11 research outputs found
A Novel (DDCC-SFG)-Based Systematic Design Technique of Active Filters
This paper proposes a novel idea for the synthesis of active filters that is based on the use of signal-flow graph (SFG) stamps of differential difference current conveyors (DDCCs). On the basis of an RLC passive network or a filter symbolic transfer function, an equivalent SFG is constructed. DDCCsâ SFGs are identified inside the constructed âactiveâ graph, and thus the equivalent circuit can be easily synthesized. We show that the DDCC and its âderivativesâ, i.e. differential voltage current conveyors and the conventional current conveyors, are the main basic building blocks in such design. The practicability of the proposed technique is showcased via three application examples. Spice simulations are given to show the viability of the proposed technique
Novel active function blocks and their applications in frequency filters and quadrature oscillators
KmitoÄtovĂ© filtry a sinusoidnĂ oscilĂĄtory jsou lineĂĄrnĂ elektronickĂ© obvody, kterĂ© jsou pouĆŸĂvĂĄny v ĆĄirokĂ© oblasti elektroniky a jsou zĂĄkladnĂmi stavebnĂmi bloky v analogovĂ©m zpracovĂĄnĂ signĂĄlu. V poslednĂ dekĂĄdÄ pro tento ĂșÄel bylo prezentovĂĄno velkĂ© mnoĆŸstvĂ stavebnĂch funkÄnĂch blokĆŻ. V letech 2000 a 2006 na Ăstavu telekomunikacĂ, VUT v BrnÄ byly definovĂĄny univerzĂĄlnĂ proudovĂœ konvejor (UCC) a univerzĂĄlnĂ napÄt'ovĂœ konvejor (UVC) a vyrobeny ve spoluprĂĄci s firmou AMI Semiconductor Czech, Ltd. OvĆĄem, stĂĄle existuje poĆŸadavek na vĂœvoj novĂœch aktivnĂch prvkĆŻ, kterĂ© nabĂzejĂ novĂ© vĂœhody. HlavnĂ pĆĂnos prĂĄce proto spoÄĂvĂĄ v definici dalĆĄĂch pĆŻvodnĂch aktivnĂch stavebnĂch blokĆŻ jako jsou differential-input buffered and transconductance amplifier (DBTA), current follower transconductance amplifier (CFTA), z-copy current-controlled current inverting transconductance amplifier (ZC-CCCITA), generalized current follower differential input transconductance amplifier (GCFDITA), voltage gain-controlled modified current-feedback operational amplifier (VGC-MCFOA), a minus-type current-controlled third-generation voltage conveyor (CC-VCIII-). PomocĂ navrĆŸenĂœch aktivnĂch stavebnĂch blokĆŻ byly prezentovĂĄny pĆŻvodnĂ zapojenĂ fĂĄzovacĂch ÄlĂĄnkĆŻ prvnĂho ĆĂĄdu, univerzĂĄlnĂ filtry druhĂ©ho ĆĂĄdu, ekvivalenty obvodu typu KHN, inverznĂ filtry, aktivnĂ simulĂĄtory uzemnÄnĂ©ho induktoru a kvadraturnĂ sinusoidnĂ oscilĂĄtory pracujĂcĂ v proudovĂ©m, napÄt'ovĂ©m a smĂĆĄenĂ©m mĂłdu. ChovĂĄnĂ navrĆŸenĂœch obvodĆŻ byla ovÄĆena simulacĂ v prostĆedĂ SPICE a ve vybranĂœch pĆĂpadech experimentĂĄlnĂm mÄĆenĂm.Frequency filters and sinusoidal oscillators are linear electric circuits that are used in wide area of electronics and also are the basic building blocks in analogue signal processing. In the last decade, huge number of active building blocks (ABBs) were presented for this purpose. In 2000 and 2006, the universal current conveyor (UCC) and the universal voltage conveyor (UVC), respectively, were designed at the Department of Telecommunication, BUT, Brno, and produced in cooperation with AMI Semiconductor Czech, Ltd. There is still the need to develop new active elements that offer new advantages. The main contribution of this thesis is, therefore, the definition of other novel ABBs such as the differential-input buffered and transconductance amplifier (DBTA), the current follower transconductance amplifier (CFTA), the z-copy current-controlled current inverting transconductance amplifier (ZC-CCCITA), the generalized current follower differential input transconductance amplifier (GCFDITA), the voltage gain-controlled modified current-feedback operational amplifier (VGC-MCFOA), and the minus-type current-controlled third-generation voltage conveyor (CC-VCIII-). Using the proposed ABBs, novel structures of first-order all-pass filters, second-order universal filters, KHN-equivalent circuits, inverse filters, active grounded inductance simulators, and quadrature sinusoidal oscillators working in the current-, voltage-, or mixed-mode are presented. The behavior of the proposed circuits has been verified by SPICE simulations and in selected cases also by experimental measurements.
Log-domain electronically-tuneable fully differential high order multi-function filter
This paper presents the synthesis of fully deferential circuit that is capable of performing simultaneous high-pass, low-pass, and band-pass filtering in the log domain. The circuit utilizes modified Seevinckâs integrators in the current mode. The transfer function describing the filter is first presented in the form of a canonical signal flow graph through applying Masonâs gain formula. The resulting signal flow graph consists of summing points and pick-off points associated with current mode integrators within unity-gain negative feedback loops. The summing points and the pick-off points are then synthesized as simple nodes and current mirrors, respectively. A new fully differential current-mode integrator circuit is proposed to realize the integration operation. The proposed integrator uses grounded capacitors with no resistors and can be adjusted to work as either lossless or lossy integrator via tuneable current sources. The gain and the cutoff frequency of the integrator are adjustable via biasing currents. Detailed design and simulation results of an example of a 5th order filter circuit is presented. The proposed circuit can perform simultaneously 5th order low-pass filtering, 5th order high-pass filtering, and 4th order band-pass filtering. The simulation is performed using Pspice with practical Infineon BFP649 BJT model. Simulation results show good matching with the target
Mixed-Mode Third-Order Quadrature Oscillator Based on Single MCCFTA
This paper presents a new mixed-mode third-order quadrature oscillator based on new modified current-controlled current follower transconductance amplifier (MCCFTA). The proposed circuit employs one MCCFTA as active element and three grounded capacitors as passive component which is highly suitable for integrated circuit implementation. The condition and frequency of oscillations can be controlled orthogonally and electronically by adjusting the bias currents of the active device. The circuit provides four quadrature current outputs and two quadrature voltage outputs into one single topology, which can be classified as mixed-mode oscillator. In addition, four quadrature current output terminals possess high-impedance level which can be directly connected to next stage without additional buffer circuits. The performance of the proposed structure has been verified through PSPICE simulators using 0.25 ”m CMOS process from TSMC and experimental results are also investigated
Chemical Current-Conveyor: a new approach in biochemical computation
Biochemical sensors that are low cost, small in size and compatible with integrated circuit technology play an essential part in the drive towards personalised healthcare and the research described in this thesis is concerned with this area of medical instrumentation. A new biochemical measurement system able to sense key properties of biochemical fluids is presented. This new integrated circuit biochemical sensor, called the Chemical Current-Conveyor, uses the ion sensitive field effect transistor as the input sensor combined with the current-conveyor, an analog building-block, to produce a range of measurement systems.
The concept of the Chemical Current-Conveyor is presented together with the design and subsequent fabrication of a demonstrator integrated circuit built on conventional 0.35Όm CMOS silicon technology. The silicon area of the Chemical Current-Conveyor is (92Όm x 172Όm) for the N-channel version and (99Όm x 165Όm) for the P-channel version. Power consumption for the N-channel version is 30ΌW and 43ΌW for the P-channel version with a full load of 1MΩ. The maximum sensitivity achieved for pH measurement was 46mV per pH.
The potential of the Chemical Current Conveyor as a versatile biochemical integrated circuit, able to produce output information in an appropriate form for direct clinical use has been confirmed by applications including measurement of (i) pH, (ii) buffer index ( ), (iii) urea, (iv) creatinine and (v) urea:creatinine ratio. In all five cases the device has been demonstrated successfully, confirming the validity of the original aim of this research project, namely to produce a versatile and flexible analog circuit for many biochemical measurement applications. Finally, the thesis closes with discussion of another potential application area for the Chemical Current Conveyor and the main contributions can be summarised by the design and development of the first:
ISFET based current-conveyor biochemical sensor, called 'Chemical Current Conveyor, CCCII+' has been designed and developed. It is a general purpose biochemical analog building-block for several biochemical measurements.
Real-time buffer capacity measurement system, based on the CCCII+, which exploits the imbedded analog computation capability of the CCCII+.
Real-time enzyme based CCCII+ namely, Creatinine-CCCII+ and Urea-CCCII+ for real-time monitoring system of renal system. The system can provide outputs of 3 important parameters of the renal system, namely (i) urea concentration, (ii) creatinine concentration, and (ii) urea to creatinine ratio
Various Order LowâPass Filter with the Electronic Change of Its Approximation
A design of a low pass frequency filter with the electronic change of the approximation characteristics of resulting responses is presented. The filter also offers the reconnectionâless reconfiguration of the order (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th order functions are available). Furthermore, the filter offers the electronic control of the cutâoff frequency of the output response. The feature of the electronic change of the approximation characteristics has been investigated for Butterworth, Bessel, Cauer, Chebyshev and Inverse Chebyshev approximations. The design is verified by PSpice simulations and experimental measurements. The results are also supported by the transient domain response (response to the square waveform), comparison of group delay, sensitivity analysis and implementation feasibility based on given approximation. The benefit of the proposed electronic change of the approximation characteristics feature (in general signal processing or for sensors in particular) has been presented and discussed for an exemplary scenario
Realization of Integrable Low- Voltage Companding Filters for Portable System Applications
Undoubtedly, todayâs integrated electronic systems owe their remarkable performance
primarily to the rapid advancements of digital technology since 1970s. The various
important advantages of digital circuits are: its abstraction from the physical details of
the actual circuit implementation, its comparative insensitiveness to variations in the
manufacturing process, and the operating conditions besides allowing functional
complexity that would not be possible using analog technology. As a result, digital
circuits usually offer a more robust behaviour than their analog counterparts, though
often with area, power and speed drawbacks. Due to these and other benefits, analog
functionality has increasingly been replaced by digital implementations.
In spite of the advantages discussed above, analog components are far from
obsolete and continue to be key components of modern electronic systems. There is
a definite trend toward persistent and ubiquitous use of analog electronic circuits in
day-to-day life. Portable electronic gadgets, wireless communications and the
widespread application of RF tags are just a few examples of contemporary
developments. While all of these electronic systems are based on digital circuitry,
they heavily rely on analog components as interfaces to the real world. In fact, many
modern designs combine powerful digital systems and complementary analog
components on a single chip for cost and reliability reasons. Unfortunately, the design
of such systems-on-chip (SOC) suffers from the vastly different design styles of
analog and digital components. While mature synthesis tools are readily available for
digital designs, there is hardly any such support for analog designers apart from wellestablished
PSPICE-like circuit simulators. Consequently, though the analog part
usually occupies only a small fraction of the entire die area of an SOC, but its design
often constitutes a major bottleneck within the entire development process.
Integrated continuous-time active filters are the class of continuous-time or
analog circuits which are used in various applications like channel selection in radios,
anti-aliasing before sampling, and hearing aids etc. One of the figures of merit of a
filter is the dynamic range; this is the ratio of the largest to the smallest signal that can
be applied at the input of the filter while maintaining certain specified performance.
The dynamic range required in the filter varies with the application and is decided by
the variation in strength of the desired signal as well as that of unwanted signals that are to be rejected by the filter. It is well known that the power dissipation and the
capacitor area of an integrated active filter increases in proportion to its dynamic
range. This situation is incompatible with the needs of integrated systems, especially
battery operated ones. In addition to this fundamental dependence of power dissipation
on dynamic range, the design of integrated active filters is further complicated by the
reduction of supply voltage of integrated circuits imposed by the scaling down of
technologies to attain twin objective of higher speed and lower power consumption in
digital circuits. The reduction in power consumption with decreasing supply voltage
does not apply to analog circuits. In fact, considerable innovation is required with a
reduced supply voltage even to avoid increasing power consumption for a given signal
to noise ratio (S/N). These aspects pose a great hurdle to the active filter designer.
A technique which has attracted the attention of circuit designers as a possible
route to filters with higher dynamic range per unit power consumption is
âcompandingâ. Companding (compression-expansion) filters are a very promising
subclass of continuous-time analog filters, where the input (linear) signal is initially
compressed before it will be handled by the core (non-linear) system. In order to
preserve the linear operation of the whole system, the non-linear signal produced by
the core system is converted back to a linear output signal by employing an
appropriate output stage. The required compression and expansion operations are
performed by employing bipolar transistors in active region or MOS transistors in
weak inversion; the systems thus derived are known as logarithmic-domain (logdomain)
systems. In case MOS transistors operated in saturation region are employed,
the derived structures are known as Square-root domain systems. Finally, the third
class of companding filters can also be obtained by employing bipolar transistors in
active region or MOS transistors in weak inversion; the derived systems are known as
Sinh-domain systems. During the last several years, a significant research effort has been already
carried out in the area of companding circuits. This is due to the fact that their main
advantages are the capability for operation in low-voltage environment and large
dynamic range originated from their companding nature, electronic tunability of the
frequency characteristics, absence of resistors and the potential for operations in varied
frequency regions.Thus, it is obvious that companding filters can be employed for implementing
high-performance analog signal processing in diverse frequency ranges. For example,
companding filters could be used for realizing subsystems in: xDSL modems, disk
drive read channels, biomedical electronics, Bluetooth/ZigBee applications, phaselocked
loops, FM stereo demodulator, touch-tone telephone tone decoder and
crossover network used in a three-way high-fidelity loudspeaker etc.
A number of design methods for companding filters and their building blocks
have been introduced in the literature. Most of the proposed filter structures operate
either above 1.5V or under symmetrical (1.5V) power supplies. According to data that
provides information about the near future of semiconductor technology, International
Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), in 2013, the supply voltage of digital
circuits in 32 nm technology will be 0.5 V. Therefore, the trend for the implementation of
analog integrated circuits is the usage of low-voltage building blocks that use a single
0.5-1.5V power supply.
Therefore, the present investigation was primarily concerned with the study and
design of low voltage and low power Companding filters. The work includes the
study about: the building blocks required in implementing low voltage and low power
Companding filters; the techniques used to realize low voltage and low power
Companding filters and their various areas of application.
Various novel low voltage and low power Companding filter designs have been
developed and studied for their characteristics to be applied in a particular portable
area of application. The developed designs include the N-th order universal
Companding filter designs, which have been reported first time in the open literature.
Further, an endeavor has been made to design Companding filters with orthogonal
tuning of performance parameters so that the designs can be simultaneously used for
various features. The salient features of each of the developed circuit are described.
Electronic tunability is one of the major features of all of the designs. Use of
grounded capacitors and resistorless designs in all the cases makes the designs suitable
for IC technology. All the designs operate in a low-voltage and low-power
environment essential for portable system applications.
Unless specified otherwise, all the investigations on these designs are based on the
PSPICE simulations using model parameters of the NR100N bipolar transistors and BSIM 0.35ÎŒm/TSMC 0.25ÎŒm /TSMC 0.18ÎŒm CMOS process MOS transistors. The
performance of each circuit has been validated by comparing the characteristics
obtained using simulation with the results present in the open literature.
The proposed designs could not be realized in silicon due to non-availability of
foundry facility at the place of study. An effort has already been started to realize
some of the designs in silicon and check their applicability in practical circuits. At the
basic level, one of the proposed Companding filter designs was implemented using the
commercially available transistor array ICs (LM3046N) and was found to verify the
theoretical predictions obtained from the simulation results
Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited