Design of a CMOS Compatible CFOA and its Application in
Analog Filtering
A. Peña-Pérez, E. Tlelo-Cuautle, A. Díaz-Méndez, C. Sánchez-López
INAOE - Department of Electronics
{aldopp, etlelo, ajdiaz, csanchez}@inaoep.mx
Abstract
It is presented the design of a current-feedback
operational amplifier (CFOA) which is suitable for
implementation with standard CMOS integrated-
circuit technology of 0.35μm. The characteristics of the
CFOA are derived by using biases of ±2.5V and
Ibias=20μA. The usefulness of the CFOA is
demonstrated by designing mixed-mode biquads which
realize the low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, notch and
all-pass filter functions. As a result, it is highlighted
that the SPICE simulations of the biquad working in
voltage-mode are in good agreement with the biquad
working in current-mode.
1. Introduction
Recently, the current-feedback operational amplifier
(CFOA) has received prominent attention, so that it is
called a versatile four-terminals device which offers an
alternative way to design analog building blocks whose
usefulness allows implementation of current-mode and
voltage-mode circuits [1]-[11]. Most important is that
the CFOA possesses significant advantages over the
traditional voltage-mode op-amp (VOA) [1], mainly its
behavior does not depend on the gain-bandwidth trade-
off, it exhibits excellent high speed performance, very
high slew rate and ease of realizing various functions
with the less possible number of external components.
In fact, some of these advantages have been exploited
in numerous analog applications which include the
realization of filters [3-5], chaotic non-linear circuits
[6], [10], integrators/differentiators [7], sinusoidal
oscillators [8], analog dividers [9], etc.
Although there exist commercially available
CFOAs, such as the AD844 [11], they require high
biases. On the other hand, with the analog designers
preferences for CMOS technology, which is suitable
for low-power low-voltage implementations, there
exist the need to develop novel designs. Furthermore, a
CMOS compatible CFOA is presented herein to show
its advantages in designing mixed-mode analog
filtering applications. In section 2 is described the
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proposed CFOA design. Further, the application of the
CFOA to design voltage-mode biquads is given in
section 3. Afterwards, in section 4 the voltage-mode
design is modified to work in current-mode. Finally,
the conclusions are given in section 5.
2. CMOS compatible CFOA
The behavior of the four-terminals CFOA can be
described by (1), while its schematic representation can
be sketched as shown by Fig. 1, where it is appreciated
the cascade connection of a positive second-generation
current conveyor (CCII+) [2], and a voltage follower
(VF) [6].
ªVX º ª 0 1 0 0º ª I X º
« I » «0 0 0 0 » ««VY »»
« Y »=« » (1)
« I Z » «1 0 0 0 » «VZ »
« » « »« »
¬VW ¼ ¬ 0 0 1 0 ¼ ¬ IW ¼
CFOA
Y
CCII+ 1 W
X
Z
Figure 1. Circuit description of the CFOA
For the CFOA, its inverting and non-inverting
inputs (X, Y) are characterized by a very low and very
high impedance, respectively; while its current and
voltage outputs are delivered by Z and W, respectively.
On the other hand, among all the possible realizations,
in Fig. 2 is shown a design by CMOS integrated-circuit
technology. Furthermore, from this design it can be
appreciated that the non-inverting input (Y) presents a
high impedance. A voltage signal is followed to the
low impedance inverting input terminal (X) via a
 complementary class AB source-follower stage for all N-Channel. In this manner, the main
composed by M1-M4. characteristics of the designed CFOA are listed in
Table 1.
VDD

M1BP M2BP M1ZP M2ZP M2BPb

3. Designing Voltage-Mode Biquads
M4BP M5BP M3ZP M4ZP M5BPb
A popular application of CFOAs has been in
realizing voltage-mode (VM) and current-mode (CM)
M1 M2 M1b M2b biquad filters, and numerous circuits have appeared in
Ibias Y X
Z
W the literature [3-5]. For instance, in [3] a novel
M3 M4 M3b M4b configuration has been presented, which realizes all the
five generic filter functions, namely: low-pass (LP),
M4BN M5BN M3ZN M4ZN M5BNb
band-pass (BP), high-pass (HP), notch and all-pass
(AP). Most important is that all functions are realized
from the same circuit, which also realizes the four
M1ZN
M1BN M2BN M2ZN M2BNb
transfer functions, i.e. voltage, current,
VSS
transimpedance, and transadmittance functions. The
Figure 2. Schematic of the CFOA biquad employs four CFOAs as shown in Fig. 3.
To show the workability of the biquad, the authors
As one sees, the inverting and non-inverting inputs in [3] confirmed the realization of the five filter
are not bidirectional, as it is in the conventional op- functions by making a hardware implementation based
amp, where both inputs also presents high impedance. on the commercially available AD844, which requires
The drain currents of M2 and M4 are sensed by the higher biases than the ones used to design CMOS
cascode current-mirrors (formed by M1ZN-M4ZN and compatible CFOAs. For this reason, the goal of this
M1ZP-M4ZP) which transfer the current from terminal paper is to show the usefulness of the CMOS CFOA to
X to the high impedance terminal denoted by Z. generate the same behavior for the biquad. From Fig.
Afterwards, the voltage at the Z-terminal is then 3, the five transfer functions in voltage-mode are
buffered to the output-terminal (W) via the follower shown in Table 2.
formed by M1b-M4b, which in this design the VF is
identical to the one between terminals Y and X. Note r2

that the high impedance in Z-terminal is formed by the r6

output impedance of the cascode current-mirrors and r1
the input impedance of the VF between Z and W. VIN m
X
R1
CFOA W X
z
VO3 VO2 R2
Y CFOA W X
Table 1. Simulated and measured results Y
z
CFOA W X
z
VO1 r4
of the CMOS CFOA shown in Fig. 2 C1 Y CFOA W
z
VO4
C2 Y
Parameters Measured results n
AP
Open Loop Gain (dB) 122 r7
r3 BS r5
Unity Gain Bandwith (MHz) 34.6
Phase Margin (degree) 45.7
Figure 3. CFOA-based mixed-mode universal
biquad working in voltage-mode [3]
CMRR (dB) 41
Impedance at X-Terminal (ȍ) 1.65kȍ
The four generic filter functions in voltage-mode
Impedance at Y-Terminal (ȍ) 227.16Mȍ (LP, BP, HP and notch) are derived with the switch at
Impedance at Z-Terminal (ȍ) 125.51Mȍ BS and by choosing r2=r3; r4=r5=r6=r7. Thus, the
Impedance at W-Terminal (ȍ) 1.65kȍ circuit realizes a LP response at VO1, BP response at
Input Noise Voltage @ 100mHz (μV/¥Hz) 7.24
VO2, a HP response at VO3 and notch in VO4. The AP
response is realized when the switch is at the AP
position. The universal biquad shown in Fig. 3 was
designed with the proposed CMOS CFOA for
By using standard CMOS integrated-circuit
QO=0.82, fO=1KHz and HO=1; the values of the
technology of 0.35-μm of AMS processes, the CFOA
passive elements were taken as: R1=1.5Mȍ,
shown in Fig. 2 was biased with ±2.5V, Ibias=20μA,
R2=2.64Mȍ, r1=r2=…=r7=100kȍ and C1=C2=80pF.
so that the size of the transistors are: L=1.2μm,
The frequency responses are shown in Fig. 4, while the
W=60μm for all P-Channel MOSFETs, and W=35μm

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 Table 2. Universal biquadratic generic functions in voltage-mode
Filter Voltage-Mode

Low-Pass (LP)
V01 H 0ω0 2
=
( )(
− rr2 r R C3R C
= 2 11 2 1 1 2 r23
r
)
Vin D (s ) s + R1C1 s + r2 R1C1R2C2

Band-Pass (BP)
ω0
V02 H 0 Q0 s
=
( ) r3
r
1
RC s
= 2 11 1 1 r3
( )( )
Vin D( s ) s + R1C1 s + r2 R1C1R2C2

High-Pass (HP)
V03 H 0 s 2
=
− rr3 s 2
= 2 1 1
( )
Vin D( s) s + R1C1 s + r2 R1Cr13R2C2

Notch
V04 H 0 ( s + ω0 )
=
2 2 r3
r
= 21 1
( )(
s 2 + r2 R1Cr13R2C2 )
Vin D( s) s + R1C1 s + r2 R1Cr13R2C2

All-Pass (AP) =
( ( )
ω0
V04 H 0 s − Q0 s + ω0
2 2

=
) ( ) (s − ( ) s +
r3
r1
2 1
R1C1
r3
r2 R1C1 R2C2 )
Vin D( s) s + 2 1
R1C1 s+ r3
r2 R1C1R2C2

Table 3. Universal biquadratic generic functions in current mode

Filter Current-Mode

Low-Pass (LP)
I o ut H ω 2
= 0 0 = 2
( )( r3
r4
1
R1C1 R 2 C 2 )
I in D (s) s + 1
R1C1 s+ r3
r2 R1C1 R 2 C 2

Band-Pass (BP)
I o ut
=
H 0 Q0 s ( )
ω0

= 2
− 1
R1 C1 s ( )( )
r3
r5

I in D (s) s + R11C1 s + r2 R1Cr13R 2 C 2

High-Pass (HP)
I ou t
=
H 0s 2
= 2
( )s r3
r6
2

I in D (s) s + 1
R1 C 1 s+ r3
r2 R1 C 1 R 2 C 2

Notch
I out
=
H 0 (s2 + ω02 ) r
= 2 0
3
( )(s r 2
− 1
R1C1 R 2 C 2 )
s + s+
1 r3
I in D (s) R1C1 r2 R1C1 R 2 C 2

All-Pass (AP) =
( ( )
I out H 0 s − Q0 s + ω0
2 ω0 2
)=r (3
1
r6 s − 2
( 1
R1C1r5 )s + 1
r4 R1C1 R2C2 )
I in D( s ) s + 2 1
R1C1 s+ r3
r2 R1C1R2 C2

measured characteristics are given in the top part of Table 4. Simulated and measured results of
Table 4. the biquads
Voltage-Mode
4. Designing Current-Mode Biquads Parameters LP BP HP Notch AP
HO (V/V) 0.978 0.965 0.953 0.015 0.929
To generate the five generic filter functions in FO (KHz)
0.989 0.981 0.989 0.977 --
current-mode, r1 and r7 should be deleted [3]. @ 0.7
Therefore, the circuit has a zero input impedance and QO -- 0.823 -- 0.821 --
ideally infinite output impedance. An input current Iin Current-Mode
is injected into terminal m, and the output current Iout is HO (I/I) 0.962 0.953 0.966 0.015 0.941
taken out from the node n. Without r5 and r6 the FO (KHz)
0.991 0.986 0.955 0.977 --
circuits realizes the LP and BP responses, without r6 @ 0.7
and r4 the circuit realizes the HP response, with r5 and QO -- 0.822 -- 0.823 --
r4 open-circuited, the notch response is realized
(considering r2=r4=r6=r0), and finally, the AP The universal biquad working in current-mode was
response is generated with r2=r3=r4=r5=r6 , yielding designed with the proposed CMOS CFOA for
H0=1. QO=0.82, fO=1KHz and HO=1, and by using the same
values for the passive elements. The frequency

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 responses are shown in Fig. 5, while the measured
characteristics are given in the bottom part of Table 4.
Figure 4. SPICE simulation of the frequency
response of the voltage-mode biquad
5. Conclusions
It has been introduced the design of a CMOS
compatible CFOA implemented with integrated-circuit
technology of 0.35μm. The designed CFOA was used
to implement universal biquads working in voltage and
current-mode. Finally, form the SPICE simulation
results it was demonstrated the usefulness of designing
mixed-mode filter functions, which requires only bias
levels of ±2.5V and 20μA, which are lower than by
using the AD844. Most important is that the behavior
of the voltage and current-mode filters are in good
agreement.
6. Acknowledgments
The author is thankful to CONACYT by the support
to make this work by the scholarship No. 190605.
7. References
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Figure 5. SPICE simulation of the frequency
response of the current-mode biquad
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