Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
143–164
2007
c Old City Publishing, Inc.
Reprints available directly from the publisher Published by license under the OCP Science imprint,
Photocopying permitted by license only a member of the Old City Publishing Group
INTRODUCTION
Analog VLSI can address almost all real world problems and finds exciting
new information processing applications in variety of areas such as integrated
sensors, image processing, speech recognition, hand writing recognition etc
[1]. All conventional analog circuits viz., op amps, voltage to frequency
converters, voltage comparators etc. are voltage mode circuits (VMCs),
which suffer from low bandwidths arising due to the stray and circuit
capacitances and are not suitable in high frequency applications. The
need for low-voltage low-power circuits is immense in portable electronic
equipments like laptop computers, pace makers, cellphones etc. VMCs are
rarely used in low-voltage circuits as the minimum bias voltages depend on
the threshold voltages of the MOSFETs. However, in current mode circuits
(CMCs), the currents decide the circuit operation and enable the design of
the systems that can operate over wide dynamic range. The low end of the
circuit operating range is limited by the leakage currents and noise floor
level while the high end is decided by degradation of the trans-conductance
143
144 S. S. RAJPUT AND S. S. JAMUAR
FIGURE 1
Block diagram of a CC.
per unit current available above the threshold voltage. These circuits can
give large bandwidths and are suitable for low-voltage applications. Current
feedback amplifiers (CFAs), Operational floating Conveyors (OFCs) Current
Conveyors (CCs) etc. are the popular CMC structures and most widely used
structure among them is the CCII structure [2]. In this tutorial article we
present some of the emerging applications of the CCs and the classification
schemes.
A CC is a three or more port (X, Y , Z ) network. The commonly used
block representation of a CC is shown in Figure 1, whose input-output
relationship is given by
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤
IY 0 A 0 VY
⎣VX ⎦ = ⎣ B R X 0⎦ ⎣ I X ⎦ (1)
IZ 0 C 0 VZ
where A, B, C assume a value either 1, 0 or −1 and R X is the intrinsic
resistance offered by the port X to the input currents. For an ideal CC
VX = VY and the input resistance (R X ) at port X is zero (equation (1)).
But in practical CCs, R X is a nonzero positive value. So the equivalent
symbol of a CC should include R X in its representation and the popular
CC symbol is shown in Figure 2 [3]. The equivalent circuits are used
to analyze the complex circuits. One can understand the circuit operation
better when the complex structures are simplified using equivalent circuits.
For an analog circuit designer precise equivalent models of devices are
essential for getting the near exact circuit performance and the one such
model is given in reference [4].
There are several schemes for classification of CCs. Most common techniques
among them are based on the characteristics of its ports X, Y and Z .
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 145
FIGURE 2
A CCII symbol.
CCs have also been classified similar to power amplifiers based on the
quiescent current flow.
Other CC configurations
Other CC configurations are electronically controlled CC (ECCII) differential
voltage CC (DVCC), differential difference CC (DDCC), fully differential
CC (FDCC) and operational floating conveyor (OFC) [9–12]. There are
some other variations in the above structure. A recently introduced CC
structure [4] has negative R X (equation (1)).
CCII REALIZATIONS
CCII is the most versatile CMC structure among all CCs and can be used
in almost all analog circuit operations [13]. The conventional applications
of CCs include amplifiers, oscillators, filters, wave shaping circuits, analog
computers etc. [9, 12]. Low-voltage and low-power architectures of CCs are
particularly suitable in the design of voltage and power starved systems. The
need of such systems arises in medical electronics, space instrumentation
etc. where we need longer life of batteries and/or available power is limited.
We take use a class AB CCII of Figure 3, to demonstrate its capability in
circuit and device structures.
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 147
FIGURE 3
Class AB CCII.
TABLE 1
Functions performed by circuit of Figure 5 under different conditions
FIGURE 4
Basic CCII based circuit structure.
FIGURE 5
Proposed circuit used in place of MOSFETs.
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 149
FIGURE 6
CCII based current square rooter.
150 S. S. RAJPUT AND S. S. JAMUAR
FIGURE 7
Characteristics of current square rooter for DC currents.
current (I X = I Z ) equals
1 2I I N
IX = IZ ≈ (3)
RX βn
The current I Z is the square root of the injected current I I N . A simulated
performance of the CCII based current square rooter is shown in Figure 7.
FIGURE 8
CCII based current squarer.
FIGURE 9
Response of current squarer for DC currents.
152 S. S. RAJPUT AND S. S. JAMUAR
FIGURE 10
CCII based OFC.
OFC structures
Operational Floating Conveyor (OFC) is another current mode analog
signal-processing (CMASP) cell. An OFC is more versatile analog building
block than an op amp and CCII [19]. The class AB realization of the
OFC can be obtained by suitable modifications in class AB CCII of Figure
4. The proposed modifications are very simple and it requires that the
connection between drain of M3 and gate of M2 be removed. The gate of
M2 is renamed as port X and the drain terminal of M3 now functions as
port W . The resultant OFC is a 4-port network as shown in Figure 10.
The resultant OFC circuit can be used to build current and voltage
amplifiers. The circuit of a current amplifier suitable for an OFC structure
is shown in Figure 11 [12, 13, 20]. Rin is connected between port X
and port W . From port W , a resistance R F is connected to ground. If a
current Iin is injected, the resulting structure behaves as a current amplifier
and the amplified current is available at port Z . The current gain (Ai ) is
(1 + Rin /R F ). The OFC based voltage amplifier is shown in Figure 12,
where and the input voltage is applied at port Y and the output is taken at
port X. The voltage gain (Av ) is (1 + R F /Rin ) [12, 13, 20].
CFA structures
A current feedback amplifier (CFA) is the most widely used CMASP
structure. The CCs can be used to get CFAs as well [12,16–18]. Figure
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 153
FIGURE 11
OFC based current amplifier.
FIGURE 12
OFC based voltage amplifier.
154 S. S. RAJPUT AND S. S. JAMUAR
FIGURE 13
CCII based CFA.
CCs can be used in built-in self-test structures to monitor the supply current
and/or currents in various branches of the circuits. This current gives the
signatures of the faults through which the location of these faults may also
be determined.
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 155
FIGURE 14
CCII based current sensor schematic.
FIGURE 15
CCIII based current sensor schematic.
CCII based sensors require that the voltages at current tapping point should
be small compared to the bias voltages so that the CCIII can safely operate
in its operating range.
The block schematic of CCIII based current sensor is shown in Figure
15. The current enters into port X and comes out of port Y . Since the input
ports X and Y present virtual short circuit, no voltage drop is required for
current tapping. The current flowing into the CUT is available at output
port Z for further processing, where one can process the signal through
neural computing techniques.
Aboard a space vehicle, space, power and weight constraints are at the
premium. In such applications, the measuring and control systems are
required to operate at low voltage and low power levels. In this section
we will deal with two emerging applications of CCII in the instruments,
which are must for in-situ measurements of space plasma.
Current Electrometers
The need for measuring very low currents that lie in the range of micro
amperes down to pico-amperes and even femto-amperes exists in many diverse
areas of research such as mass spectroscopy, particle accelerators, ultra high
vacuum technology, photo-metric measurements and atmospheric research
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 157
FIGURE 16
Single stage multi output port CCII.
FIGURE 17
Three stage CCII based current electrometer.
FIGURE 18
Output voltage characteristics at different ports of the CEM.
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT CONVEYORS: A TUTORIAL 159
FIGURE 19
Portable electronic plasma simulation source in BiCMOS technology.
FIGURE 20
Simulated current characteristics at various temperatures.
All CCIIs used in the plasma simulation source operate at ±1.0 V. The
output current (Iout ) varies between 5 pA to 40 µA. It has an output
impedance of 30 M and consumes 2.7 mW power. Figure 20 depicts Iout
when Rin /R Z ratio corresponds to the electron temperature values of 300 K,
400 K, 600 K and 1200 K. The ratios of resistances R1 /R2 and R3 /R4
have been selected as unity. As temperature decreases the slope of the
I − V curve increases. Iout can be attenuated or amplified to a desired level
to suit the specific requirement of the test instrument by choosing R3 /R4 .
Iout for three different voltage shifts (−0.20 V, 0.0 V, 0.20 V) is shown in
Figure 21. Other levels of voltage shifts can be selected through R1 /R2
ratios.
For Te measurement an ac signal is super imposed at bias sweep
and its effect is reflected in PEPSS current. This current is fed to the
electrometer for measurement. Corresponding to the different slopes, for
different temperatures, ac current signals of varying amplitudes are available
from the PEPSS. Thus, the proposed PEPSS can simulate the requisite
current signals for testing the instrument for its temperature measuring
capabilities as well.
FIGURE 21
Simulation of effects of plasma potentials.
2
µn COX W nkT q(VGS − VTN )
IDS = exp (6)
L qe nkT
FIGURE 22
PEPSS in CMOS technology.
where C is a constant.
Equation (7) shows that proper selection of R Z and R X can simulate
temperature effects. Influences of spacecraft charging have been incorporated
by the use of VS , R1 and R2 . R3 and R4 selection can be made to scale
the current outputs to desired levels. An ac signal superimposed, over Vin
is used for dI e /dV measurements needed for Te determination.
Simulation results show that the proposed source consumes 2.6 mW
power and has output impedance of 40 M. The output current ranges
from few pA to few microamperes. The I − V characteristics of current
source are similar to the one shown in Figure 20 for simulation of various
temperatures (300 K, 400 K, 600 K and 1200 K). Similarly, the I − V
characteristics of the source depicting the effect of spacecraft potential
are similar as shown in Figure 21. The spacecraft potential have been
assumed to be varying between −0.2 V, and 0.2 V with a step of
0.2 V.
CONCLUSIONS
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