Low Sensitivity Coupled CMOS CCII Biquads

Edi Emanovic and Drazen Jurisic George S. Moschytz

University of Zagreb / Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Bar-Ilan University / Faculty of Engineering
Computing Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
Unska 3, Zagreb, Croatia George-S.Moschytz@biu.ac.il
edi.emanovic@gmail.com; drazen.jurisic@fer.hr

Abstract—In this paper we examine the influence of coupling be tuned independently of each other, therefore in Section
to reduce the sensitivity to component tolerances in a CMOS- III.C, in order to examine the pole frequency, p sensitivity,
CCII realization of a fourth-order band-pass filter using two two- we will vary resistors R1 and R2, simultaneously (see Fig. 1).
integrator biquads: cascaded and coupled. It is shown how the ps
I (s)
CCII non-idealities, causing lossy integrators, influence the  TBP ( s)  out  k 'BP  2  
coupled biquad design. With the example of a fourth-order I in ( s ) s  ( p / Qp ) s   2p
1MHz/100kHz band-pass filter, the design is tested with post-
layout simulations with AMS 0.35-micron technology using R5 1 R8 R1C1p k R
 p   Qp   k 'BP  BP  k BP  8  
Cadence. The analysis of the performance of both filters is done R6 R1R2CC
1 2 R5 Qp R14
with Cadence. It is demonstrated that the coupled biquads, By LPBP transformation the fourth-order geometrically-
although having one more CCII and a resistor, have significantly
symmetrical BP filter is obtained in cascade, as shown in Fig.
lower sensitivity to component tolerances than the equivalent
biquad cascade.
2(a), and then, by application of feedback around the cascade,
the coupled version is obtained in Fig. 2(b). The nonidealities
Keywords—CCII; Non-idealities; Cascaded Biquads; Coupled of the CCII, used for the filters in Figs. 1 and 2, are shown in
Biquads; Cadence; AMS 0.35 m Fig. 3. The schematic of CCII on transistor level is given in [1].
I. INTRODUCTION The non-unity DC gains and resistive parasitic parameters
of the real CCII in Fig. 3 at mid frequencies are given by:
In a recent publication [1] it was shown that the influence
of CCII parasitics in IC band-pass (BP) filters realized by AV=0.975, AI=0.995, RX=18.33Ω, RY=174.2kΩ, RZ=87.5kΩ.(3)
biquads in cascade using second-generation current conveyors In this paper only the DC nonidealities (3), which are
(CCIIs) is very high. It is also well known, and has been influential at mid frequencies (MHz), are used. At high
demonstrated empirically in [2], that negative feedback in the frequencies (GHz), a model with frequency-dependent transfer
realization of fourth-order BP filters designed with coupled functions AV(s)=VX(s)/VY(s) and AI(s)=IZ(s)/IX(s), as well as
biquads reduces their sensitivity to variations of passive reactive values of LX, CY and CZ of impedances at X, Y and Z
components. A general analysis of the sensitivity to component nodes of CCII, respectively, must be used.
tolerances of coupled resonators, compared to that of the
equivalent resonator cascade, is given in [3]. In this paper we
present the design procedure for coupled resonators and
biquads in IC form using CMOS CCII devices as amplifiers.
We demonstrate the improvement of sensitivity to component
variations achieved with the coupled biquads by comparing the
Cadence simulation of a cascaded two-biquad fourth-order BP
with its equivalent coupled-biquad BP filter.
The design equations for the parameters, and for the
Fig. 1. Second-order, two-integrator, BP CM filter using only CCII+.
components of the filters are presented in Section II and III.
The analysis of the IC BP filter is presented both for the β2
cascaded and coupled cases, based on a layout for the AMS ‐
+
0.35m technology i3t80 using Cadence. TBP1(s) TBP2(s) Σ  FBP1(s) FBP2(s)
(a) BP cascade of fourth order (b) BP coupled structure of fourth order
II. ANALYSIS OF A FOURTH-ORDER BAND-PASS FILTER
Fig. 2. Fourth-order BP filter: (a) cascaded sections, and (b) coupled sections.
INCLUDING PARASITICS
Consider the two-integrator, current-mode biquad shown in
Fig. 1. Its BP current transfer function TBP(s), in terms of the
pole frequency p, the pole Q, Qp, and the gain factor k'BP, is
given in (1) and (2). Note that parameters p, Qp, and kBP can
This work was fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under
project (IP-2016-06-1307) "Fractional analog and mixed systems for signal
processing". Fig. 3. Model of CCII+ nonidealities.
 The current transfer function of the biquads inside the Comparing (9) and (12), where T ( s )  TCA ( s )  TCO ( s ) , we
coupled structure in Fig. 2(b), is given by: have from the denominators:
R5 01  4p 0   p4 0  k ' 02l  13
I ( s) R14 s  0l ( p2 0 / q p 0 )( p1   p 2 )  k ' 20l 2 1
FBPi ( s)  out  ; i  1, 2, (4)  A    14
I in ( s) R 01 R 01 02  3
Qp 2  2 Qp1
1 5  5 p0
R8 s  0l R6 s  0l s  0l ( p2 0 / q 2p 0 )   p21   p2 2  k ' 1 1
where  B    22  2 15
1 1  2p 0 Q p1Q p 2 2
01 ; 02  . (5)  p1   p 2 2 1
R1C1 R2 C2  C   16 
For this design it is common to choose C1=C2=C. Because we q p0 p0 Qp1  2Qp 2
are using equal CCIIs in the circuit, the value of the parasitics From the numerators we obtain:
ZX, ZY and ZZ can be assumed to be equal for all CCIIs. We use  p1  p 2  p2 0
only the real parts RX, RY and RZ (at mid-frequencies). We have  k F 1k F 2 ( s  0l ) 2  k BP1k BP 2 2 s 2  17
therefore assumed equal 'loss frequencies' 0l in (4), thus: Q p1 Q p 2 q p0
For the case that 0l=0, i.e. when there are no losses, we obtain,
0l   Rloss C  ; Rloss  RY RZ .
1
(6) from the above system of equations (13)(16), the design
The fourth-order transfer function of the coupled structure in equations for the ideal CCII circuit given by (see also [3]):
Fig. 2(b), using the biquad transfer function in (4), is given by
  p1   p 2  p 0  18
FBP1 (s)FBP2 (s) n(s) / d (s) n(s) 2q p 0 p 0
TCO  s     .7
1 2 FBP1 (s)FBP2 (s) 1  2n(s) / d (s) d (s)   2n(s)  Qp1  Qp 2  q pF   19
 p1   p 2
Multiplying the two biquadratic transfer functions (4) results in
the open-loop transfer function: q 2pF
 k F 1k F 2  k BP1k BP 2  20
FBP ( s )  pi 1 q 2p 0
k Fi
n( s ) 2 s  0l Q pi 1  1 
  
2
  FBP1 ( s ) FBP 2 ( s )  8  k0   p2 1  2   21
d ( s ) i 1  pi 1  2pi  2 p1
 4q p 0 
1  p0  
s  0l Q pi ( s  0l ) 2 q 2p 0
After some calculation and including (8) into (7) we have:  2   k0  22
k BP1k BP 2
TCO  s 
(k '/  2)( s  0l ) 2 Equations (18)(22) are valid for the lossless coupled circuit
  9 for which the optimal solution with regard to minimum
2   pi  sensitivity to component tolerances consists of two equal
  ( s  0l ) 
i 1 
2

Q pi
( s  0l )   2pi   k '( s  0l ) 2
biquads (or resonators), for which k=k0 see (21).
 
In (9) we use the notation for the coupling factor k', given by: From the above equations, i.e. (13)(16), the following step
by step design results for the case of lossy coupled resonators:
 k '   p1 p 2 k   p2 0 k  10
2
1. Choose k0 '   p2 0 k0 [k0 results from (21)].
Note that in the denominator, instead of (k's ) as in the
ideal case, we have k'(s+0l)2 which is due to the parasitics of 2. Calculate  p 0  4  p4 0  k ' 02l   p 0 .
the IC CCII device. Thus, for the calculation of parameters for
3. Calculate A, B and C from (14)(16). Solving the system of
the coupled case, we have to use the term k'(s+0l)2 in the
equations (14)(16) for the values 2, Qp1 and Qp2 we have
denominator. Note also that in the numerator of (9) an
additional zero 0l appears, however this term is negligible at  212  B 210  ( AC  1) 28  (2 B  A2  C 2 ) 26 
  23
the frequencies of interest. ( AC  1) 24  B 22  1  0   2
Defining Equation (23) must be solved numerically whereby positive,
  p1   2  p 0   p 2   p 0 /  2  11 real value for 2 must be chosen.
4. We now have:
and with the given closed-loop parameters p1, p2 (where
p1p2=2p0 and p0 is the center frequency), and qp1=qp2=qp0, 1   24
 Qp1   24
which are the parameters of a given cascade transfer function  2 ( A  C 22 )
TCA(s)=TBP1(s)TBP2(s), we can calculate the open-loop 1   24
parameters p1, p2, Qp1, Qp2 with a given feedback factor k.  Qp 2   25
 2 (C  A 22 )
The transfer function of the fourth-order cascade is given by: 5. From (11) calculate p1 and p2.
2 k BPi s ( pi / q pi ) Unlike in the lossless case [3], we will see below that in the
N (s)
TCA ( s )  TBP1 ( s )TBP 2 ( s )   2 12 lossy case the two coupled resonators or bandpass filters are
D ( s ) i 1 s  s ( pi / q pi )   pi2 not identical. 
 We now need to calculate the final parameters: the pole
frequency Ploss, the pole Q, QPlosss, and the dimensionless gain
factor kBPloss, in terms of the parameters calculated from (11)
and (23)(25) [1]. They are obtained from expressions:
  
 Ploss  2p   p / Qp  20l  0l  02l 
 Ploss
 QPloss  
 p / Q p  20l
 p QPloss
 k BPloss  k BP  
Q p  Ploss
In equations (26)(28) the losses of the IC technology in
question are included.
III. EXAMPLE
A. Design Parameter Values
In order to compare the performance of cascaded and
coupled IC-chip biquads when simulated with Cadence, we
consider a Chebyshev fourth-order BP filter having
Amax=0.1[dB] [1]. For a bandwidth B=100kHz and a central
frequency f0=1MHz, we obtain a geometrically symmetrical
fourth-order BP filter with ideal parameters p, qp, and kBP for
each of the two cascaded biquads. They are given in the first
row of Table I. In the second row the ideal parameters for the
coupled filter are given. They are obtained from (18)–(20)
which are the design equations for the ideal cascaded filter.
To calculate the circuit losses, we first select the
capacitances C=100pF (as in [1]), and using the CCII
nonidealities from (3), we obtain from (6):
 Rloss  RZ || RY  58.244  k 
1 
 0l   171691.0  rad/s  
Rloss C
The parameters in the third row of Table I are obtained
from (11) and (23)(25) and with the nonidealities of the CCII,
given by (30). The fourth row contains the final values of the
biquad parameters in the coupled case. They are obtained from
(26)(28), and from the parameters of the 'Lossy CO' row. In
all the coupled cases in Table I we use the same feedback
factor k=k0=0.019107. It follows from (21), or is recalculated
using (22) resulting in 2=0.58211.
Considering the cascaded and coupled filters, both with
losses, in Table I, we see that in the lossless coupled case the
two biquads are equal, whereas with losses, the pole Q-factors
have increased, and the biquads are no longer identical.
TABLE I. NORMALIZED DESIGN PARAMETERS OF BIQUADS
Parameters kBP1 p1n qp1 kBP2 p2n qp2
Ideal CA 1 1.0716 8.45057 2.3395 0.9332 8.45057
Parameters k F1 p1n Qp1 kF2 p2n Qp2
Ideal CO 1 1 8.430427 2.32839 1 8.430427
Lossy CO 0.83538 1.01191 7.12644 2.89985 0.988228 10.3759
Final CO 1.35808 1.01036 11.5678 6.80407 0.98729 24.3224
B. Component Values
A block diagram of the coupled filter as in Fig. 2(b) is
shown in Fig. 4. The input CCII no. 0, supplies the input
current gain K=R00/R01, and its resistor R01 is used to connect
the feedback wire of the output signal to the input. The output
MOCCII no. 19 (multiple-output CCII [4]) provides the
feedback 2=R25/RF and output current Iout. The open-loop gain
FBP(s)=FBP1(s)FBP2(s) is realized using two biquads of the type
 shown in Fig. 1, each of them realizing the two blocks FBP1(s),
and FBP2(s) inside a feedback loop as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Input CCII for current gain K, and summation, and MOCCII at the
output to form the feedback loop with the gain 2.
The components are calculated with the characteristics of
CCIIs, by using the lossy filter parameters from the 'Final CO'
row of Table I and by applying the corrections for resistive
compensation. The latter compensation is for the value of IR5
by the factor corr_IZ2=0.95639 and given by
RZ ( RY / 3)
 I R5   I Z 2  corr _ I Z 2  I Z 2  
RZ ( RY / 3)  R5
All voltage and current values in the circuit are optimized
for maximum dynamic range using the -parameters, described
in the method given in [5]. We have used the values 1=1.148,
and K=1.70544 calculated numerically with Cadence.
The normalized element values in the input amplifier and
the first biquad are calculated as follows (select C1n=C2n=1):
 R00 n  1  
Q p1 A AV 2
 R01n    5.70326 
I

 k F 1 1K
R1n  p11n  corr _ I Z 2  AI2 AV  0.91831  

 R2 n   1
 A AV  0.95538 
p1n
2
I 
 R5 n  1  
 R6 n  AI AV  0.970125  
 R8n  Qp1  AI2 AV  11.1661  
  
R14 n  Q p1 / k F 2  1 A AV  5.50537 
2
I 
In the second biquad we use the same expressions
(34)(38), with the two different values
 R214 n  AI AV  0.970125  
 RFn  Q p 2 / (  2 1 )  corr _ k F  AI2 AV  8.85262  
where, with (28), the correction of the gain kF=kF1 kF2 is
q 2pF  p1 p 2
 corr _ k F   0.251977  
 p2 0 Q p1Q p 2
The index “n” refers to normalized component values.
Denormalizing them to the central frequency f0=1MHz, and
B=100kHz, we obtain the capacitance C0=100pF and the
resistance R0=1.59155k. The remaining component values
follow by setting R1=R0R1n and C1=C0C1n, followed by the
subtraction of the parasitic value RX=18.33 from the resistors
connected to the X-node. In Table II, the compensated element
values, with all nonidealities included, are given in the first two
rows. Furthermore, we have from (32) and (33) R00=1.591k,
and R01=9.053k for the input amplifier. In the second two
rows we have the values of the resistors tuned to obtain the
desired characteristics. We have also tuned the two resistors
R00 and R01 to the values 1.695k and 1.605k, respectively.
The transfer-function magnitude is the same as in [1]. A
physical layout of the coupled filter is shown in Fig. 5. The
(a)
technology used for it is AMS 0.35m. If we compare the
coupled filter layout in Fig. 5 (0.406mm2) to the cascaded filter
layout (0.393mm2) in [1] there is only a 3.3% increase in chip
area (see red rectangle in Fig. 5).
TABLE II. COMPONENT VALUES OF THE COUPLED BIQUADS (RESISTORS
IN [K] AND CAPACITORS IN [PF]) OF THE FOURTH-ORDER BP FILTER.

Biquad C1=C2 R1 R2 R5 R6 R8 R14 RF

1 100 1.443 1.501 1.591 1.526 17.74 8.738 (b)
Fig. 6. MC runs in Cadence of two realizations. (a) Cascaded. (b) Coupled.
2 100 1.464 1.537 1.591 1.526 37.32 14.98 14.04
1-Tuned 100 1.45 1.45 1.62 1.62 20 6.05
2-Tuned 100 1.56 1.56 1.62 1.62 27 15.2 50.0

(a)

Fig. 5. Layout in Cadence Virtuoso of the coupled filter circuit in Fig. 2(c),
with all-equal CCII+ and component values in Table II. (830x510 m)
C. Sensitivity Analysis
To perform a simulated sensitivity analysis with Cadence of
the amplitude-frequency characteristic to passive components
variations of the coupled filter in Fig. 5, we perform a Monte
Carlo (MC) analysis of the resistors R1 and R2, in both the
cascaded and coupled fourth-order BP filter. The pole
frequency of the biquad can be tuned by varying R1 and R2,
see (2) and Fig. 1. They were varied using a zero-mean
uniform distribution in 100 runs, in the range of 5%1. The
response is shown in Fig. 6(a) for the cascade, and in Fig.
6(b), for the coupled filter. The results of the same analysis
with calculated standard deviations (CA: 0.407 and CO:
0.153) are shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b). The characteristic
spread in Fig. 7 is analyzed at the center frequency f0=1MHz.
It is seen from the MC analysis in Figs. 6 and 7 that the
reduction of the filter sensitivity of the coupled filter
compared to that of the cascaded filter is substantial,
especially for the pole-frequency variations.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we present the Cadence realization of a
fourth-order BP filter using CM, two-integrator coupled
biquads in a cascaded and a feedback-coupled version, using
1
Component tolerances of 5% were chosen even though the tolerances on-
chip could be different (commonly they are larger). Different tolerances do
not affect the results and lead to the same conclusions.
(b)
Fig. 7. Monte Carlo runs in Cadence of amplitude-frequency characteristic
deviations at the center frequency 1MHz. (a) Cascaded. (b) Coupled.
the AMS 0.35m integrated circuit technology. The analysis of
the biquads in the two filters, cascaded and coupled, using non-
ideal CMOS CCIIs for integrators of the biquads in the filters is
presented. The nonidealities of CCIIs are considered in the
design by recalculating the pole Q factors. A CCII+ based
fourth-order BP filter was realized in cascaded and coupled
form. The Cadence analysis showed that, at the cost of a
slightly larger chip, which is caused by an additional CCII (or
MOCCII) and a feedback wire, the performance of the chip
sensitivity to component tolerances was substantially
improved.
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