SOME TECHNIQUES FOR LOWVOLTAGE

CONTINUOUS-TIME
ANALOG CIRCUIT OPERATION

Jaime Ramrez Angulo

New Mexico State University, Las
Cruces, NM

Some techniques for low-voltage operation of

continuous-time analog CMOS circuits
The drastic reduction in the supply voltages of CMOS VLSI systems driven by technological as
well as power reduction constraints has forced analog designers to divert from conventional
analog circuit architectures which become non functional in a reduced supply environment and
look for new techniques for low voltage, high performance operation of analog CMOS circuits.
In this presentation a family of high performance low-voltage analog CMOS circuits is
introduced. These are based on the utilization of static, dynamic and switched floating voltage
sources. These circuits operate in all cases with a single supply voltage close to a transistor's
threshold voltage.Among the circuits discussed in this presentation we include: one and two
stage class AB op-amps, rectifiers, filters, transconductors, analog multipliers, etc.
Presented by Jaime Ramirez-Angulo, professor of Electrical Engineering , IEEE fellow and director of the
VLSI lab at the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Mexico State University in
Las Cruces, New Mexico (USA). He received a degree in Communications and Electronic Engineering
(Professional degree), a M.S.E.E from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City (1973 and 1976
respectively) and a Dr.-Ing. degree from the University of Stuttgart in Germany in 1982. His research is
related to following areas of analog and mixed signal VLSI design: low-voltage CMOS circuit design, test
techniques for mixed-signal VSLI systems, continuous-time filters and analog array processors.

OUTLINE
I.
II.

Introduction
Basic techniques for continuous-time lowvoltage operation
III. Continuous-time low-voltage amplifier schemes
IV. Low-voltage op-amp architectures with rail-torail input and output swings
V. Low-voltage circuits based on floating gates
VI. Conclusions

I. INTRODUCTION: Why low-voltage?

Within the next few years most mixed-signal systems will
require operation with sub-volt supply voltages (VDD<1V)
Why?
a) power dissipation reduction (digital circuits
Power VDD2)
b) Technology down scaling (lower oxide
breakdown voltages, no voltage doublers
allowed!)
c) Volume, weight reduction and extended battery
life (wireless applications)

I. INTRODUCTION: Definition
Low-Voltage circuit
Operation with single supply VDD less
than the sum of the threshold voltages of a
PMOS and an NMOS transistor
VDD<VTHn+|VTHp|
VDD<1V for current CMOS technology
with VTH=0.45V

I. INTRODUCTION: LOW-VOLTAGE DESIGN

CHALLENGES

New generations of high speed communications networks (>1GHz)

require high performance analog front end circuits.

Reduction of supply voltages associated to low overdrive voltages

(VDSsat) go against performance: bandwidth, accuracy, power
consumption, silicon area, offsets,..

Efficient low-voltage techniques for analog circuits available mainly for

switched capacitor circuits but their effective signal bandwidths are orders
of magnitude below technology limits

High speed/High bandwidth only achievable in continuous-time

Conventional (continuous-time) analog circuits require at least two VGS

drops (plus signal swing) supplies

I. INTRODUCTION
Example : Two stage OP-AMP with class AB
output stage
+

VDS

VGS

_
+

VSG

MoutP
Vbat

MoutN

VGS

Differential input stage

Class AB common source output stage

Vdd>Vth+2VDSsat+Vinswing

Vdd>2Vth+VDSsat+Vbat

To minimize Vdd requirements: Inputs

must operate close to lower rail at
approximately constant voltage
(Vinswing=0)

Rail-to-rail swing possible

II. BASIC TECHNIQUES FOR SUPPLY

REDUCTION IN
CONTINUOUS-TIME ANALOG CIRCUITS
IIa. Floating voltage sources:
1) Static (DC level shifters)
2) Dynamic (signal dependent shifters)
3) Switched
IIb. Multiple Input Floating gate transistors
1) Conventional
2) Quasi-floating-gate
IIc. Flipped voltage followers

IIa: BASIC TECHNIQUES: Supply reduction

using DC level shifters
+

Vb

+
A

Vin

Vout

Vin

Vb

Vout

(a)

Vb
B

I1

(b)

(c)

I1+I2
(d)

Fig. IIa1. (a) Conventional cascode current mirror (b) Cascode

mirror with reduced supply requirements (c ) Implementations of
floating unipolar DC level shifters (d) implementation of floating
bipolar DC Level shifter

IIa: BASIC TECHNIQUES: DC Level shifting techniques

can be used to reduce the effective threshold voltage of MOS
transistors [1]
a) Conventional Cascode mirror:
Vin=2VGS= 2Vth+2VDSsat;
Vout=VGS+VDSsat=Vth+2VDSsat
Vtotal=Vin+Vout=3Vth+4Vdsat
b) Cascode mirror with DC level shifters
Vin=2VTH+2VDSsat-2Vb;
Vout=Vth+2VDSsat-Vb
Vtotal=3Vth+4VDSsat-3Vb=3VTH+4VDSsat
Where:
If

Vth=Vth-Vb
Vb=Vth then Vth= 0 Then Vtotal= 4VDSsat (<1V)

DC Level shifting equivalent to reduction of effective threshold

voltage to a value close to zero!
[1] "Current mirrors with low input voltage requirements for built in current sensors," J.
Ramrez-Angulo, 1994 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 529- 532, London, England,
May 30- June 2, 1994

IIa Basic techniques: Floating

level shifters

Fig. IIa2. Additional Implementations of DC level shifters

a) and b) Resistor/Current source, c) Voltage follower
d) Differential amplifier, e) Low speed Switched capacitor

IIa: Basic techniques

Remarks:
One of the terminals of the floating voltage source requires to be
connected to a circuits high impedance node, the other terminal to
a low impedance node.
Above circuits can be used to implement both static and dynamic
floating sources

IIa. BASIC TECHNIQUES

Examples: Class AB CMOS inverters with
Vdd<VthN+|VthP|

(a) Low-Voltage CMOS inverter using Floating voltage

sources (b)Resistor-current source implementation (c)
switched implementation

IIb. Basic Techniques: Multiple

Input Floating Gate Transistors

Multiple Input Floating Gate Transistor: (a) Layout (b) symbol (c)
equivalent circuit model.

IIb: Basic Techniques

Low voltage operation using multiple input
floating gate transistors
Floating gate voltage in a MIFG transistor is a linear
weighted addition of control input voltages V1, V2, Vn
Basic principle for low voltage operation [2]:
Use one terminal for biasing purposes (to set VGQ close to one of
the supply rails) and the remaining terminals for signal injection
[2] "Low-Voltage OTA architectures Using Multiple Input Floating gate Transistors," J. Ramrez-Angulo, S.C. Choi, G. GonzalezAltamirano, IEEE Transactions on Circuitsand Systems, vol. 42, No. 12, pp.971-974, November 1995

IIb: Basic Techniques

Differential voltage in floating gate differential pair:

VGd = Vd 1( a1) + Vd 2( a 2) + Vdn ( an )

VGd = VG1-VG2,
Vdi=Vi1-Vi2,

ai=Ci/(C1+C2+..+Cn)

VG1Q=VG2Q= Vbias [Cbias/(Cbias+C1+C2)]=Vbias~Vdd

Reduced threshold voltage + Linear combination of differential
control voltages allows for great design flexibility [2]
[2] "MITE Circuits: The Continuous time counterpart to switched capacitor circuits," Jaime Ramirez-Angulo and Antonio Lopez,
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, special issue on applications of floating gate transistors, vol. 48, No. 1, February 2001

IIb: Basic Techniques

Single ended two input case
C1
C2
VG = VBIAS
+ Vin
C1 + C 2
C1 + C 2
Effective threshold voltage

C1
Vth' = Vth VBIAS
C1 + C 2

IIb Basic techniques: Example of

Low voltage CMOS inverter
uisng FG transistors

"Modeling Multiple-Input Floating Gate Transistors for Analog Signal Processing," J. Ramrez-Angulo, G. GonzalezAltamirano and S.C. Choi, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Hong Kong, June 9-12, 1997

IIb. Basic Techniques

Drawback:
Charge trapped in floating gate
can lead to large (temperature
dependent) DC offsets
Clarge forms voltage divider with
feedback elements CF=Ctotal-Clarge
Effective gain-bandwidth product
Of floating gate circuit is reduced by relatively large factor
K= Clarge/(Ctotal-Clarge)

IIb. Basic techniques: Quasi

floating gate circuits
Quasi floating gate transistor:
Gate capacitively coupled
to signals V1,V2,Vn
Gate connected to supply rail
using a very large valued resistor
Rlarge sets quiescent gate voltage
to the supply rail voltage and minimizes
supply requirement
Rlarge implemented using reverse
biased PN junction
QFG PMOS transistor

c) Layout

d) Equivalent circuit

IIb. Quasi floating gate circuits

Advantages
No charge trapped as in true floating gate transistors
Well defined gate quiescent voltage at supply rail minimizes circuits supply
requirements
Input signals can have arbitrary DC components

Drawbacks
Rlarge forms high pass circuit with signal coupling capacitors
swing at junction implementing Rlarge must be limited to avoid forward
biasing the junction
PN junction nonlinear can introduce distortion for gate swings

IIc. Basic Techniques: Flipped

voltage follower
Flipped voltage Follower: Cascode amplifier with
feedback

Rz HIGH!
Ibias

Biased on drain rather than on source side

Very low input Rx=(1/gm)(1/gmro)
High ouput impedance Rz=ro(gmro)
Very low voltage requirements at node x: VDSsat
Signal variations at node Vz (not in the signal
path)
Flipped follower implements an Active DC
level shift

Vz
Ry
VERY
HIGH!

Iin
Vy

LOW!
Rx

IIc. Application of FVF

Ibias
Ibias
Iout

z
y
Iin
Vbias
x

+
Vin

Low voltage mirror with very low input impedance and low input
voltage requirements
Low Voltage High Performance CMOS Current Mirrors," J. Ramrez-Angulo,
R.G. Carvajal and A. Torralba, IEEE 43drd Midwest Symposium on Circuits and
Systems. Lansing, MI, August 8-11, 2000.

IIc. Flipped voltage follower applications

M3
VS
VSGQ-Vd/2
V1

VSGQ

V1

M2

VCM

M1

ID1

ID2

VSGQ
MCM

M1

VCM

VSGQ+Vd/2
M2

V2

ID2

V2
Ib

Vd
common mode
sensor

(a)

( c )

( b)

Pseudo class AB input differential stage: a) Conceptual circuit b)

implementation using flipped voltage follower c) Transconductance
characteristic
"A new Class AB differential Input stage for implementation of low voltage high slew rate op-amps and linear
transconductors," J. Ramirez-Angulo, R. Gonzalez-Carvajal, A. Torralba and Carlos Nieva, IEEE International Symposium on
Circuits an Systems, May 6-9, Sidney Australia

IIIa. Amplifiers based on DC Floating

Voltage Sources
Applications:
Low-voltage continuous-time amplifiers based on inverting opamp configuration (Assume single
supply voltage VDDand signal Vin=Vs(t)+VDD/2)

Approach:
Keep both input terminals of op-amp closte to one of the supply rails by Inserting a floating DC
source with value Vbat=VDD/2 in series with negative op-amp input.
"A simple technique for low-voltage op-amp operation in continuous-time," J. Ramrez-Angulo, A Torralba, R.G.
Carvajal and J.Tombs, IEE Electronics Letters, vol. 35, No. 4, February 18th, 1999, pp. 263-264
R2

Vin

R1

VDD/2

_
+

RF

Vin

R1

Vout
I

VDD/2

R1

_
Vout

(b)

Vbat

+ _

_+

Vout

R1

(a)

+
Vin
_

R2

RF

(c)

Low voltage amplifier based on DC floating sources (a) Standard inverting configuration (b) wideband
constant bandwidth configuration based on current sensing c) Fully differential version of circuit of Fig. a

III. Continuous time amplifiers using

dynamic floating voltage sources
Principle:
Rearrange non-inverting configuration by inserting a source Vs in series
between output and negative op-amp input terminals and connecting the
positive terminal to one of the supply rails
"Low-voltage CMOS amplifiers with wide input-output swing based on a novel scheme, J. Ramrez-Angulo, A Torralba,
R.G. Carvajal and J.Tombs, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I, vol. 47, No. 5, May 2000, pp. 772-774.

Ib
+
_ Vs

OA

Vo

OA

OA

Vo

Vo

Vs
_+

(a)

(b)

Ib

Ib=Vs/R

(c)

Dynamic FVCVS technique. a) Op-amp in voltage follower configuration. b) Grounding the op-amp input and
inserting a FVCVS in the feedback path c) implementation of FVCVS with resistor and current sources

Ib

Vref

Vref

+
_ DA

V's

R
Ib

_OA

Vcn

(a)

R
Ib

Vout
Ib

(b)

Practical implementation of the FVCVS: a) STEP 1: Voltage-to-current conversion

with an auxiliary opamp DA. b) STEP 2: Current-to-voltage conversion inserting the
FVCVS in the feedback path of the main operational amplifier OA.

Vref

OA
A'

(A-1)*I bQ

R
A*I b
B

Vout
A*I b

(A-1)*I bQ

B'

Implementation of an amplifier with gain

A using the FVCVS technique. This
circuit replaces the circuit in figure b
above. Ib and Ib Q are obtained using
two copies of the circuit in figure 2a,
with inputs Vs and Vs Q, respectively.

IV. Low voltage CMOS operational

amplifier architectures with rail-to-rail
input and output swings
Basic scheme of low voltage
two stage class A/AB op-amp
based on inverted battery
technique: (a) Single ended
scheme, (b) two possible
implementations of the floating
battery, (c) fully differential
scheme.
"Class AB output stage for low voltage CMOS opamps with accurate quiescent current control," A.
Torralba, R.G. Carvajal, J. Martinez-Heredia and J.
Ramirez-Angulo, Electronics Letters, vol. 36, No. 21,
12th October 2000, pp. 1753-1754.

IV. Low Voltage class A/AB fully

differential op-amp
RF
VcntCMP

Icnt

Vbias

M17

M5

Rb

Vi-

Vi+

RCM4

RCM3

Va

R1

Vb
M3

M4

VcntCMN

Vb

VcntCMN

M18

VcntCMP

MBCMFN

Vo+
M9

M10

M15

Ro
Vo-

Icnt

RCM

RCM
M11

M12

(b)

_+

Vout

RF

M6

(c)
M16

Ro

+_

Icnt

M20

Vbias

Vbat

Rbp

(a)

VrefCM

+
Vin
_

M8

Vo+

Rbat

Va
Icnt

M19

M2

M1

Vo-

M7

MBINPST

R1

Icnt

VcntCMP

M14
VcntCMN

Fully differential two stage A/AB op-amp

(a) Implementation uisng input stage with
local common mode feedback and class
AB output stage with inverted battery (b)
low-voltage common mode feedback
network c) Low-voltage test setup

Simple technique using Local CMFB to enhance Slew Rate and bandwidth of one-Stage cmos op-amps, Jaime
Ramirez-Angulo and Michael Holmes. Electronics Letters, vol. 38, No 23, pp. 1409-1411, November 7th 2002,

IV. New power efficient low-voltage

class AB/AB fully differential op-amp
VbatP

Icnt

VbatP

MBINPst

M17

M5

M1P

Va

M1

Vi-

Vsh

MFVF

MBFVF

Rbat

Vb

Rbat

Vbias

Vi-

M1

M2

Va
Icnt

M3

VbatN

M4

VbatN

Cc

Vb

M6

M3

M7

M3P

Rc

M4

M6
VcntCM

Icnt

M18

Vo+

Vi+

Vo+

Cc Rc
M7

M8

M8

VoVa

MBinpst

M5

Vb
M2P
Vi+
Ibat

M2

Ibat
Vo-

VbiasP

Icnt

M19

M4P

(a)
(a)
Vbias

VbiasN

MBCMFN

MB

VbatP
M13

M9P
Vo-

M10P
M9

Ro

M10

VbatN
Ro

Va
M11

Vb
M12

Ibat

Ibat

Vo+
Ro

M10

M9

Ro

VrefCM

VoRbat

RCM
VrefCM

M20B

RCM

RCM
IQ

VbatP

(b)

M15

IQ

Vo+
RCM

M19B

MBCMFN

M16

VbatN

M11

VcntCM

M12

M14

(c)

New Class AB/AB op-amp (a) Main op-amp: Input

stage using pseudo class AB differential amplifier
output stage using inverted battery (b) Common mode
Feedback network c) IQ control circuit

(b)

(a) Conventional class A/A two

stage op-amp (b) Low voltage
common mode feedback
network

IV. Class AB/AB vs. class A/A

transient response comparison
*conventional classA/class A two stage fully differential op-

*new class AB two stage low-voltage fully differential op-amp

**************************************************************

CASE iv DOUBLE PSEUDO DIFF AMP INPUT STAGE/WOOLEYAOUTPUT STAGE

800

750
V(VO)

V(VO)

500

TRANSIENT
RESPONSES (mV)
250
V(VI)
0

-250

TRANSIENT RESPONSES (mV)

V(VI)
V(VO)

400

V(VI)
0

-400

-500
-800
0

-750
0

0.4

0.8

1.2

TIME (us)

1.6

0.4

1.2

1.6

2.0

TIME (us)
V(VI)

V(VO)

TopSPICEw32 5.82b

(a)

0.8

2.0

01-APR-2003 05:27:37

(b)

(a) Transient response of new class AB/AB op-amp (b) Transient response of
conventional class A/A op-amp with same static bias current
A New Power Efficient Fully Differential Low Voltage Two State Op-Amp Architecture , J.
Ramrez-Angulo S. Thoutam G.O. Ducoudray and R.G. Carvajal, VLSI'03: June 23-26, 2003, Las
Vegas, Nevada, USA. pp. 87-02

Va. Amplifiers based on multiple

input floating gate transistors
Options for input swing
reduction with common mode
close to a supply rail
1) Use DC level shifter
VLS=Vdd/2 (discussed
previously)
2) Use dynamic level shifter
(discussed previously)
3) Use capacitive voltage
dividers (shown here):
Low-voltage amplifiers with Capacitive divider: (a) Basic scheme, (b) Voltage
follower (c) Fully differential scheme (d) Gain C1/C2 fully differential amplifier.

Va. Amplifiers with floating gate transistors

Low-voltage op-amp with capacitive voltage dividers: (a)

microphotograph of fabricated chip, (b) detail of the
single ended amplifier and (c) fully differential version.

Experimental Results: (a) DC

transfer characteristic and (b) step
transient response.

"Low-voltage CMOS Op-amp with rail-to-rail signal swing for continuous-time signal processing using multiple-input
floating-gate transistors," J. Ramirez-Angulo, R. G. Carvajal, J. Tombs, and A. Torralba, IEEE Transactions on Circuits
and Systems, special issue on applications of floating gate transistors, vol. 48, No. 1, January 2001, pp. 110-116

Vb. Circuits with quasi-floating

gate transistors
Closed loop application I: Low-voltage gain programmable
amplifier

V I+

V I-

SW 4

8C

SW 3

4C

SW 2

2C

SW 1

QFGMOS1

_
+

SW 1

SW 2

2C

SW 3

4C

SW 4

8C

_
+

VO+

V O-

C
QFGMOS2

Low-Voltage Closed-Loop Amplifier Circuits Based on Quasi-Floating Gate Transistors,

Jaime Ramirez-Angulo, Antonio J. Lopez-Martin and Ramon G. Carvajal, ISCAS 2003, May
25-28, 2003, Bangkok, Thailand

Vb. Circuits with quasi floating gate

transistors
Closed loop application II: Low-voltage D-to-A converter
2N-1C
VDDdN-1
4C

1.5
QFGMOS1 (2N-1)C

VDDd2
2C
C

_
+

VDDd0

C
-VDDd0
2C
-VDDd1

VO-

0
-0.5

(2N-1)C

-VDDd2
2N-1C

VO+

-1

4C

-VDDdN-1

0.5
Volta ge (V)

VDDd1

QFGMOS2

-1.5

3
4
Time (ms )

Vb. Circuits with quasi-floating gate

transistors
Closed loop application III: Low-voltage D/A converter
2N-1C
VDDdN-1
4C

QFGMOS1 (2N-1)C

VDDd2
2C
VDDd1
C

_
+

VDDd0

C
-VDDd0
2C
-VDDd1

4C

(2N-1)C

-VDDd2
2N-1C
-VDDdN-1

QFGMOS2

VO+

VO-

Vb. circuits with quasi-floating gate

transistors
M1

IB

M2
VINVI2VI1-

M4

M3
CN
C2
C1

CN
M1A

M2A
MQ2

MQ1

C2
C1

M5

VIN+
M1B

VI2+
VI1+

VOSW B
CAZ

R1
R1 M
6

CMFB

CC RC
M7

RC CC
M8

M2B

R1
M9 R1

VO+
SW A
CAZ

DC input offset voltage can be amplified by large DC open opamp open loop gain
Closed loop applications require operational amplifier with an
autozeroing circuit

Vc. Quasi-floating gate transistors:

open loop applications
Low-voltage mixer with quasi-floating gate transistors

RL

RL

Rlarge

Rlarge

Vin1a
Vin2a

M1

M2

Ib

Rlarge

Rlarge

Rlarge

Vin1b

Vin1b

Vin2a

Vin2b C
MFVF

Vin1a
M3

M4

Vin2b

Vin2a
Vin1a
Vin2a
Vin1a
Vin2b

C
C

M5

Vcm

C
C

A new Family of Low-Voltage Analog Circuits Based on Quasi Floating Gate Transistors, J. Ramirez-Angulo, C.
Urquidi, R.G. Carvajal, A. Lopez-Martin, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, II May 2003.

Vc. Low-voltage switches with quasi-floating

gate transistors
MRlarge1
Vclk

C1

Vin

Vclksh

MRlarge1

MRlarge2

Vclkn

Vclk

MRlarge2
C2

MpassN

Vclkn

MpassP

V clknsh
MpassP

MpassN

Vclk

Vclkn

Vclkn

Vout
Chold

VG
Vin

(a)

Mswitch

Vout
Chold

(c)

MRlargeP
Vclk

Vclk

Vclknsh

MRlargeP1
Vout

Vin

V1
Chold

(b)

MRlargeP2

C1

V2

C2
V2sh

V1sh

M2

M1

R
Q

(d)

Low voltage quasi-floating gate circuits using supply voltage boosting: examples of quasifloating gate supply boosting (a) Rail-to-rail sample and hold using complementary CMOS
switch (b) almost rail-to-rail to-rail sample and hold with NMOS switch, (c) rail-to-rail sample
and hold with bootstrapped switch (d) NAND gate with resistive load.
A New Analogue Switch for Very Low Voltage Applications, F. Muoz1 J. B. Palomo and M.
Kachare, IEE Electronics Letters, MAY 1 2003; v.39, no.9, p.701-702

V. CONCLUSIONS
a) Three basic techniques to reduce supply requirements of
continuous-time analog systems were discussed
b) A new family of low-voltage high performance linear analog
circuits that operate in continuous-time with single supply
voltages close to a transistor thresholds voltage presented
c) Most circuits presented are class AB and have also very low
static power dissipation
d) The circuits presented here will allow implementation of
mixed-mode systems with a single supply voltage Vdd<0.7V
in new CMOS technologies (<0.2um) with transistor
thresholds voltages close to 0.4v