Current mode quadrature oscillator using current differencing transconductance ampliers (CDTA)

A.U. Keskin and D. Biolek Abstract: A CDTA-based quadrature oscillator circuit is proposed. The circuit employs two current-mode allpass sections in a loop, and provides high-frequency sinusoidal oscillations in quadrature at high impedance output terminals of the CDTAs. The circuit has no oating capacitors, which is advantageous from the integrated circuit manufacturing point of view. Moreover, the oscillation frequency of this conguration can be made adjustable by using voltage controlled elements (MOSFETs), since the resistors in the circuit are either grounded or virtually grounded.

Introduction

In the last decade, various new current-mode (CM) active building blocks have received considerable attention owing to their larger dynamic range and wider bandwidth with respect to operational amplier (opamp)-based circuits. As a result, current-mode active components have been increasingly used to realise high-speed and high-bandwidth circuits operating in the current or the voltage mode. The term quadrature oscillator (QO) is used because such a circuit provides two sinusoids with 901 phase difference. Various types of QOs are reported in the literature. In [1], an active RC integrator and a passive RC integrator are combined with a negative resistance to yield a QO. Another QO using active-R circuits is described in [2]. The study in [3] presents an operational transconductance amplier (OTA)-based current-mode integrator and an all-pass section and their application to design of a dual-mode QO. Operational transresistance amplier (OTRA)-based QOs using virtually grounded passive components have been introduced in [4]. Maheshwari [5] reports a QO using three current-controlled current conveyors of negative type (CCCII-) and oating passive components, generating relatively low-amplitude and unequal sinusoidal output signals. The QO described by Toker et al. [6] uses two positive second-generation current conveyors, but a voltage buffer is also required to avoid the loading problem. Alternatively, Horng [7] introduces a QO consisting of two current differencing buffered ampliers (CDBAs), however this circuit does not exploit the full capacity of the CDBA, since the positive input terminal of one active element is unconnected. Another earlier work on building a QO using the CDBAs is reported in [8]. In this paper, we propose new rst-order current-mode allpass sections using the current differencing transconr The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2006 IEE Proceedings online no. 20050304 doi:10.1049/ip-cds:20050304 Paper rst received 28th July 2005 and in nal revised form 22nd January 2006 A.U. Keskin is with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yeditepe University, Kayisdagi 34755, Istanbul, Turkey D. Biolek is with the Department of Microelectronics, Brno University of Technology, Udolni 53, Brno, Czech Republic E-mail: dalibor.biolek@unob.cz

ductance amplier (CDTA). Based on these canonic sub-sections, a quadrature oscillator is designed. Simulation results verifying the theoretical analysis are also included. 2 Current differencing transconductance ampliers The CDTA element [911] with its schematic symbol in Fig. 1 has a pair of low-impedance current inputs p and n, and an auxiliary terminal z, whose outgoing current is the difference of input currents. Here, output terminal currents are equal in magnitude, but they ow in opposite directions, and the product of transconductance (gm) and the voltage at
In Vn n x Ix

CDTA

Vp Ip

P z

x+ Ix+ Iz a gmVz Vz

p ip z

x+

Z gmVz n in ip-in x

Fig. 1

Symbol and ideal model of CDTA

a Symbol for the CDTA b Ideal model of CDTA. Here, Z is externally connected impedance
IEE Proc.-Circuits Devices Syst., Vol. 153, No. 3, June 2006

214

Downloaded 03 Jul 2006 to 160.216.225.212. Redistribution subject to IEE licence or copyright, see http://ieedl.org/copyright.jsp

Vdd IB1

M8

M10

M17

M16

M15

M18

M19

M20

M3

I+ M5 M11 z n p

M13 Vp

M14 Vn

M1 M2

M4

M6

M12 M21

IB3 M22

IB2 Vss

M7

M9

M23

M24

Fig. 2

CMOS-based CDTA

IB1 IB2 85 mA, IB3 200 mA, bandwidth 400 MHz, VDD VSS 2.5 V

the z terminal gives their magnitudes. Therefore, this active element can be characterised by the following equations Vp Vn 0; Iz Ip In ; Ix gm Vz ; Ix gm Vz 1 where Vz Iz Zz and Zz is the external impedance connected to the z terminal of the CDTA. CDTA can be thought of as a combination of a current differencing unit followed by a dual-output operational transconductance amplier, DO-OTA. Ideally, the OTA is assumed as an ideal voltage-controlled current source and can be described by Ix gm(V+ V), where Ix is the output current, and V+ and V denote the non-inverting and the inverting input voltage of the OTA, respectively. Note that gm is a function of the bias current. When this element is used in CDTA, one of its input terminals is grounded (e.g., V 0 V). With dual output availability, Ix+ Ix condition is assumed. A possible CMOS-based CDTA circuit realisation suitable for the monolithic IC fabrication is displayed in Fig. 2. In this circuit, transistors from M1 to M12 perform the current differencing operation while transistors from M13 to M24 convert the voltage at the z-terminal to output currents at the two outputs of the DO-OTA section. DO-OTAs transconductance (gm) is controllable via its bias current IB3. Also, a resistor (Rz) connected at the z-terminal can be used to adjust the gain of CDTA, while the voltage at the input of DO-OTA is Vz Iz Rz. The gate terminals of the output transistors M11 and M12 in current-differencing section are connected to biasvoltages to provide drain output and high impedance at z terminal (ideal current controlled current source, CCCS). Since an external resistor with relatively low resistance value (at the order of few kO) is connected to the z-terminal, the use of diode-connected transistors M11 and M12 becomes advantageous from IC manufacturing point of view. This is due to the fact that the need for two additional bias-voltages is eliminated by using diode-connected transistors. 3 CDTAbased quadrature oscillator

R1 lin p CDTA x C1 n z R3 a Iout

lin C2

p CDTA x n R2 z R4 b

Iout

Fig. 3

Two variants of CDTA-based current-mode allpass lters

p p R1 n C1 CDTA 1 R2 z x Io1 R3 R4 x C2 n CDTA 2 z

x Io2

Fig. 4

Current-mode quadrature oscillator using CDBAs

Sinusoidal signals at x terminals of both CDTA elements have 901 phase difference

The CDTA-based QO is constructed by using the AP sections of Fig. 3 cascaded in a loop as shown in Fig. 4. The current transfer function for the AP lter of Fig. 3a is 1 s Iout s R1 C1 gm R3 2 H s 1 Iin s s R1 C1 This circuit provides a phase shift of jo 2 arctanoR1 C1 3 The second allpass circuit yields a similar form of current transfer function (2), but with a sign difference. This second AP circuit in Fig. 3b provides a phase shift jo 180 2 arctanoR2 C2 4 For the sake of circuit uniformity and ease in practical implementation, it is convenient to set R R1 R2 and
215

Allpass (AP) lters are widely used in analogue signal processing in order to shift the phase while keeping the amplitude constant, to produce various types of lter characteristics and to implement high-Q frequency selective circuits. Many AP lter circuits are described in the literature using various types of CM active elements [1223]. However, only few of these AP lter circuits are suitable for QO realisation.
IEE Proc.-Circuits Devices Syst., Vol. 153, No. 3, June 2006

Downloaded 03 Jul 2006 to 160.216.225.212. Redistribution subject to IEE licence or copyright, see http://ieedl.org/copyright.jsp

C C1 C2 in the quadrature oscillator circuit of Fig. 4. We then obtain the oscillation frequency of the oscillator as 1 5 RC Therefore, the frequency of the proposed circuit is insensitive to variations in CDTA transconductances and R3 and R4. However, the amplitude oscillation condition must be fullled oosc gm1 gm2 R3 R4 1 6 where gm1 and gm2 are transconductances of CDTAs 1 and 2. Note that this condition can be adjusted without affecting the oscillation frequency. During the steady-state oscillation, condition (6) must be dynamically fullled. During the initial transients, the left-hand term of (6) must be greater than 1 to assure the soft-start of the oscillator. There are more possibilities how to provide it by controlling the left-hand parameters by the oscillation amplitude. 4 Non-ideal effects

auxiliary circuitry, but the oscillation frequency is now decreased. For simplicity, consider the identical values of R3 R4 Rz, gm1 gm2 gm, and identical parasitic resistances Rp Rn Rin of both CDTA elements in the oscillator. Then the analysis leads to the modied amplitude oscillation condition Rin 9 gm Rz 2 1 2 R In contrast to the ideal case, to maintain steady-state oscillations, it is necessary to increase current gains gmRz of both allpass sections. Then the oscillation frequency will be decreased from the ideal value (5) as follows oosc o0osc r 10 Rin 12 R This effect can be signicant for relatively high input resistances of CDTAs. The effect of non-zero input impedances of the p and n terminals can be reduced if possible - by choosing R1 and 1/(ooscC1) much greater than Rp and Rn, or by considering R1 reduced by Rp during the oscillator design stage. A more general method consists in decreasing the input resistance by negative feedback as shown in Figs. 5a and b. It can be proved easily that in the ideal case, the current transfer functions of the lters in Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 are identical. However, there are more benets of circuits in Fig. 5: We save the resistors R3 and R4, and parasitic input resistances are decreased owing to negative feedback. A drawback is that we need an additional copy of output current as the feedback signal.
Iout R1 lin feedback Iout CDTA x n C1 z R3 a lin C2 n R2 Iout b p CDTA x z R4 feedback Iout

In a non-ideal case, the CDTA can be characterised by Vp Vn 0; Iz ap Ip an In ; Ix gm Vz ; Ix gm Vz 7 where ap, an are the parasitic current gains between the pz, nz terminals of the CDTA, respectively, which are generally deected from their ideal unity values by the current-tracking errors, those absolute values being much less than one. In non-ideal case, assuming that the tracking errors of both CDTA elements of the proposed QO have the same values, the frequency of oscillations for the QO can be easily shown to be independent of the tracking errors of the CDTA, and still described by (5). However, the amplitude oscillation condition is modied to 1 8 2 Note that this condition can also be adjusted without affecting the oscillation frequency. The z terminal of CDTA has high impedance, and a small parasitic capacitance exists between this terminal and ground in the non-ideal CDTA model. Therefore, one may expect to see a pole at the angular frequency which is equivalent to o 1/(Rz Cz), where Rz and Cz are the internal parasitic resistance and capacitance of CMOS CDTA at this terminal. Since Rz value is at the order of megaohms, when a resistor of value RooRz is connected at this terminal, Rz77RER. Another non-ideal effect is caused by the non-zero input impedances of terminals p and n. If input resistances Rp/Rn between the p/n terminal and the ground are taken into consideration, then ideal transfer functions (2) and (3) of allpass sections of Figs. 3a and b are modied. For example, the resistance between the input and the p terminal of the section in Fig. 3a is increased by Rp, and the capacitive reactance between the input and the n terminal is modied by real part Rn. As a result, both the magnitude and phase responses are modied. The phase response is shifted towards the lower frequencies. Similar consequence is also valid for the alternative allpass section in Fig. 3b. Note that the amplitude oscillation condition can be again adjusted by gm1 gm2 R3 R4
216

a2 p

a2 n

Fig. 5

Modications of the sections in Fig. 3

Absorption by negative feedback of resistances a R3 1/gm, b R4 1/gm

Detailed analysis of the oscillator containing such modied allpass sections shows a further essential feature. Consider the oscillator of Fig. 4 with the rst and the second sections are modied according to Figs. 5a and b, respectively. The analysis will be again performed on the assumption that R3 R4 Rz and gm1 gm2 gm. However, let us distinguish different parasitic input resistances Rp and Rn of CDTAs. The analysis leads to some interesting conclusions. The amplitude oscillation condition is now fullled automatically owing to the local negative feedback in both allpass sections. To ensure reliable soft-start of the oscillation, some of the classical methods of amplitude stabilisation should be used. The oscillation frequency is now changed according to the formula oosc 11 o0osc r  2 Rp Rn 1 R
IEE Proc.-Circuits Devices Syst., Vol. 153, No. 3, June 2006

Downloaded 03 Jul 2006 to 160.216.225.212. Redistribution subject to IEE licence or copyright, see http://ieedl.org/copyright.jsp

As shown in Section 5, the frequency deviation from the ideal case can be now considerably less than for the classical topology in Fig. 4. In the case of identical resistances Rp and Rn, the inuence of parasitic input resistances on the oscillation frequency is totally cancelled. It should be noted here that, one might combine the analysis of non-idealities alpha and Rin together, and modify the study by adding frequency dependence of alpha rather than assuming it a constant term. 5 Simulation results

The quadrature oscillator conguration presented in this study is simulated using the CMOS-based CDTA circuit given in Fig. 2. For this purpose, the parameters of the 0.5 mm MIETEC real transistor model are implemented for all MOSFETs in the circuit. Transistor aspect ratios are indicated in Table 1.
Table 1: Transistor W/L ratios used in CDTA circuit simulations
Transistor M1M6 M7M10 M11M12 M13M14 M15M20 M21M24 W/L (mm) 8/1 5/1 20/2 16/1 6/1 4/1

Owing to the quadrature character of currents Io1 and Io2, IQ is a constant value, equal to the amplitude of generated waveforms. In (12 a, b), this amplitude is set to be 100 mA. For concrete values of Rp, Rn, and R, (11) gives an estimation of oscillation frequency to 1.05 MHz. It can be concluded that the effect of parasitic input resistances is practically supressed. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 6. The steadystate oscillations are achieved within 4 ms. The oscillation frequency is 1 MHz and the amplitude 100 mA, which can be adjusted by a circuitry, operating on the basis of (12). The THD factor is about 1%. It can be further decreased by improving the loop gain stabilisation circuitry.
100 A

0A

100 A 5 s

I (V 1)

I (V 2)

10 s time

Fig. 6

PSpice simulation

Sinusoidal signals at the x terminals of CDTAs in the oscillator shown in Fig. 4 with feedback current injection as indicated in Fig. 5

Conclusion

CDTA transconductance is controlled by IB3. SPICE simulations have veried that for IB3 in the range from 20 to 700 mA, gm is proportional to the logarithm of IB3. For 200 mA, gm 479 mA/V. As follows from condition (6), for steady-state oscillation, the corresponding external resistance connected to the z terminal is 2.88 kO. The input resistances Rp and Rn are rather high for this topology. Small-signal analysis leads to approximate values of Rp 7 kO and Rn 2 kO. With respect to values of resistors R1 and R2 mentioned below, one may expect indispensable inuence of input resistances on the oscillation frequency. In the rst step, a 1 MHz oscillator (Fig. 4) was designed with the following element parameters: R1 R2 15.9 kO, C1 C2 10 pF, IB3 200 mA. To ensure soft-start oscillation, R3 and R4 were set to 3.2 kO. PSpice simulation led to the following results. The steady-state oscillations were reached within 25 ms after turning the supply sources on. The amplitudes of output currents Io1 and Io2 are approximately 130 mA. Owing to the absence of auxiliary circuitry for loop gain control, the THD of generated waveforms exceeds 7%. The oscillation frequency is 779 kHz instead of 1 MHz owing to the effect described in Section 4. According to (10), this drop-off would be caused by parasitic input resistance of 5 kO on the simple assumption that Rp Rn. Finally, the principle of feedback current injection (Fig. 5) was applied. Resistors R3 and R4 were removed. Currents Ip1 and In2, injected into the p terminal of CDTA1 and the n terminal of CDTA2, were controlled as follows q IQ IQ 2 2 ; In2 Io2 ; IQ Io1 Io2 Ip1 Io1 100 mA 100 mA (12a, b, c)
IEE Proc.-Circuits Devices Syst., Vol. 153, No. 3, June 2006

In this study, a CDTA-based canonic quadrature oscillator circuit is proposed. The proposed conguration is attractive, because a) it can provide high frequency sinusoidal oscillations in quadrature and at high impedance output terminals of the CDTAs, b) the circuit has only virtually grounded capacitors, which is advantageous from the integrated circuit manufacturing point of view, and c) the oscillation frequency of this conguration can be made adjustable by using voltage-controlled elements (MOSFETs) [2426], since the resistors in the circuit are either grounded or virtually grounded. A special modication of allpass sections is proposed which effectively supresses the inuence of parasitic input resistances of CDTAs on the oscillation frequency. It is expected that the proposed circuit will be useful in various current-mode analogue signal processing applications. 7 Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under grants No. 102/04/0442 and 102/05/0277, and by the research programmes of Brno University of Technology MSM0021630503 and MSM0021630513. 8 References

1 Sedra, A. S., and Smith, K. C.: Microelectronic circuits (Oxford University Press, 1998, 4th edn.) 2 Vidal, E., Poveda, A., and Ismail, M.: Describing functions and oscillators, IEEE Circuits Devices Mag., 2001, 17, (6), pp. 711 3 Minaei, S., and Ciceko$ lu, O.: New current-mode integrator and all- - g pass section without external passive elements and their application to design a dual-mode quadrature oscillator, Frequenz, 2003, 57, (12), pp. 1924 4 Salama, K.N., and Soliman, A.M.: Novel oscillators using the operational transresistance amplier, Microelectron. J., 2000, 31, (1), pp. 3947 217

Downloaded 03 Jul 2006 to 160.216.225.212. Redistribution subject to IEE licence or copyright, see http://ieedl.org/copyright.jsp

5 Maheshwari, S.: New voltage and current mode APS using current controlled conveyor, Int. J. Electron., 2004, 91, (12), pp. 735743 . 6 Toker, A., Ozcan, S., Kuntman, H., and Ciceko$ lu, O.: Supplemen- - g tary allpass sections with reduced number of passive elements using a single current conveyor, Int. J. Electron., 2001, 88, pp. 969976 7 Horng, J.-W.: Current differencing buffered ampliers based single resistance controlled quadrature oscillator employing grounded capacitors, IEICE Trans. Fundam. Electron. Commun. Comput. Sci., 2002, E85-A, (2), pp. 14161419 8 Salama, K. N., and Soliman, A. M.: Novel MOS-C quadrature oscillator using the differential current voltage conveyor. Proc. Midwest Symp. on Circuits and Systems, 1999, Vol. 1, Las Cruces, New Mexico, pp. 279282 9 Biolek, D.: CDTA building block for current- mode analog signal processing. Proc. ECCTD03, 2003, Vol. III, Krakow, Poland, pp. 397400 . 10 Keskin, A.U., Biolek, D., Hancioglu, E., and Biolkov! , V.: Currenta mode KHN lter employing current differencing transconductance ampliers, AEU- Int. J. Electron. Commun. Accepted for publication, 2005 11 Biolek, D., Gubek, T., and Biolkov! , V.: Optimization of CDTAa based Circuits Simulating Ladder Structures, WSEAS Trans. Math., 2004, 3, (4), pp. 783788 12 Salawu, R.I.: Realization of an all-pass transfer function using the second-generation current conveyor, Proc. IEEE, 1980, 68, (1), pp. 183184 13 Soliman, A.M.: Generation of current conveyor-based all-pass lters from op amp-based circuits,, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, Analog Digit. Signal Process., 1997, 44, (4), pp. 324330 14 Ccekoglu, O., Kuntman, H., and Berk, S.: All-pass lters using a single current conveyor, Int. J. Electron., 1999, 86, (8), pp. 947955 . g 15 Toker, A., Ozo$ uz, S., Ciceko$ lu, O., and Acar, C.: Current mode - - g allpass lters using CDBA and a new high Q bandpass lter

16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26

conguration, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, Analog Digit. Signal Process., 2000, 47, (9), pp. 949954 Maundy, B.J., and Aronhime, P.: A novel CMOS rst-order all-pass lter, Int. J. Electron., 2002, 89, (9), pp. 739743 . g Toker, A., Ozo$ uz, S., and Ciceko$ lu, O.: New realization of - - g current mode tunable all-pass lters, Frequenz, 2003, 57, (56), pp. 128131 . g Toker, A., and Ozo$ uz, S.: Tunable lter for low voltage operation, Electron. Lett., 2003, 39, (20), pp. 175176 Metin, B., Toker, A., Terzio$ lu, H., and Ciceko$ lu, O.: A new allg - - g pass section for high-performance signal processing with a single CCII-, Frequenz, 2003, 57, (11-12), pp. 241243 Bodur, S., Kuntman, H., and Cicekoglu, O.: Design of f" rst-order allpass f" lters employing single modied third y y generation current conveyor. Proc. ELECO03, Bursa, Turkey, 2003, pp. 7478 Ibrahim, M.A., Kuntman, H., and Ciceko$ lu, O.: Canonical - - g biquadratic all-pass and notch lters employing differential difference current conveyor, Frequenz, 2003, 57, (7-8), pp. 162165 Maheshwari, S., and Khan, I.A.: Simple rst order translinear-C current-mode allpass sections, Int. J. Electron., 2003, 90, pp. 7985 . g Toker, A., and Ozo$ uz, S.: Novel all-pass lter section using . differential difference amplier, AEU- Int. J. Electron. Commun., 2004, 58, pp. 153155 Czarnul, Z.: Novel MOS resistive circuit for synthesis of fullyintegrated continuous-time lters, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst., 1986, CAS-33, pp. 718721 Takagi, S., Czarnul, Z., Iida, T., and Fujii, N.: Generalization of MRC circuits and its applications,, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst, I Fundam. Theory Appl., 1997, CAS- 44, pp. 777784 . Keskin, A.U., and Hanco$ lu, E.: CDBA-based synthetic oating g inductance circuits with electronic tuning properties, ETRI J., 2005, 27, (2), pp. 239242

218

IEE Proc.-Circuits Devices Syst., Vol. 153, No. 3, June 2006

Downloaded 03 Jul 2006 to 160.216.225.212. Redistribution subject to IEE licence or copyright, see http://ieedl.org/copyright.jsp