (SC-CMFB). The filter using the continuous-time CMFB reduces the error due to finite GBW and slew rate to less than 1% for clock frequencies up to 72 MHz while providing a dynamic range of 59 dB and a PSRR/sup -/>22 dB. Both circuits were fabricated in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology.     

Survey of Robustness Enhancement Techniques for Wireless Systems-on-a-Chip and Study of Temperature as Observable for Process Variations

Built-in test and on-chip calibration features are becoming essential for reliable wireless connectivity of next generation devices suffering from increasing process variations in CMOS technologies. This paper contains an overview of contemporary self-test and performance enhancement strategies for single-chip transceivers. In general, a trend has emerged to combine several techniques involving process variability monitoring, digital calibration, and tuning of analog circuits. Special attention is directed towards the investigation of temperature as an observable for process variations, given that thermal coupling through the silicon substrate has recently been demonstrated as mechanism to monitor the performances of analog circuits. Both Monte Carlo simulations and experimental results are presented in this paper to show that circuit-level specifications exhibit correlations with silicon surface temperature changes. Since temperature changes can be measured with efficient on-chip differential temperature sensors, a conceptual outline is given for the use of temperature sensors as alternative process variation monitors.     

Programmable switched-capacitor bump equalizer architecture

A versatile and economical switched-capacitor (SC) equalizing structure to compensate attenuation characteristics is presented. The monolithic SC bump equalizer has three operational amplifiers and six capacitor banks to independently control the center frequency, bandwidth, and peak voltage gain steps for the bump (and dip) frequency response. The bump equalizer has been integrated using 3-μm CMOS (p-well) technology and occupies an area of 3.36 mm², including an additional test amplifier and test buffer. The circuit operating from ±5-V power supplies typically dissipates 60 mW when sampled at 75 kHz