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2440 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 41, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2006

1-V DTMOS-Based Class-AB Operational Amplifier:


Implementation and Experimental Results
Hervé Facpong Achigui, Student Member, IEEE, Christian Jésus B. Fayomi, Member, IEEE, and
Mohamad Sawan, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, we describe a novel low-voltage gain, bandwidth, and linearity of their analog counterparts. This
class-AB operational amplifier (opamp) based on dynamic poses a great challenge to circuit design.
threshold voltage MOS transistors (DTMOS). A DTMOS tran- The reduction of threshold voltage is necessary for
sistor is a device whose gate is tied to its bulk. DTMOS tran-
sistor pseudo-pMOS differential input pairs are used for input low-voltage operation; on the other hand, the threshold voltage
common-mode range enhancement, followed by a single ended does not scale down with the supply voltage of future standard
class-AB output. Two versions of the proposed opamp (opamp-A CMOS technologies [2]. An obvious solution could be the
and opamp-B) were fabricated in a standard 0.18- m CMOS
process technology. Measurements under 5 pF and 10 k load
use of multi-process threshold technology, but unfortunately,
this kind of technology is more expensive and frequently not
conditions gave, for opamp-A, a DC open-loop gain of 50.1 dB, and
a unity gain bandwidth (GBW) of 26.2 MHz. A common-mode easy to reproduce. Some additional design advantages, such
rejection ratio (CMRR) of 78 dB, and input and output swings of as low-noise structures, could be obtained by using BiCMOS
0.7 V and 0.9 V, respectively, were achieved. Opamp-B has been technology, but at a higher cost. Several design techniques
optimized for biomedical applications, and is implemented to build have been proposed for the implementation of 1-V operational
the analog front-end part of a near-infrared spectroreflectometry
(NIRS) receiver of a multi-wavelength wireless brain oxymeter amplifiers (opamps); in fact, some authors reported circuit
apparatus. A DC open-loop gain of 53 dB, a GBW of 1.3 MHz, techniques for facilitating 1-V operation based on bulk-driving
and input and output swings of 0.6 V and 0.8 V, respectively, were architectures [3]–[5]. However, substantially small input
measured. Opamp-A consumes 550 W with an input referred transconductance is obtained when compared to a con-
noise of 160 nV Hz at 1 kHz. Opamp-B consumes only 40 W
ventional gate-driven MOS transistor, and furthermore, the
and exhibits a lower input referred noise of 107 nV Hz at 1 kHz.
equivalent input referred noise is larger. Other circuit topolo-
Index Terms—CMOS analog integrated circuit, differential am- gies using a standard CMOS technology process were reported,
plifier, DTMOS, low-voltage operational amplifier.
[6]–[13]. The major drawback of the architectures based on N-P
complementary rail-to-rail input stage [7], [8], is the increase
I. INTRODUCTION in the total harmonic distortion (THD) related to the use of N-P
complementary transistors, which produces an offset voltage on
ESIGN of high-performance analog IC circuits operating
D at low supply voltages has been gaining increasing im-
portance in the last decade, especially for applications such
the common-mode input voltage swing. Since the introduction
of dynamic threshold voltage MOSFET (DTMOS) in 1994
[14], several low-supply voltage circuits have been proposed,
as medical electronic implantable devices, as well as hand- but most of them achieved low threshold voltage by modifying
held and battery-powered electronic devices. Furthermore, the fabrication process, using the SOI technology [15], or by
the increasing use of mobile electronic products has directed
using multiple-input floating-gate transistors [16]. In single
the industry towards reducing dissipated power, especially for
well process technology, a DTMOS transistor is made of only
analog and mixed signal circuits. In addition, large-scale inte-
a pMOS transistor by connecting its gate to the bulk, no further
grations are predicted to target 1-V operation, and even less [1].
manufacturing process or step is required, and the device can
However, the trend towards lowering the power supply voltage
of circuitries in mixed-signal (digital/analog) environments be used in any standard CMOS process. This would result in a
often sacrifices the speed, noise requirements, dynamic range, partial forward bias of the source-to-bulk PN junction leading
to a reduced threshold voltage as the gate input voltage changes
with little drawback effects as the forward bias voltage is kept
Manuscript received October 13, 2005; revised June 8, 2006. This work
was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of below 0.7 V for modern submicron technology [17].
Canada (NSERC), the Microsystems Research Alliance of Quebec (ReSMiQ), In this paper, novel class-AB opamps for low-voltage, as well
and CMC Microsystems. as low-power and low-noise applications have been fabricated
H. F. Achigui was with the Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory, Elec-
trical Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, and tested. The circuits make use of the DTMOS folded cas-
QC H3C 3A7 Canada. He is now with PMC-Sierra, Mont-Royal, QC H3R 3L5 code differential input pairs to increase the input common-mode
Canada (e-mail: herve.achigui-facpong@polymtl.ca). range (ICMR). Standard Miller compensation is used for band-
M. Sawan is with the Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory, Electrical
Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, QC width enhancement. Section II describes the opamp architec-
H3C 3A7 Canada (e-mail: mohamad.sawan@polymtl.ca). ture, with a focus on the DTMOS transistor operation and mea-
C. J. B. Fayomi is with the Microelectronics Laboratory, Computer Science surements. Experimental results are reported in Section III along
Department, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC H2X 3Y7 Canada
(e-mail: cfayomi@ieee.org). with the effectiveness of the proposed solution for the design of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2006.883341 low-voltage low-power analog circuits.
0018-9200/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
ACHIGUI et al.: 1-V DTMOS-BASED CLASS-AB OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER: IMPLEMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 2441

TABLE I
TRENDS IN LOW-VOLTAGE CMOS OPAMP

II. LOW-VOLTAGE DTMOS-BASED OPAMP where is the zero bias threshold voltage, the bulk
Various methods have been used to design opamps under effect factor, and the Fermi potential. With the use of
low-voltage operation. Table I gives a simplified overview of standard digital technology, we can only implement p-type
the methods used to overcome the main limitations when im- DTMOS, as their n-well can be controlled. When the input
plementing 1-V opamp designs, along with their related perfor- voltage at the gate of a pseudo-pMOS-based DTMOS transistor
mances. The proposed implementation makes use of DTMOS is high, the transistor turns to the off-state, and presents the
transistors. We have achieved an average threshold voltage of same , off-current , and subthreshold slope as a regular
0.35 V for pMOS-based DTMOS transistors, compared to pMOS. When the input voltage decreases, the transistor is in
0.55 V for regular pMOS devices. Such threshold voltage its on-state, and the bulk-to-source junction voltage is
shift is similar to value obtained when using forward-biased forward biased and thus reduces of the DTMOS transistor
source-bulk junction design technique [18]. thanks to the body effect, resulting in a higher source-to-drain
The opamp consists of a differential input stage and a current than that of regular pMOS. This phenomenon
class-AB output stage capable of driving off chip resistive load enables us to take advantage of the maximum input range,
as described in the block diagram of Fig. 1(a). The biasing and makes the DTMOS transistor the choice for subthreshold
circuit consists of a standard current source using a resistor and operation logic, without the need for any extra area [19], [20].
an nMOS transistor. A wide-swing current mirror with high In addition, due to its gate-to-body tied structure, DTMOS
output impedance is used to produce bias voltages and operating in the subthreshold region exhibit similar character-
as shown in Fig. 1(b), (c), and (d). istics to a lateral bipolar p-n-p transistor, without requiring its
relatively large base current to operate, and having lower flicker
A. DTMOS Transistor noise than regular MOS [20].
A DTMOS transistor is a device whose gate is tied to its
substrate. Therefore, the device can be seen either as a lat- B. Input Stage Design
eral bipolar p-n-p, or as pMOS with a dynamically regulated
threshold. Consequently, the substrate voltage in DTMOS We recently proposed two folded cascode class-AB opamp
changes with the gate input voltage, and causes to change architectures [19], [20] which are illustrated in Fig. 1(b) and (c).
accordingly, as demonstrated in (1): Typically, pMOS threshold voltage is much larger than that of
nMOS; consequently, to achieve 1-V operation or less, we used
pMOS-based DTMOS transistor pairs in the differ-
(1) ential input. In both proposed designs, the input stage uses a
2442 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 41, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2006

Fig. 1. Schematic of the DTMOS-based opamp. (a) Block scheme. (b) Differential input stage for opamp-A. (c) Differential input stage for opamp-B. (d) Class-AB
output stage.

folded cascode wide-swing current mirror – . In addi- means of monitoring and imaging brain function and biological
tion, transistors and have been added to enhance tissues, because of the relatively low absorption of water and
the slew-rate limitation of the folded cascode configuration. high absorption of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in the
When the opamp is slew-rate limited, these transistors prevent NIR region of 600–900 nm. The NIRS device is composed of
the drain of and from having large transients which two parts: the emitter and the receivers. The emitter consists of
change their small-signal voltages to levels close to the positive three NIR laser diodes emitting light at discrete wavelengths of
power-supply voltage. DTMOS transistors – provide 735 nm, 840 nm, and 940 nm. The receivers are a set of six sep-
the required bias current for the differential input transistors, arate identical sensors, optically and electrically isolated from
and for the cascode current mirror. For the opamp-A, which each other. Each sensor consists of a CMOS photodiode with a
is illustrated in Fig. 1(b), the use of DTMOS differential pairs built-in current-to-voltage converter, voltage opamp, filter, and
enables us to take advantage of the maximum input range, while mixer. The CMOS photodiode transforms the reflected light
having all transistors operating in the strong inversion region. into current. A transimpedance amplifier is used to transform
Also, transistors and ( and ) are designed the currents extracted from the photodiodes into voltages, and
to provide adequate bias voltage to , respectively. the low-noise, low-power, DTMOS-based class-AB opamp-B is
These transistors implement the gain boosting technique for used to selectively amplify the low-amplitude signal before it is
high DC gain enhancement [21]. filtered and then demodulated.
The opamp-B circuit depicted in Fig. 1(c) has been optimized The pMOS-based DTMOS and devices of the input
for biomedical applications and is implemented to build the stage of opamp-B are operated between weak and moderate in-
analog front-end part of a near-infrared spectroreflectometry version regions. Such operation ensures transconductance effi-
(NIRS) receiver of a multi-wavelength wireless brain oxymeter ciency for the lowest amount of input referred gate
apparatus.Such device would provide a portable, noninvasive noise voltage at the minimum possible bias current. However,
ACHIGUI et al.: 1-V DTMOS-BASED CLASS-AB OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER: IMPLEMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 2443

TABLE II
DEVICE SIZES OF DIFFERENTIAL INPUT STAGE FOR OPAMP-A AND OPAMP-B

Fig. 3. Microphotograph of the DTMOS-based opamp-A.

Fig. 4. Microphotograph of the DTMOS-based opamp-B.

a ratio of 2733, to ensure subthreshold voltage operation


under a bias current of 3.88 A per device. Furthermore, oper-
ational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) have been used to
provide adequate bias voltages to and , and to en-
Fig. 2. DTMOS transistor. (a) Micrograph of the device. (b) Test bench used.
hance small-signal operation stability. Since the negative feed-
(c) Measured total source current against source-gate voltage for various source- back needed to stabilize the active cascode devices
drain voltage. in opamp-A is provided by transistors used in a
common-source configuration, for to operate in
their linear region, the minimum voltage at their gate should
all other transistors are biased in the strong inversion region. be higher than one threshold voltage; thus, for very low level
Typically, CMOS transistors operating in subthreshold are bi- signal amplitude, the feedback loop through be-
ased at very small drain currents in the order of a few nanoam- comes unstable. With the use of OTA in the feedback loop of ac-
peres, but provide a limited gain–bandwidth product (GBW). tive cascode devices in the opamp-B as depicted in
However, for CMOS transistors designed with large width-to- Fig. 1(c), this requirement is no longer necessary. Consequently,
length ( ) ratios, subthreshold operation is possible at mod- opamp-B exhibits enhanced stability while processing signals
erately large currents, resulting in a lower input noise voltage with small amplitude. Table II gives the device parameters of
and higher GBW product. The input devices and have the differential input stage for both opamp-A and opamp-B.
2444 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 41, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2006

Fig. 5. Measured transient results. (a) Step input response. (b) Sine response with an input signal amplitude of 0.7 V for opamp-A. (c) Step input response.
(d) Sine response with an input signal amplitude of 0.6 V for opamp-B.

C. Class-AB Output Stage metal-to-metal (MiM) capacitors. Nominal values for the
The output stage is a key point in the design of low-voltage threshold voltages are approximately 0.47 V and 0.55 V for
amplifiers since it greatly affects the final features of the ampli- nMOS and pMOS transistors, respectively.
fier itself. The low-voltage class-AB output stage that we used is
shown in Fig. 1(d) [22]. This architecture namely current sub-
tracting class-AB has been originally based on a bipolar low- A. DTMOS Measurements
voltage translinear loop that is used to perform the quiescent
current control [23], [24]. The signal is split to the output by the A DTMOS device m m was fabricated
output transistors , and current mirrors – and tested; its die micrograph is shown in Fig. 2(a). We used the
and – , which provide a low impedance signal path Keithley 236 Source-Measure Unit (SMU) with the test setup as
to the output. Quiescent current control is based on the current illustrated in Fig. 2(b) to measure the source current against
comparison performed at the drain of transistor . source-gate voltage for different values of the source-drain
voltage of the DTMOS transistor [Fig. 2(c)]. It is important
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS to note that large leakage current is generated for larger
The proposed opamps were fabricated in a standard 0.18- m than 0.7 V, as the source-to-bulk p-n junction diode becomes
single-poly six-metal salicide CMOS process technology with forward biased.
ACHIGUI et al.: 1-V DTMOS-BASED CLASS-AB OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER: IMPLEMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 2445

Fig. 6. Measured step response for input signal with low amplitude (0.1 V ).
(a) Opamp-A. (b) Opamp-B. Fig. 7. Measured DC transfers characteristics of the input common-mode
range. (a) Opamp-A. (b) Opamp-B.

B. Opamps Measurements
opamp-B, which has been optimized for biomedical applica-
The die micrographs of opamp-A and opamp-B, using the tions, we measured a DC open-loop gain of 53 dB, and a unity
input stage of the circuit presented in Fig. 1(b) and (c), are frequency of 1.3 MHz. The latter has a lower input referred noise
presented in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively. Measurements were of 107 nV Hz at 1 kHz, with a power consumption of only
taken using the Agilent 33250A function waveform generator 40 W.
and the Tektronix TDS7154 oscilloscope, with a 5-pF capac- The measured transient responses for a low amplitude step
itive load in parallel with a 10-k load. The measured input input signal of 0.1 are shown in Fig. 6(a) for opamp-A,
and output common-mode range voltages are 0.7 V and 0.9 V where the use of gain boosted transistors – introduced
for opamp-A, and 0.6 V and 0.8 V for opamp-B, respectively. small oscillations, due to instability in the feedback loop through
The measured transient results for a step input signal are active cascode devices and as depicted in the graph
shown in Fig. 5(a) for opamp-A and in Fig. 5(c) for opamp-B. of Fig. 6(a). The OTA used in the folded cascode at the input
Fig. 5(b) and (d) depict the response to a 0.7 and 0.6 stage of opamp-B has enabled us to achieve higher stability
sinusoid input signal for the proposed opamp-A and opamp-B, when the inputs are processing a signal with small amplitude,
respectively. as illustrated in Fig. 6(b). This ability for an opamp to linearly
For opamp-A, the measured DC open-loop gain is 50.1 dB process small levels of input signal is a key requirement for the
with a GBW of 26.2 MHz and a common-mode rejection ratio amplifier for modules of the analog front-end receiver [20].
(CMRR) of 78 dB. It consumes 550 W of power, and has an The DC transfers characteristic of opamp-A and opamp-B are
input referred noise of 160 nV Hz at 1 kHz. Also, for the depicted in Fig. 7(a) and (b), respectively. Moreover, Fig. 8(a)
2446 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 41, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2006

Fig. 8. Measured common-mode input range. (a) Opamp-A. (b) Opamp-B. Fig. 9. Measured transient results for opamp-A. (a) Noninverting configuration
with a gain of 2; upper: input signal with amplitude of 0.299 V ; lower: output
signal. (b) Inverting configuration with a gain of 1; upper: input signal with an
and (b) illustrate the input common-mode range of opamp-A amplitude of 0.3 V ; lower: output signal.
and opamp-B, respectively.
In addition, the step input response measurements of
opamp-A when it is used in a noninverting configuration with a
gain of two is illustrated in Fig. 9(a), and the step input response
when it is used in the inverting configuration is illustrated in
Fig. 9(b). Similar results should be obtainable for the opamp-B.
The minimum experimental supply voltage is 0.8 V. In fact,
Fig. 10 depicts the ability of opamp-A to process the step
input signal of an amplitude as high as 0.57 when the
supply voltage is as low as 0.8 V. Table III summarizes the
performances of both opamp-A and opamp-B.

C. Harmonic Distortion Analysis


With the use of a class-AB output stage, it is important to
outline how far the proposed opamps can dependably reproduce
the signal applied at its input. Evaluation of the misshapen re-
sponses between the fundamental frequency at the input and at Fig. 10. Measured transient results for opamp-A under a supply voltage of
0.8 V with a step input signal of amplitude of 0.57 V .
the output is done by calculating the harmonic and inter-modu-
lation distortion levels between the sample data. A fast Fourier
transform (FFT) analysis was performed, and the power spec- with an input sinusoidal signal frequency of 4.0 kHz, and an am-
tral density of opamp-A’s output signals are shown in Fig. 11(a), plitude of 0.7 . Fig. 11(b) depicts the measured output signal
ACHIGUI et al.: 1-V DTMOS-BASED CLASS-AB OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER: IMPLEMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 2447

TABLE III
PERFORMANCE SUMMARY OF THE MEASURED RESULTS

Fig. 12. Measured total harmonic distortion. (a) Opamp-A. (b) Opamp-B.

spectrum of opamp-B, with an input sinusoidal signal frequency


of 10 kHz and an amplitude of 0.6 . Fig. 12(a) and (b) show
the measured THD of the eighth first harmonics for opamp-A
and opamp-B, respectively, in unity-gain configuration for dif-
ferent peak-to-peak amplitude level of a 4-kHz input sinusoidal
signal.

IV. CONCLUSION
A novel opamp architecture was reported along with its exper-
imental measurements. Two versions of this opamp were fabri-
cated for 1-V applications using DTMOS transistors under stan-
dard 0.18- m CMOS process technology. Measurements show
that the use of dynamic threshold pMOS transistors permits im-
plementation of analog circuits at low supply voltage. For the
first design, opamp-A, the circuit operates with a power supply
as low as 1-V, while providing a DC open-loop gain of 50.1 dB
and a GBW of 26.2 MHz, under a load condition of 5 pF and
10 k . This opamp consumes 550 W of power. Applications
of this circuit could include switched-capacitor filters, data con-
verters or any sampled-data systems. However, the second de-
sign (opamp-B) exhibits a low power consumption of 40 W,
while presenting a DC open-loop gain of 53 dB, a GBW of
1.3 MHz, and an input referred noise of 107 nV Hz at 1 kHz.
These features were measured under the same load conditions
as opamp-A. Opamp-B is intended to build the analog front-end
part of a NIRS receiver of a multi-wavelength wireless brain
oxymeter apparatus. The minimum experimental supply voltage
is 0.8 V for the proposed circuits.

Fig. 11. Measured output spectrum. (a) Opamp-A with a sine input signal am-
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[22] F. Silveira and D. Flandre, “Analysis and design of a family of low-
gies Laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal. He is the editor of Springer
power class AB operational amplifiers,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Cir- Mixed-Signal Letters, Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Circuits and Sys-
cuits and Systems, 2000, pp. 94–99. tems (CAS) Society, Chair of the IEEE Biomedical CAS (BioCAS) Technical
[23] J. Fonderie and J. H. Huijsing, “Operational amplifier with 1-V rail-to- Committee, and member of the Biotechnology Council representing the IEEE
rail multipath-driven output stage,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. CAS Society. He received the Barbara Turnbull Award for spinal cord research
21, no. 12, pp. 1817–1824, Dec. 1991. (2003), the Medal of Merit from the Lebanese President (2005), the J. Armand
[24] F. Thus, “A compact bipolar class AB output stage using 1 V power Bombardier Award from the Association Francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS),
supply,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 1718–1722, and the American University of Science and Technology Achievement Award.
Dec. 1992. Dr. Sawan is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the IEEE.

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