Sub-1 V CMOS large capacitive-load driver circuit using directbootstrap technique for low-voltage CMOS VLSI

A novel sub-1 V CMOS large capacitive-load driver circuit using a direct bootstrap technique for low-voltage CMOS VLSI is reported. For a supply voltage of 1 V, the CMOS large capacitive-load driver circuit using the direct bootstrap technique shows a 3.3 times improvement in switching speed in driving a capacitive load of 2 pF compared to the conventional bootstrapped CMOS driver circuit using an indirect bootstrap technique. Even for a supply voltage of 0.8 V, this CMOS large capacitive load driver circuit using the direct bootstrap technique is still advantageous     

1.5 V CMOS full-swing energy efficient logic (EEL) circuit suitablefor low-voltage and low-power VLSI applications

A 1.5 V full-swing energy efficient logic circuit is reported that is suitable for next-generation low-power VLSI applications using a low supply voltage. At 25 MHz and at 1.5 V, the power consumption of the EEL circuit is 70% of that for an ECRL circuit and 47% of that for the static circuit     

A 1.5-V full-swing BiCMOS logic circuit

A BiCMOS logic circuit applicable to sub-2-V digital circuits has been developed. A transiently saturated full-swing BiCMOS (TS-FS-BiCMOS) logic circuit operates twice as fast as CMOS at 1.5-V supply. A newly developed transient-saturation technique, with which bipolar transistors saturate only during switching periods, is the key to sub-2-V operation because a high-speed full-swing operation is achieved to remove the voltage loss due to the base-emitter turn-on voltage. Both small load dependence and small fan-in dependence of gate delay time are attained with this technique. A two-input gate fabricated with 0.3-μm BiCMOS technology verifies the performance advantage of TS-FS-BiCMOS over other BiCMOS circuits and CMOS at sub 2-V supply     

A 1.5 V full-swing BiCMOS dynamic logic gate circuit suitable forVLSI using low-voltage BiCMOS technology

This paper presents a 1.5 V full-swing BiCMOS dynamic logic gate circuit, based on a dynamic pull-down BiPMOS configuration, suitable for VLSI using low-voltage BiCMOS technology. With an output load of 0.2 pf, the 1.5 V full-swing BiCMOS dynamic logic gate circuit shows a more than 1.8 times improvement in speed as compared to the CMOS static one     

Design of a 1.5 V full-swing bootstrapped BiCMOS logic circuit

A low voltage full-swing BiCMOS bootstrapping technique that allows the design of BiCMOS logic circuits at supply voltages down to 1.5 V is presented. This is the first 1.5-V design technique that does not require complementary bipolar devices. The technique is shown to have significant advantages over existing low voltage BiCMOS logic designs in sub-3 V operation. Inverter gates fabricated using a 0.8-μm technology were operated at 150 MHz with a supply voltage of 1.5 V. Implementation of this technique on dynamic logic is also demonstrated and experimental results match closely with simulation     

A 1.5-V differential cross-coupled bootstrapped BiCMOS logic forlow-voltage applications

Two new bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) differential logic circuits called differential cross-coupled bootstrapped BiCMOS (DC²B-BiCMOS) and differential cross-coupled BiCMOS (DC²-BiCMOS) logic are proposed and analyzed. In the proposed two new logic circuits, the novel cross-coupled BiCMOS buffer circuit structure is used to achieve high-speed operation under low supply voltage. Moreover, a new bootstrapping technique that uses only one bootstrapping capacitor is adopted in the proposed DC²B-BiCMOS logic to achieve fast near-full-swing operation at 1.5 V supply voltage for two differential outputs. HSPICE simulation results have shown that the new DC²B-BiCMOS at 1.5 V and the new DC²-BiCMOS logic at 2 V have better speed performance than that of CMOS and other BiCMOS differential logic gates. It has been verified by the measurement results on an experimental chip of three-input DC²B-BiCMOS XOR/XNOR gate chain fabricated by 0.8 μm BiCMOS technology that the speed of DC²-BiCMOS at 1.5 V is about 1.8 times of that of the CMOS logic at 1.5 V. Due to the excellent circuit performance in high-speed, low-voltage operation, the proposed DC²B-BiCMOS and DC²-BiCMOS logic circuits are feasible for low-voltage, high-speed applications     

A 1.5-V, 1.5-GHz CMOS low noise amplifier

A 1.5-GHz low noise amplifier (LNA), intended for use in a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, has been implemented in a standard 0.6-μm CMOS process. The amplifier provides a forward gain (S21) of 22 dB with a noise figure of only 3.5 dB while drawing 30 mW from a 1.5 V supply. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the LNA architecture, including a discussion on the effects of induced gate noise in MOS devices     

A 1.5-V high drive capability CMOS op-amp

A novel CMOS operational amplifier with a 1.5 V power supply is presented. It is based on a folded-mirror transconductance amplifier and a high-efficiency output stage. The amplifier achieves an open-loop gain and a gain-bandwidth product higher than 65 dB and 1 MHz, respectively. In addition, a 1 V peak-to-peak output voltage into a 500 Ω and 50 pF output load is provided with a total harmonic distortion of -77 dB. This performance was achieved using maximum aspect ratios of 120/1.2 and 360/1.2 for the NMOS and PMOS transistors, respectively, and a quiescent current as low as 60 μA for the driver transistors. The amplifier was implemented in a standard 1.2 μm CMOS process with threshold voltages around 0.8 V. It dissipates less than 300 μW     

1.5-V CMOS exponential current generator

A new low-voltage CMOS exponential current generator is proposed in this work. MOS transistors in weak-inversion region and a master?Cslave technique for the temperature compensation were used. The circuit was fabricated with standard CMOS 0.35???m process using a single supply voltage of 1.5?V. Experimental results validate the theoretical analysis and verify the effectiveness of the proposed structure. A 40?dB range linearly in dB controlled output current with less than 1.5?dB linearity error was achieved. The structure features ±1 and ±3?dB deviations for ±10% supply voltage and 80°C temperature variations, respectively.     

High-linearity continuous-time filter in 5-V VLSI CMOS

High-linearity self-tuning continuous-time filters, fabricated in a standard 1.6-μm 5-V CMOS process, are presented. Frequency control is achieved using switchable arrays of highly linear double-polysilicon capacitors in an active RC filter structure, resulting in tunable filters with very low signal distortion. One filter, a Tow-Thomas biquad, exhibits dynamic range and signal linearity of typically 91 dB. Another smaller implementation, a Sallen and Key filter, attains ⩾76 dB. Cutoff frequency response is maintained to an accuracy of around ±5%     

A fully integrated 1.5-V 5.5-GHz CMOS phase-locked loop

A 1.5-V 5.5-GHz fully integrated phase-locked loop (PLL) has been implemented in a 0.25-μm foundry digital CMOS process. From a 5.5-GHz carrier, the in-band phase noise can be as low as -88 dBc/Hz at a 40-kHz offset, while the phase noise for the free-running VCO is -116 dBc/Hz at an 1-MHz offset. The VCO core current is 4.6 mA. The prescaler is implemented using a variation of the source-coupled logic (SCL) structure to reduce the switching noise, and thus to reduce the PLL side-band spurs. At -18 dBm signal power measured off chip, the switching noise coupled through substrate and metal interconnect generates spurs with power levels less than -99 dBm when the loop is open. A new charge-pump circuit is developed to reduce the current glitch at the output node. By incorporating a voltage doubler, the voltage dynamic range at the charge-pump output and thus the VCO control voltage range is increased from 1.3 to 2.6 V with immeasurable phase noise and spurious level degradation to the PLL. When the loop is closed, the power levels of side-band spurs at the offset frequency equal to the ~43-MHz reference frequency are < -69 dBc. The total power consumption of the PLL including that for the output buffers is ~23 mW     

A 3-V CMOS low-distortion class AB line driver suitable for HDSLapplications

A fully differential CMOS line driver for use in high bit-rate digital subscriber line (HDSL) services Is presented. The circuit is fabricated in a single-poly quad metal 0.35-μm process and achieves <-70-dB total harmonic distortion while driving up to ±2.4-V, 200-kHz signals into 30 Ω with a 3-V supply. The circuit features a closed loop gain of 6.0 with minimal input capacitance (<200 fF). The circuit requires less than 20 mA of quiescent current and is capable of delivering dynamic currents as large as 180 mA. The circuit is a multistage amplifier utilizing nested-Miller compensation and an enhanced class AB output stage     

A 1.5-V 900-MHz monolithic CMOS fast-switching frequencysynthesizer for wireless applications

A new architecture for phase-locked loop frequency synthesizers which employs a switchable-capacitor array to tune the output frequency and a dual-path loop filter operating in the capacitance domain is proposed. It provides many advantages, including simplified analog circuitry, low supply voltage, low power consumption, small chip area, fast frequency switching, and high immunity of substrate noise. Implemented in a standard 0.5-μm CMOS process, a fully integrated fractional-N synthesizer prototype with a third-order sigma-delta modulator is designed for 1.5 V and consumes 30 mW. The total chip area is, 0.9 × 1.1 mm². The settling time is less than 100 μs and the phase noise is -118 dBc/Hz at 600-kHz offset     

A BiCMOS dynamic multiplier using Wallace tree reductionarchitecture and 1.5-V full-swing BiCMOS dynamic logic circuit

The authors present a BiCMOS dynamic multiplier, which is free from race and charge-sharing problems, using Wallace tree reduction architecture and 1.5-V full-swing BiCMOS dynamic logic circuit. Based on a 1-μm BiCMOS technology, a 1.5-V 8×8 multiplier designed, shows a 2.3× improvement in speed as compared to the CMOS static one     

A 1.5-V 50-MHz pseudodifferential CMOS sample-and-hold circuit with low hold pedestal

This paper describes the design strategy and implementation of a low-voltage pseudodifferential double-sampled timing-skew-insensitive sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit with low hold pedestal based on the Miller-effect scheme. The S/H circuit employs bootstrapped switches in order to facilitate low voltage operation. The design considerations for each building block are described in detail. The S/H circuit has been designed using a 0.35-/spl mu/m 2P4M CMOS technology and experimental results are presented. The 1.5-V S/H circuit operates up to a sampling frequency of 50 MHz with less than -54.6 dB of total harmonic distortion for an input sinusoidal amplitude of 0.8 V/sub pp/. In these conditions, a differential hold pedestal of less than 0.8 mV, 1.6 ns acquisition time at 0.8-V step input, and 0.8 V/sub pp/ full-scale differential input range are achieved.     

A 1.5-V DRAM for battery-based applications

Circuit techniques for 1.5-V CMOS DRAMS to be used in battery-based applications are presented. A three-level word pulse and a plate pulse are used to maintain the stored voltage in a memory cell, in spite of the minimized data-line voltage swing for reducing power dissipation. A 3.4- mu m/sup 2/ data-line shielded stacked capacitor (STC) cell is also proposed to enhance signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the memory cell array. The 1.5-V read/write operation is observed successfully through a 2-kbit test device. The data-holding time and alpha -particle-induced soft error rate of the device indicate that the possible performances for the 1.5-V DRAM are comparable to those for the existing 5-V DRAMs.<>     

A 1.5-V 0.7–2.5-GHz CMOS Quadrature Demodulator for Multiband Direct-Conversion Receivers

An integrated quadrature demodulator with an on-chip frequency divider is reported. The mixer consists of a transconductance stage, a passive current switching stage, and an operational amplifier output stage. A complementary input architecture has been used to increase the transconductance for a given bias current. The circuit is inductorless and is capable of operating over a broad frequency range. The chip was implemented in a 0.13-mum CMOS technology. From 700 MHz to 2.5 GHz, the demodulator achieves 35 dB of conversion voltage gain with 250-kHz IF bandwidth, a double-sideband NF of 10 dB with 9-33 kHz 1/f-noise corner. The measured IIP3 is 4 dBm for a 0.1-MHz IF frequency and 10 dBm for a 1-MHz IF frequency. The total chip draws 20 to 24 mA from a single 1.5-V supply.     

1.5-V current-mode CMOS true RMS-DC converter based on class-AB transconductors

A current-mode CMOS RMS-DC converter is presented. The basic building blocks are based on a novel approach to design current-mode computational cells. In such an approach, the large-signal V-I characteristic of class-AB transconductors is conveniently exploited leading to a very regular and compact implementation. A proper biasing scheme in such transconductors allows operation with supply voltage as low as V/sub GS/+2V/sub DSsat/. Measurement results from a practical prototype are presented in order to demonstrate the technique proposed here.     

Ultra-low-voltage bootstrapped CMOS driver for high performanceapplications

A driver circuit designed for high-performance and low-power consumption applications is described. It is based on an efficient bootstrapping technique and can be fabricated using a standard CMOS process. Comparative evaluations have shown its superiority over a two-stage CMOS driver and two recently reported circuits in terms of speed and power for different supply voltages and output capacitances