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1 – 10 of 38Soo-Woo Kim, Ho-Yong Choi, Sehyuk An and Nam-Soo Kim
– This paper aims to design the circuit for electromagnetic interface (EMI) reduction in liquid crystal display (LCD).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to design the circuit for electromagnetic interface (EMI) reduction in liquid crystal display (LCD).
Design/methodology/approach
The cascode level shifter and segmented driver circuit are applied in LCD column driver integrated circuit (IC) for EMI reduction. Cascode current mirror is used in the proposed level shifter for DC voltage biasing and reduction of the driving current which passes through the level shifter. The on-off switching currents and transient times are measured and compared between the conventional and proposed level shifters. Additionally, a segmented data latch is obtained by the timing spread solution in data latch, and applied to split the large peak switching current into a number of smaller peak current. The timing spread-operation does not actually reduce the total power of the noise, instead, it spreads the noise power evenly over the frequency bandwidth. The optimal number of latch is dependent on the operating frequency and EMI allowance. The column driver IC and clock controller are integrated in 0.18 μm CMOS technology with 1-poly and 4-metal process.
Findings
The post-layout simulation shows that the proposed column driver circuit for LCD driver IC significantly reduces the peak switching current, and it results in the reduction of EMI noise level by more than 15 dB. It is obtained with 20 segmented operations in data latch at 40 MHz frequency.
Originality/value
The advantage of the cascode current source is that it can provide a well-controlled bias current with an accurate current transfer ratio. To reduce the EMI noise in LCD driver circuit, the cascode current source is properly located for the DC bias block in the level shifter. The application is rarely done by others, and a significant EMI noise reduction is found. The well-controlled current source provides a high performance switching in the level shifter.
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Roohie Kaushik, Jasdeep Kaur and Anushree
Reference voltage or current generators are an important requirement for an analog or digital circuit design. Bandgap reference circuits (BGR) are most common way of generating…
Abstract
Purpose
Reference voltage or current generators are an important requirement for an analog or digital circuit design. Bandgap reference circuits (BGR) are most common way of generating the reference voltage. This paper aims to provide a detailed insight of design of a folded cascode operational amplifier (FC op amp) and a BGR circuit. The complete study flow from design to layout of the circuits on 180 nm semiconductor laboratory (SCL) process leading to bonding diagram for possible tape-out is discussed. This study work has been supported by MeitY, Govt. of India, through Special Manpower Development Project Chip to System Design.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a detailed insight in design of a FC op amp and a BGR circuit. The complete study flow from design to layout of the two circuits on 180 nm SCL process leading to bonding diagram for possible tape-out is discussed. Section 2 shows the design of FC op amp, beta-multiplier circuit and their simulation results. Section 3 describes the comparison of design of conventional BGR and the proposed BGR with other state-of-art BGR circuits. Section 4 gives the comparison of their performance. The conclusion is given in Section 5.
Findings
The post-layout simulation of FC op amp show an open-loop gain of 64.5 dB, 3-dB frequency of 5.5 KHz, unity-gain bandwidth of 8.7 MHz, slew rate of 8.4 V/µs, CMRR of 111 dB and power of 25.5µW. Among the two BGR designs, the conventional BGR generated 693 mV of reference voltage with a temperature coefficient of 16 ppm/°C the other BGR, with curvature correction generated 1.3 V of reference voltage with a temperate coefficient of 6.3 ppm/°C , both results in temperature ranging from −40°C to 125°C. The chip layout of the circuits designed on 180 nm SCL process ensures design rule check (DRC), Antenna and layout versus schematic (LVS) clean with metal fill.
Research limitations/implications
Slew rate, stability analysis, power are important parameters which should be taken care while designing an op amp for a BGR. Direct current gain should be kept higher to reduce offset errors. Input common mode range is decided by the operating temperature range. A higher power supply rejection ratio will reduce BGR sensitivity to supply voltage variations. Input offset should be kept low to reduce BGR error in reference voltage. However, this paper emphasis on the flow from schematic to layout using simulation tools. As part of the study, the bonding diagram for tape-out of BGR and FC design in the given SCL frame size with seal ring is also explored, for possible tape-out.
Practical implications
Reference voltage or current generators are an important requirement for an analog or digital circuit design. BGR are most common way of generating the reference voltage. This paper provides a detailed insight in design of a FC op amp and a BGR circuit. The complete study flow from design to layout of the circuits on 180 nm SCL process leading to bonding diagram for possible tape-out is discussed. The chip layout of the circuits was designed on 180 nm SCL process ensuring DRC, antenna and LVS clean with metal fill using Cadence virtuoso and Mentor Graphics Calibre simulation tools.
Social implications
BGR are most common way of generating the reference voltage. This paper gives a detailed insight of a BGR design using a folded-cascode operational amplifier. The FC op amp is biased using a beta multiplier circuit and high-swing cascode current mirror circuit. The paper discuss FC circuit design flow from schematic to layout.
Originality/value
FC op amp is biased using a beta multiplier circuit and high-swing cascode current mirror. The paper discusses FC design flow from schematic to layout. The circuits were designed on 180 nm SCL technology with 1.8 V of power supply. The post-layout simulation show an open-loop gain of 64.5 dB, 3 dB frequency of 5.5 KHz, unity-gain bandwidth of 8.7 MHz, slew rate of 8.4 V/µs, CMRR of 111 dB and power of 25.5 µW. BGR were designed using FC op amp. The proposed BGR generated 1.3 V of reference voltage with a temperature coefficient of 6.3 ppm/°C in the range from −40°C to 125°C in schematic simulation.
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Hamed Aminzadeh and Mohammad Mahdi Valinezhad
The purpose of this study is to discuss the effect of hybrid cascode compensation with quality factor (Q-factor) control module for the three-stage amplifiers driving ultra-large…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to discuss the effect of hybrid cascode compensation with quality factor (Q-factor) control module for the three-stage amplifiers driving ultra-large load capacitors. Compared to the present frequency compensation solutions, it extends the amplifier bandwidth by establishing an extra AC feedback pathway besides the primary pathway through the Miller capacitor, increasing the loop gain at the gain–bandwidth product (GBW) frequency by pushing to the higher frequencies the nondominant poles.
Design/methodology/approach
A Q-factor control block is used to improve the damping factor of the compensation loop with no power or area overhead, thereby reducing the frequency peaking and the undesired oscillation in the time response for small load capacitors. The Q-factor control module is realized by a tiny-size on-chip capacitor, and provides an extra feedback loop to feed the damping current back to the input stage. A left-half-plane (LHP) zero is also introduced to further improve the stability.
Findings
A prototype of the proposed amplifier is simulated in 180-nm CMOS with a quiescent current of 24-µA from 1.80-V voltage supply. It achieves a 3.98-MHz gain–bandwidth product for 500-pF load capacitor, while the overall compensation capacitor is limited to 0.5-pF and the DC gain is extended beyond 100-dB.
Originality/value
The proposed amplifier is absolutely stable for the load capacitors ranging between 80-pF and 100-nF.
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Min Liu, Panpan Xu, Jincan Zhang, Bo Liu and Liwen Zhang
Power amplifiers (PAs) play an important role in wireless communications because they dominate system performance. High-linearity broadband PAs are of great value for potential…
Abstract
Purpose
Power amplifiers (PAs) play an important role in wireless communications because they dominate system performance. High-linearity broadband PAs are of great value for potential use in multi-band system implementation. The purpose of this paper is to present a cascode power amplifier architecture to achieve high power and high efficiency requirements for 4.2∼5.4 GHz applications.
Design/methodology/approach
A common emitter (CE) configuration with a stacked common base configuration of heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is used to achieve high power. T-type matching network is used as input matching network. To increase the bandwidth, the output matching networks are implemented using the two L-networks.
Findings
By using the proposed method, the stacked PA demonstrates a maximum saturated output power of 26.2 dBm, a compact chip size of 1.17 × 0.59 mm2 and a maximum power-added efficiency of 46.3 per cent. The PA shows a wideband small signal gain with less than 3 dB variation over working frequency. The saturated output power of the proposed PA is higher than 25 dBm between 4.2 and 5.4 GHz.
Originality/value
The technology adopted for the design of the 4.2-to-5.4 GHz stacked PA is the 2-µm gallium arsenide HBT process. Based on the proposed method, a better power performance of 3 dB improvement can be achieved as compared with the conventional CE or common-source amplifier because of high output stacking impedance.
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D.S. Shylu Sam and P. Sam Paul
In parallel sampling method, the size of the sampling capacitor is reduced to improve the bandwidth of the ADC.
Abstract
Purpose
In parallel sampling method, the size of the sampling capacitor is reduced to improve the bandwidth of the ADC.
Design/methodology/approach
Various low-power techniques for 10-bit 200MS/s pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) are presented. This work comprises two techniques including parallel sampling and switched op-amp sharing technique.
Findings
This paper aims to study the effect of parallel sampling and switched op-amp sharing techniques on power consumption in pipelined ADC. In switched op-amp sharing technique, the numbers of op-amps used in the stages are reduced. Because of the reduction in the size of capacitors in parallel sampling technique and op-amps in the switched op-amp sharing technique, the power consumption of the proposed pipelined ADC is reduced to a greater extent.
Originality/value
Simulated the 10-bit 200MS/s pipelined ADC with complementary metal oxide semiconductor process and the simulation results shows a maximum differential non-linearity of +0.31/−0.31 LSB and the maximum integral non-linearity (of +0.74/−0.74 LSB with 62.9 dB SFDR, 55.90 dB SNDR and ENOB of 8.99 bits, respectively, for 18mW power consumption with the supply voltage of 1.8 V.
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Keywords
Multistage amplifiers require a reliable frequency compensation solution to remain stable in a closed-loop configuration. A frequency compensation scheme creates an inner negative…
Abstract
Purpose
Multistage amplifiers require a reliable frequency compensation solution to remain stable in a closed-loop configuration. A frequency compensation scheme creates an inner negative feedback loop amongst different amplifying stages and shapes the frequency response such that an unconditionally stable single-pole amplifier results for closed-loop operation. The frequency compensation loop is thus responsible for the placement of the poles and zeros and the final stability of multistage amplifiers. An amplifier incorporating a sophisticated frequency compensation network cannot be, however, analyzed in the presence of a complex ac feedback loop. The purpose of this study is to provide a reliable model for the compensation loop of multistage amplifiers at the higher frequencies.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the major part of the amplifier, including a two-port network comprising the compensation network, is characterized using a reliable feedback model.
Findings
The model integrates all the frequency-dependent components of the frequency compensation network, and it can evaluate the nondominant real or complex poles of an amplifier.
Originality/value
The reliability of the proposed model is verified through analysis of the frequency response of the amplifiers and by comparing the analytic results with the simulation results in standard CMOS process.
Details
Keywords
Norhamizah Idros, Zulfiqar Ali Abdul Aziz and Jagadheswaran Rajendran
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the acceptable performance by using the limited input range towards lower open-loop DC gain operational amplifier (op-amp) of an 8-bit…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the acceptable performance by using the limited input range towards lower open-loop DC gain operational amplifier (op-amp) of an 8-bit pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for mobile communication application.
Design/methodology/approach
An op-amp with folded cascode configuration is designed to provide the maximum open-loop DC gain without any gain-boosting technique. The impact of low open-loop DC gain is observed and analysed through the results of pre-, post-layout simulations and measurement of the ADC. The fabrication process technology used is Silterra 0.18-µm CMOS process. The silicon area by the ADC is 1.08 mm2.
Findings
Measured results show the differential non-linearity (DNL) error, integral non-linearity (INL) error, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) are within −0.2 to +0.2 LSB, −0.55 LSB for 0.4 Vpp input range, 22 and 27 dB, respectively, with 2 MHz input signal at the rate of 64 MS/s. The static power consumption is 40 mW with a supply voltage of 1.8 V.
Originality/value
The experimental results of ADC showed that by limiting the input range to ±0.2 V, this ADC is able to give a good reasonable performance. Open-loop DC gain of op-amp plays a critical role in ADC performance. Low open-loop DC gain results in stage-gain error of residue amplifier and, thus, leads to nonlinearity of output code. Nevertheless, lowering the input range enhances the linearity to ±0.2 LSB.
Varakorn Kasemsuwan and Weerachai Nakhlo
The paper aims to present a simple rail‐to‐rail CMOS voltage follower.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to present a simple rail‐to‐rail CMOS voltage follower.
Design/methodology/approach
The circuit is developed based on a complementary source follower with a common‐source output stage. The circuit is designed using a 0.13 μm CMOS technology, and operates under the supply voltage of 1.5 V. HSPICE is used to verify the circuit performance.
Findings
The simulations show output voltage swing of ±0.6 V (300 Ω load) with the total harmonic distortion of 0.55 per cent at the operating frequency of 3 MHz. The bandwidth and power dissipation are 657 MHz and 405 μW, respectively.
Originality/value
A simple rail‐to‐rail CMOS voltage follower is presented.
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This work aims to improve upon the linearity of integrated CMOS current sensors used in switch mode power supply topologies, using a low-cost and low-voltage (less than 1.2 V…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to improve upon the linearity of integrated CMOS current sensors used in switch mode power supply topologies, using a low-cost and low-voltage (less than 1.2 V) CMOS technology node. Improved sensor accuracy contributes to efficiency in switched supplies by reducing measurement errors when it is integrated with closed-loop control.
Design/methodology/approach
Integrated current-sensing methods were investigated and CMOS solutions were prioritized. These solutions were implemented and characterized in the desired process and shortcomings were identified. A theoretical analysis accompanied by simulated tests was used to refine improvements which were prototyped. The current sensor prototypes were fabricated and tested.
Findings
Measured and simulated results are presented which show improved linearity in current sensor outputs. Techniques borrowed from analog amplifier design can be used to improve the dynamic range and linearity of current-steered CMOS pairs for measuring current. A current sensor with a gain of 5 V/A operating in a 10 MHz switch mode supply environment is demonstrated.
Originality/value
This paper proposes an alternative approach to creating suitable bias conditions for linearity in a SenseFET topology. The proposed method is compact and architecturally simple in comparison to other techniques.
Details
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Deepa George and Saurabh Sinha
The demand for higher bandwidth has resulted in the development of mm-wave phased array systems. This paper aims to explore a technique that could be used to feed the individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The demand for higher bandwidth has resulted in the development of mm-wave phased array systems. This paper aims to explore a technique that could be used to feed the individual antennas in a mm-wave phased array system with the appropriate phase shifted signal to achieve the required directivity. It presents differential Colpitts oscillators at 5 and 60 GHz that can provide differential output signals to the quadrature signal generators in the proposed phase shifter system.
Design/methodology/approach
The phase shifter system comprises a differential Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and utilizes the vector-sum technique to generate the phase shifted signal. The differential VCO is connected in the common-collector configuration for the 5-GHz VCO, and is extended using a cascode transistor for the 60-GHz VCO for better stability at mm-wave. The vector sum is achieved using a variable gain amplifier (VGA) that combines the in-phase and quadrature phase signal, generated from oscillator output using hybrid Lange couplers. The devices were fabricated using IBM 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process, and simulations were performed with a process design kit provided by the foundry.
Findings
The measured results of the 5-GHz and 60-GHz VCOs indicate that differential Colpitts VCO could generate oscillator output with good phase noise performance. The simulation results of the phase shifter system indicate that the generation of signals with phases from 0° to 360° in steps of 22.5° was achieved using the proposed approach. A Gilbert mixer topology was used for the VGA and the linearity was improved by a pre-distortion circuit implemented using an inverse tanh cell.
Originality/value
The measurement results indicate that differential Colpitts oscillator in common-collector configuration could be used to generate differential VCO signals for the vector-sum phase shifter. The simulation results of the proposed phase shifter system at mm-wave show that the phase shift could be realised at a total power consumption of 200 mW.
Details