European Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-216X Vol.66 No.1 (2011), pp. 75-84 EuroJournals Publishing, Inc.

. 2011 http://www.europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com

An Improved OTA for a 2nd Order Gm-C Low Pass Filter

M. SanthanaLakshmi Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Indiai, 641004 E-mail: santhanalakshmisekar@yahoo.co.in P. T. Vanathi Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Indiai, 641004 Abstract A low power Gm-C low pass filter used in a direct conversion receiver for mobile applications is presented. The proposed operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) consists of a class AB pseudo-differential input stage and a high linearity current multiplier with switched capacitor common mode feedback. Simulation results prove that, due to the class AB operation of the proposed OTA, a very high transconductance value of 540 S is obtained. A second order Butterworth low pass filter is implemented with this transconductance amplifier using TSMC 0.35m CMOS technology in H-spice, Synopsis tool. This filter consumes a very low power of 0.72mW from a 1.1V power supply. It also exhibits a wide tuning range from 50 kHz to 2.6 MHz and supports wireless standards like GSM, UMTS and WCDMA.

Keywords: Current multiplier, low pass filter, Transconductance amplifier, tuning range.

1. Introduction
In analog integrated circuits, the low pass filter forms an essential building block for many mobile applications. Since a direct conversion receiver has to receive different wireless standard signals used in mobile communications, a low pass filter has to be built to reconfigure its gain, linearity and bandwidth to meet the wireless specification. Various topologies have been reported for realizing these filters, such as passive RLC filters, active RC filters, switched capacitor filters, MOSFET-C filters and GM-C filters. Active RC filters operate at low voltage (Lim et al., 2005) but have a limited DC gain and range of frequency operation. For high frequency range, RLC filters (De Queiroz et al., 1988) are best, but they need large sized inductors incorporated in the integrated circuit design. Switched capacitor filters are popular due to their accurate frequency response and good linearity (Manai et al., 2001; Tabrizi et al., 2004), but they require sampling in the time domain. The clock cycle requires at least twice the maximum frequency of the signal to prevent aliasing. Thus, their ability to operate at high frequency is inhibited. A MOSFET-C filter presented by Tsividis (1986) is similar to an active RC filter with the exception that MOS transistors operate in the triode region and have a low frequency range due to the presence of a Miller integrator and op-amp structure.

An improved OTA for a 2nd Order Gm-C Low Pass Filter

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Among all the filters mentioned, Gm-C filters are best suited for low pass filter implementation because of their ability to operate at low supply voltage over a wide tuning range, and good controllability. As device sizes are scaled down, the need for analog circuits to work at relatively low power with decreased supply voltage has increased. So, in this paper, a high performance CMOS transconductance amplifier is built by combining a voltage-to-current converter and current multiplier. The design of the proposed transconductance circuit is described in section 2. A 2nd order Butterworth low pass filter, constructed with the proposed transconductance stage is discussed in section 3. Section 4 shows the results of simulations of the OTA and filter. A performance comparison of this filter with filters in the literature is also done in this section. Conclusions are presented in section 5.

2. Proposed Operational Transconductance Amplifier

The Operational Tranconductance Amplifier (OTA) is an important building block in the design of the Gm-C filter topology. It is a voltage-controlled current device and provides good tuning capability to Gm-C filters by varying the transconductance (gm) of the OTA. An OTA provides high open loop DC gain, large gain-bandwidth product (GBW) and high slew rate. It consists of an input stage, output stage or current multiplier and a common mode feedback (CMFB) circuit. Various topologies have been described in the literature for implementing the transconductance circuit, such as a fully differential structure, pseudo-differential structure and class AB pseudodifferential structure to perform voltage-to-current (V-I) conversion. In this paper, the proposed transconductance circuit consists of a class AB pseudo-differential FVF input stage, high linearity current multiplier and a switched capacitor common mode feedback path. Fully differential structures provide a pure differential output but lack common mode voltage cancellation and have less effect on common mode noise (Carvaja et al., 2005). To overcome this limitation, the pseudo-differential structure is preferred. Also, the class AB combination is well suited for the pseudo-differential structure as it operates from a lower supply voltage and hence provides lower static power dissipation as indicated in Lo et al., (2008). Amongst class AB pseudo-differential structures, there are class AB cascode, class AB folded cascode and class AB Flipped Voltage Follower (FVF) structures to perform the V-I conversion. The first two structures can be used both as the input and output stages of a transconductance circuit and are well suited for high frequency applications but have a limited output voltage swing and larger power dissipation (Wongnamkum et al., 2004). So, the Flipped Voltage Follower which supports the implementation of switched capacitor circuits is used along with a class AB structure to perform voltage-to-current conversion. This FVF circuit works well for low voltage/low power analog design with truly differential output as in Uwe Stehr et al., (2003). Thus, the transconductance stage is designed by utilizing a class AB pseudo-differential input stage with flipped voltage follower circuit to reduce the non linearity caused by the device. 2.1. Class AB Pseudo Differential Input Stage The class AB pseudo-differential input stage employing a FVF is shown in Figure 1. The circuit design is based on the conventional OTA as in Lo et al., (2008). The difference in topology is that transistors M3 and M4 from the conventional OTA shown in Figure 2 are removed and the remaining circuit is modified to the new proposed OTA circuit. Transistors M3, M4 and Ib in Figure 1 form the flipped voltage follower structure with transistors M1 and M2 acting as a class AB pseudo-differential input stage. Here, transistors M1 and M2 work in their saturation region to perform voltage-to-current conversion and reduce the non-linearity of the device (Carvaja et al., 2005).

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Figure 1: Class AB pseudo-differential pair

In the circuit shown in Fig.2, node X has low impedance and a voltage equal to (Vcm-VGS4). So, when a large balanced differential input voltage is applied, the current variations will be large at node X. This quiescent current is controlled by Ib and transistor M2 suppresses the variations at node X. Thus, the circuit operates in class AB mode. The advantage of the class AB pseudodifferential structure is that it provides DC common mode voltage cancellation and has less effect on dynamic common mode noise. Additionally, the circuit operates at a low supply voltage thereby reducing power dissipation.
Figure 2: Conventional OTA [7]
VDD

M7

M8

M13

M14

MF9

MF10

M18 M15

M17 M16 M11 M12

VB1 MF7 VoMF8

Itune

Ib Vo+ M3 M4 M9 Vcm Vi+ M1 M6 M2 ViM19 M10 MF3 MF4 Vref MF1 MF2 MF11 MF5 MF6

M5

2.2. Current Multiplier The current multiplier tries to linearise the output current from the class AB pseudo-differential input stage and provides a wide tuning range to the filter using Itune..The circuit of the High Linearity Current Multiplier is shown in the Figure 3. The transistors in the circuit work in their linear region so as to further improve the linearity of the transconductance circuit.

An improved OTA for a 2nd Order Gm-C Low Pass Filter

Figure 3: High Linearity Current Multiplier

78

For a MOSFET operating in the linear region with VDS a few times larger than the thermal voltage UT, its current exhibits an exponential dependence on VGS and its expression is given as V W I D = ID0 exp GS (2.1). L nU T In the above equation, the width and length of the transistor channel are W and L respectively, I D0 is the reverse saturation current and n is the sub-threshold slope factor. In the conventional OTA depicted in Figure 2, transistors M17, M18, and current source Ib are removed and two diode-connected transistors M9, M10 are added. Also, transistors M11 and M12 are replaced with two diode-connected transistors M13 and M14. The significance of the modified multiplier is that the four diode-connected transistors help in obtaining high impedance. Due to this high impedance, the noise effect is less in the transconductance circuit, which in turn reduces the power consumption and improves the performance of the filter. A wide tuning range is obtained by tuning the value of Itune. 2.3. Common Mode Feedback Circuit The conceptual topology of the CMFB circuit is shown in Figure 4. The CMFB circuit consists of two parts, a common-mode level sensing circuit and a comparator. The outputs from the current multiplier serve as inputs to the common mode level sensing circuit. The common mode level sensing circuit senses the output common mode voltage Vocm and serves as input to the comparator circuit. The comparator compares the output common mode level with reference voltage Vref and feeds back the common mode voltage VCMF to the circuit.
Figure 4: Conceptual topology of CMFB circuit

VCMF Vop Common-Mode Level sensing circuit Von Vref Vocm VCMF Comparator

OTA

When using fully differential structures in feedback amplification, the applied feedback determines the differential signal voltages but does not affect the output common mode voltages. The output common mode voltage is made equal to the common mode reference voltage by using

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the CMFB circuit. Hence, to control the output common mode voltages, the CMFB circuit is used in fully differential structures. There are two approaches to design CMFB circuits, namely the continuous time approach and switched capacitor approach. Switched capacitor circuits have become extremely popular because of their accurate frequency response, good linearity and wide dynamic range. In switched capacitor circuits, accurate discrete time frequency responses are obtained due to the coefficients of the filters. The transconductance circuit used here produces a differential output. So it necessitates a common mode feedback circuit in the OTA. Many CMFB circuits are reported in the literature (Lo et al., 2008; Wongnamkum et al., 2004; Uwe Stehr et al., 2003). But the FVF PseudoDifferential pair is well suited for switched capacitor circuits. So a switched capacitor CMFB from Wongnamkum et al., (2004) is used to provide the common mode voltage to the current multiplier and is shown in Figure 5. The switched capacitor CMFB uses capacitive voltage division to control the output common mode voltage.
Figure 5: Switched capacitor CMFB circuit
Vref

P1

P2 Vop Von

P2

P1

MF1

MF2

MF5

MF6 Itune

CS

Ca

Ca

CS

VCMF MF3 MF4 MF7 MF8 MF9 VSS

The circuit consists of two capacitors Ca and CS to average the output voltages and it adds the bias voltage to control the output common mode voltage. Vop and Von from the transconductance circuit are fed as inputs to the CMFB circuit. Suppose that the common mode level of the outputs Vop and Von increases, then the average voltage on capacitor Ca increases to control the output common mode level. P1 and P2 are two non-overlapping signals applied to the MOS transistors in the CMFB circuit which act as switches. By varying Itune, the tuning range of the OTA is varied to accommodate a wide frequency range in the low pass filter. The complete proposed transconductance circuit with Switched Capacitor CMFB circuit is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Proposed OTA

An improved OTA for a 2nd Order Gm-C Low Pass Filter

80

3. Filter Architecture
The second order Butterworth low-pass filter used in Uwe Stehr et al., (2003) is shown in Figure 7. The transfer function of the above filter structure is given as: g m1 g m3g m4 V g m4 C1C2 H ( s ) = out = (3.1) (3.1). g m3g m4 g m2 Vin 2 s + s+ C1 C1C 2 The transfer function of the 2nd order Butterworth filter is: 1 (3.2). H (s ) = 2 s + 1.848 s + 1 Recognizing the common transfer function of a 2nd order low-pass filter as 2 w0 H (s) = (3.3). w0 2 2 s + s + w0 Q and comparing (2) and (4), then: g g g 2 (3.4). = m w 0 = m3 m4 C1C 2 gm2
Figure 7: Second order Butterworth low pass filter
2*C2

2*C1

out-

ingm1 in+

gm2 +

+ gm3 +

gm4

out+ 2*C1 2*C2

The transconductances of gm1, gm3 and gm4 should be kept the same and the transconductance of gm2 is 1.848 times the other transconductances as in Uwe Stehr et al., (2003) to get the 2nd order Butterworth low pass filter response. When g m1 = g m3 = g m4 = g m and C1 = C2 = C , then g g (3.5). w0 = m Q= m C gm2 Where I I (3.5). g m = out + out Vin + Vin Now the transconductance g m2 of the 2nd order filter from (2) and (3) is g m2 = 1.848*g m (3.5).

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4. Simulation Results
4.1. Operational Transconductance Amplifier The proposed OTA and the low pass filter were designed and implemented with TSMC 0.35-m CMOS technology using H-Spice in Synopsis and are as shown in Figure 8 and 9 respectively. The device sizes of transistors in the OTA are given in Table 1.
Table 1: Circuit Parameters
Value 250m/0.35m 200m/0.35m 1m/0.35m 40m/0.35m 50m/0.35m 20m/0.35m 15 m/0.35 m 200m/0.35m 2A 10A

Components (W/L)1,2 (W/L)3 (W/L)4 (W/L)5,6,7,8 (W/L)9,10,11 (W/L)11,12 (W/L)13,14,15,16 (W/L)17 Ib Itun

Figure 8: H-Spice Schematic of Implemented OTA circuit

Figure 9: H-Spice Schematic of Butterworth low pass filter

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The open-loop AC frequency response of the OTA circuit is shown in Figure 10. The circuit is operated at 1.1 V supply voltage.
Figure 10: Frequency response of the OTA

A rail-to-rail output voltage swing of 0.5V can be obtained with a 100 kHz sinusoidal wave with a differential input of 0.1V and is shown in Figure 11. The settling response of the OTA is shown in Figure 12 when a step input signal is applied to the OTA. The slew rate of the OTA is 162 V/s.
Figure 11: Differential output voltage response to a 100 kHz sinusoidal input voltage

Figure 12: Transient response of OTA to voltage step

The variation of the transconductance with respect to frequency is shown in Figure 13. Simulation shows that the transconductance value is 540 S and the response is flat up to 40MHz.

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Figure 13: OTAs Transconductance

4.2. Second Order Butterworth Filter Figure 14 shows the unity gain frequency response of the 2nd order Butterworth low pass filter with 2.66 MHz cut-off frequency. The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and third order harmonic distortion (HD3) of the filter are -38dB and -57dB respectively with 0.4 Vpp input signal at its maximum cut-off frequency.
Figure 14: Frequency response of the 2nd order Butterworth low pass filter

Table 2 compares the performance of the 2nd order Butterworth low pass filter based on the proposed OTA with other filters recently presented in the literature. The number of transistors used in the proposed OTA is only 26 as against 30 in [7] and [9]. Also, a class AB pseudodifferential pair with FVF can be operated at a minimum supply voltage of 1.1V and the current multiplier along with switched capacitor CMFB consumes much less power to improve the performance of the filter. The cut-off frequency of the filter can be varied from 50 kHz2.6 MHz, by varying the value of Itune. This validates the performance of the filter based on the proposed OTA, in terms of low supply voltage, low power and reduced noise over a wide tuning range.
Table 2: Performance Comparison Table
This work 0.35 m 1.1 V 104 0.72 mW -38 dB (0.4VPP@ 2.6 MHz) [9] 0.35 m 2.5 V 120 500 mW -35 dB (0.6VPP@ 2.5 MHz) [8] 0.35 m 1.5 V 92 172 mW -34 dB (0.4VPP@ 2.5 MHz) [7] 0.35 m 2.5 V 120 1.9 mW -34 dB (0.4VPP@2.5 MHz)

Parameter CMOS Tech Supply voltage No. of MOS transistors Power THD

An improved OTA for a 2nd Order Gm-C Low Pass Filter

Table 2:
HD3 Slew rate of OTA Gm Tuning range

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Performance Comparison Table - continued

-57 dB (0.4VPP@ 2.6 MHz) 162 V/s 540 S 50 kHz2.6 MHz -39 dB (0.6VPP@ 2.5 MHz) 216 V/s 50 S 200 kHz2.5 MHz -41 dB (0.4VPP@ 2.5 MHz) 185 V/s 330 S 50 kHz5.7 MHz -50 dB (0.4VPP@2.5 MHz) 13 V/s 25 S 120 kHz2.25 MHz

5. Conclusion

A 2nd order low pass filter based on a FVF pseudo-differential OTA is implemented using 0.35m, CMOS process at a supply voltage of 1.1 V. The proposed transconductance circuit excels in performance in terms of very high transconductance with low power consumption at reduced noise level. The power consumption of the filter at maximum cut-off frequency is 0.72 mW, which makes it suitable for low voltage, low power analog processing units. Also, the wide tuning range of the filter (50 kHz2.6 MHz) meets the specifications of several mobile standards like GSM, UMTS and WCDMA.

References
[1] [2] J. Lim, Y. Jung and K. Jung, A Wide-Band Active RC filter with a fast tuning scheme for wireless communication receivers, Proc. IEEE CICC, Sep 2005 , pp. 637-640. A. C. M. de Queiroz and L. P. Caloba,Passive symmetrical RLC filters suitable for active simulation, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, vol.3, Jun 1988, pp.24112414. B. Manai and P. Loumeau,A Wide-band CMOS Switched Capacitor for UMTS direct conversion receiver, Proc. IEEE MWSCAS, vol.1, 2001, pp.377-380. M. M. Tabrizi and A. Amirabadi,A CMOS Elliptic Low-Pass Switched Capacitor ladder for video communication using Bilinear Implimentation, Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, vol.3, May 2004 , pp. 1723-1726. Y. Tsividis, M. Banu and J. Khoury, Continuous-Time MOSFET-C filter in VLSI, IEEE Trans. Circ. Syst.-II, Vol. CAS-33, No.2, 1986, pp.125140. R. G. Carvaja, J. Ramirez-Angulol, A. J. Lopez-Martin, A. Torralba, J. A. G. Galan, A. Carlosena and F. Chavero , The Flipped Voltage Follower: A Useful Cell for Low-Voltage Low-Power Circuit Design, IEEE Trans. Circ. Syst.-I: Regular papers, Vol.52, No.7, July 2005. T.Y. Lo and C.C. Hung, Multi-mode Gm-C channel selections filter for mobile applications in 1 V supply voltage, IEEE Trans. Circ. Syst.-II: Express briefs, Vol.55, No.4, April 2008. S. Wongnamkum and A. Thanachayanont (2004), New Class-AB Operational Transconductance Amplifier for High-Speed Switched-Capacitor Circuits, IEEE International Symposium on Communications and Information Technology, vol.1, Oct 2004, pp. 531-535. Uwe Stehr, Frank Henkel, Lutz Dallige and Peter Waldow (2003), A Fully Differential CMOS integrated 4th order reconfigurable GM-C Low Pass filter for mobile communication, Proc. IEEE ICECS, Vol.1, Dec 2003, pp. 144-147.

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