Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Microelectronics Journal
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mejo

CFOA based a new grounded inductor simulator and its applications

Mehmet Dogan, Erkan Yuce *
Pamukkale University, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 20160, Denizli, Turkey

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A new grounded inductor simulator (GIS) with the property of improved low frequency performance is proposed
Grounded inductor simulator in this paper. The proposed GIS includes two current feedback operational amplifiers, three resistors and a
Very high-Q band-pass filter grounded capacitor. As applications for the proposed GIS, a second-order very high-Q band-pass filter (BPF) and a
Quadrature oscillator
quadrature oscillator (QO) are given. The very high-Q BPF and the QO have low total harmonic distortion values.
Current feedback operational amplifier
CFOA
Nevertheless, for proper operation, the proposed GIS, the very high-Q BPF and the QO need a single resistive
matching constraint. Many SPICE simulations and an experiment for the very high-Q BPF are achieved.

1. Introduction oscillator (QO) are given. The very high-Q BPF and the QO have low THD
value. Nevertheless, the proposed GIS, the very high-Q BPF and the QO
In integrated circuit (IC) fabrication, the use of the spiral inductors need a single resistive matching restraint for proper operation. A lot of
induces various defects [1–22]. Because of the fact that the spiral in- SPICE simulations are achieved in which
0.75 V supply voltages and
ductors emit magnetic energy, occupy a lot of space in the IC fabrication, 0.13 μm IBM CMOS technology parameters [24] are utilized. The power
possess low inductance values, have parasitic impedance effects, etc. So, dissipations of the proposed GIS, the very high-Q BPF and the QO are
the inductor simulators are utilized instead of the spiral inductors in the respectively found as 3.53 mW, 3.55 mW and 0.27 mW through SPICE
IC technology. Inductor simulators based on current feedback opera- simulation program. Furthermore, an experiment for the very high-Q BPF
tional amplifiers (CFOAs) can be categorized into grounded ones [1–15] is performed as an example.
and floating ones [16–20]. Furthermore, CFOA based grounded inductor The paper has the following order: the proposed GIS is treated in
simulators can be classified into three sub categories: positive grounded Section 2. Application examples, the very high-Q BPF and the QO are
inductor simulators (GISs) [2,3,6,7,9,10,13–15], negative GISs [1,4,5,12, introduced in Section 3. In Section 4, many simulations for the proposed
13] and lossy GISs [3–5,8,9,11,12]. Nonetheless, all the GISs except GISs GIS, the very high-Q BPF and the QO are carried out. An experiment is
in Refs. [2,10] do not have the feature of improved low frequency per- made for the very high-Q BPF as an example in Section 5. Conclusion is
formance. The GIS presented in Ref. [2] does not have sufficiently low finally given in Section 6.
total harmonic distortion (THD) variation. Moreover, the GIS introduced
in Ref. [10] uses three CFOAs. The GIS developed in Ref. [7] has a 2. Circuit description
capacitor connected in series to W and X terminals of the CFOA. Hence,
its high frequency performance is restricted [23]. Although the GISs The symbol of the CFOA is shown in Fig. 1. The CFOA can be defined
developed in Refs. [21,22] use only grounded passive elements and as in the following:
2 s-generation current conveyors (CCIIs), they can be constructed with 2 3 2 3
three CFOAs. On the other hand, the circuit of [21] does not possess the 2 3
6 V X 7 6β 0 07
property of enhanced low frequency performance. The GIS of [22] has a 6 IY 7 6 0 0 07 6 VY 7
6 7 6 76 IX 7
capacitor connected in series to X terminals of the CCII. As a result, its 6 IZ 7 ¼ 6 0 α 0 54 5
7 (1)
4 5 4 VZ
high frequency performance is limited [23]. VW 0 0 η
A new GIS with the property of improved low frequency performance
is proposed in this work. The proposed GIS includes two CFOAs, three In matrix equation (1), η and β are voltage gains being non-ideal while
resistors and a grounded capacitor. As applications for the proposed GIS, α is a current gain being non-ideal. Also, η, β and α are ideally equal to
a second-order very high-Q band-pass filter (BPF) and a quadrature unity.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mdogan093@gmail.com (M. Dogan), erkanyuce@yahoo.com (E. Yuce).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mejo.2019.07.002
Received 8 May 2019; Received in revised form 21 June 2019; Accepted 2 July 2019
Available online 6 July 2019
0026-2692/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Fig. 1. Electrical representation of the CFOA.

The proposed GIS is given in Fig. 2. The input impedance of it is

calculated by

Vin
Zin ðsÞ ¼ ¼ sCR1 R2 þ R2  R3 (2)
Iin
If R3 ¼ R2 is selected for the proposed GIS, the mathematical state-
ment in equation (2) varies as

Vin
Zin ðsÞ ¼ ¼ sCR1 R2 ¼ sLeq (3)
Iin
Here, Leq ¼ CR1R2. If non-ideal gains are taken into account, the
mathematical statement in equation (2) becomes
Vin β2 ðsCR1 R2 þ R2  R3 α1 β1 η1 Þ
Zin ðsÞ ¼ ¼ (4)
Iin α1 α2 β1 η1
The low frequency improvements for the GISs in Refs. [2,10] are
carried out by cancellation of parasitic Z terminal resistor of the CFOA
where a grounded capacitor is connected to the Z terminal. The grounded
capacitor of the proposed GIS in Fig. 2 is connected to Y terminal of the
CFOA. The value of the Y terminal parasitic resistor is negligibly large;
thus, it can be chosen as infinity. R3 resistor of the proposed GIS is
connected between the Z terminal of the first CFOA and the X terminal of
the second CFOA, which can be bring a pole. The value of the parasitic Z
terminal capacitor is very small; accordingly, it can be neglected. Other
resistors are connected in series to the X and W terminals of the CFOAs.
Fig. 3. The developed very high-Q band-pass filter.
3. Applications of the proposed grounded inductor simulator
As applications of the proposed GIS, a second-order very high-Q BPF
and a QO are given. The very high-Q BPF which is developed from the
GIS in Fig. 2 is given in Fig. 3. It includes two CFOAs and six passive
components. The transfer function (TF) of the very high-Q BPF without
taking into account any passive component matching constraint is
calculated by
Vout sC1 R1 R2 þ R2  R3
H1 ðsÞ ¼ ¼ (5)
Vin a1 s2 þ b1 s þ c1
Here, the coefficients of the denominator in equation (5) are evalu-
ated as

Fig. 2. The proposed grounded inductor simulator. Fig. 4. The developed quadrature oscillator.

298
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Table 1
Comparison with other existing CFOA and CCII based grounded inductor simulators.
References # of CFOAs # of Resistors # of Capacitors Positive GIS Supply Voltages [V] Technology Wide Operating Range

Floating Grounded Floating Grounded

[1] in Tables 1–1 1 1 1 1 0 No NA AD844 No

[2] in Fig. 3 2 1 2 0 1 Yes
0.75 0.13 μm Yes
[3] in Fig. 3 1 1 1 1 0 No
15 AD844 No
[4] in Fig. 2a 1 1 1 1 0 No
10 AD844 No
[5] in Fig. 1 (A) 1 1 1 1 0 No
15 AD844 No
[6] in Fig. 2 2 1 1 0 1 Yes NA AD844 No
[7] in Fig. 2b 2 0 2 1 0 Yes NA AD844 No
[8] in Fig. 1 1 1 1 0 2 No NA AD844 No
[9] in Fig. 7 1 1 3 1 0 No
12 AD844 No
[9] in Fig. 9a 1 2 0 0 1 No
12 AD844 No
[9] in Fig. 9b 1 1 1 1 0 No
12 AD844 No
[9] in Fig. 11a 1 3 1 0 2 Yes
12 AD844 No
[9] in Fig. 11b 1 2 2 1 0 Yes
12 AD844 No
[10] in Fig. 2 3 1 2 0 1 Yes
5 AD844 Yes
[11] in Fig. 2 1 2 0 0 1 No NA AD844 No
[12] in Fig. 2a 1 1 1 1 0 No
12 AD844 No
[13] in Fig. 4 3 2 2 1 0 Yes
0.75 0.13 μm No
[14] in Fig. 3 3 0 2 0 1 Yes
1.5 0.25 μm No
[15] in Fig. 4 2 1 1 1 0 Yes
0.75 0.13 μm No
[21] in Table I7 3 0 2 0 1 Yes NA NA No
[22] in Fig. 2b 3 0 2 0 1 Yes NA AD844 No
This work in Fig. 2 2 2 1 0 1 Yes
0.75 0.13 μm Yes

NA: not available.

Fig. 5. MOS transistor based realization of the CFOA [25].

Table 2 respectively calculated from equation (7) as follows:

Sizes of the MOS transistors of the CFOA in Fig. 5. rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
W (μm)/L (μm)
C2
PMOS Transistors Q ¼ R4 (8.a)
C 1 R1 R2
M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M8, M9, M17, M18, M19, M20, M23 and M24 39/0.52
M11 and M26 195/0.52
1
NMOS Transistors ωo ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (8.b)
C1 C2 R1 R2
M6 and M21 97.5/0.52
M7, M10, M12, M13, M14, M15, M16, M22, M25, M27, M28, M29 and M30 13/0.52 One observes from equation (8) that Q can be controlled through R4
without disturbing ωo. If non-ideal gains are taken into account, TF in
equation (5) becomes
a1 ¼ C1 C2 R1 R2 R4 (6.a)
Vout η2 ðsC1 R1 R2 þ R2  R3 α1 β1 η1 Þ
H3 ðsÞ ¼ ¼ (9)
b1 ¼ C1 R1 R2 þ C2 R2 R4  C2 R3 R4 (6.b) Vin a2 s2 þ b2 s þ c2

c1 ¼ R2 þ R4  R3 (6.c) where,

If R3 ¼ R2 is selected for the very high-Q BPF, TF in equation (5) varies a2 ¼ C1 C2 R1 R2 R4 (10.a)
as
b2 ¼ C1 R1 R2 þ C2 R2 R4  C2 R3 R4 α1 β1 η1 (10.b)
sC R R
Vout 1 1 2
R4
H2 ðsÞ ¼ ¼ 2 (7)
Vin s C1 C2 R1 R2 þ sC1RR41 R2 þ 1 c2 ¼ R2 þ R4 α1 α2 β1 β2 η1  R3 α1 β1 η1 (10.c)

The quality factor (Q) and the natural angular frequency (ωo) are The other topology obtained from the proposed GIS is given in Fig. 4,

299
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Fig. 6. Time domain simulation results for the proposed grounded inductor simulator.

which is a QO. The developed QO contains two CFOAs and six passive
R3 R3 R2
components. The characteristic equation of the developed QO without c3 ¼ þ  3 (12.c)
taking into account any resistive matching constraints is evaluated by R4 R2 R2 R4
If R4 ¼ R3 is selected for the QO in Fig. 4, equation (11) changes as in
Dn ðsÞ ¼ a3 s2 þ b3 s þ c3 (11) the following:

where  
C2 R23
DðsÞ ¼ s2 C1 C2 R1 R3 þ s C1 R1 þ C2 R3  þ1 (13)
R2
a3 ¼ C1 C2 R1 R3 (12.a)
From equation (13), oscillation frequency (OF) and oscillation con-
C1 R1 R3 C2 R23 dition (OC) are respectively computed by
b3 ¼ þ C 2 R3  (12.b)
R4 R2

Fig. 7. Frequency domain simulation results for the proposed grounded inductor simulator.

300
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Fig. 8. Simulation and ideal band-pass gain responses for the second-order very high-Q band-pass filter versus frequency.

Fig. 9. Gain responses of the second-order very high-Q band-pass filter example for capacitor value changes.

Fig. 10. Gain responses of the second-order very high-Q band-pass filter example for threshold voltage changes of all the MOS transistors.

301
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Fig. 11. Input and associated output noises for the second-order very high-Q band-pass filter.

1 1
fo ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (14.a) R3 R3 R2
2π C1 C2 R1 R3 c4 ¼ þ α1 α2 β1 β2 η1  3 α1 β1 η1 (17.c)
R4 R2 R2 R4
C2 R23 Comparison with other existing CFOA and CCII based grounded
C 1 R1 þ C 2 R3  (14.b)
R2 inductor simulators is given in Table 1.
By changing only value of the resistor R2, OC can be satisfied without
4. Simulation results
disturbing fo. In frequency domain, Vo1 is evaluated in terms of Vo2 as

Vo1 ¼  jωC2 R3 Vo2 (15) Internal structure of the CFOA is depicted in Fig. 5 [25]. The values of
the parasitic impedances of the CFOA given in Fig. 5 [25] are found
If non-ideal gains are considered, equation (13) converts through SPICE simulation program as follows: RX ¼ RW ffi 1.03 Ω,
RZ ffi 14.27 kΩ, RY ffi ∞, CZ ffi 71.16 fF and CY ffi 2 fF. Further, in
Dn ðsÞ ¼ a4 s2 þ b4 s þ c4 (16)
Table 2, aspect ratios of the MOS transistors of the CFOA are shown. The
Here, passive components of the proposed GIS in Fig. 2 are selected as
C ¼ 100 pF, R1 ¼ 1 kΩ and R2 ¼ R3 ffi 1.17 kΩ. Thus, Leq ffi 117 μH is
a4 ¼ C1 C2 R1 R3 (17.a) obtained. Two identical sinusoidal input currents with peak-to-peak of
0.1 mA at 250 kHz are severally applied to inputs of both an ideal
R3 C2 R23 inductor and the proposed GIS. Hence, the ideal and simulation sinu-
b4 ¼ C1 R1 þ C 2 R3  α1 β1 η1 (17.b)
R4 R2 soidal output voltages denoted in Fig. 6 are obtained. The phase and

Fig. 12. Total harmonic distortion changes.

302
M. Dogan, E. Yuce
Fig. 13. Lissajous curve of the developed quadrature oscillator.
magnitude of the impedance of the proposed GIS are demonstrated in
Fig. 7.
The passive components of the second-order very high-Q BPF in Fig. 3
are selected as R1 ¼ 1 kΩ, R2 ¼ R3 ffi 1.17 kΩ, R4 ¼ 200 kΩ and C1 ¼ C2 ¼
100 pF resulting in fo ffi 1.59 MHz and Q ¼ 200. Hence, in Fig. 8, simu-
lation and ideal gain responses of the second-order very high-Q BPF
example are given. A Monte Carlo (MC) analysis is obtained for the
second-order very high-Q BPF example in Fig. 9 after one hundred run-
nings. For this purpose, the values of R1 ¼ 1 kΩ, R2 ¼ R3 ffi 1.17 kΩ,
R4 ¼ 200 kΩ are selected as fixed and those of the capacitors are uni-
formly changed 5%. Therefore, in Fig. 9, the gain responses of the very
high-Q BPF example are demonstrated. Likewise, threshold voltages of
the all of the MOS transistors of the CFOA are uniformly varied 1%. As a
result, in Fig. 10, the gain responses of the very high-Q BPF example are
denoted. Input and related output noises versus frequency for the second-
order very high-Q BPF example are depicted in Fig. 11. Also, THD vari-
ations against applied peak sinusoidal input voltages are given in Fig. 12,
which are also low enough.
The passive components of the developed QO in Fig. 4 are selected
R1 ¼ 2 kΩ, R2 ffi 1.09 kΩ, R3 ¼ R4 ¼ 2.1 kΩ, C1 ¼ 50 pF and C2 ¼ 100 pF.
For the developed QO, fo is found as 1 MHz. In Fig. 13, Lissajous curve of
Fig. 14. Time domain responses of the developed quadrature oscillator.
303
Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305
the developed QO is shown. At steady state, the first output voltage (Vo1)
which has a THD value of 1.81% and the second one (Vo2) which has a
THD value of 1.14% are given in Fig. 14.
In Figs. 15 and 16, the proposed GIS and the GISs of [6,21,22] are
compared in which Leq ¼ 100 μH is chosen for all the GISs. Phases and
magnitudes of the impedances of all the GISs versus frequency are given
in Fig. 15. In addition, the band-pass gain responses derived from all the
GISs against frequency are given in Fig. 16 where extra 50 kΩ resistor and
extra 100 pF capacitor yielding fo ffi 1.59 MHz and Q ¼ 50 are used.
Power dissipations of the GISs of [6,21,22] based on the CFOA in Fig. 5
are respectively found as 3.55 mW, 5.31 mW and 5.37 mW through
SPICE simulation program.
5. An experimental result
An experiment is just made for the second-order very high-Q BPF in
Fig. 3 as an example. The second-order very high-Q BPF is implemented
using two CFOAs. A CFOA is realized by one AD844 [26] in which the
supply voltages are selected as
6 V. The passive elements of the
second-order very high-Q BPF are selected as R1 ¼ 1 kΩ,
R2 ¼ R3 ffi 1.17 kΩ, R4 ¼ 4.7 kΩ and C1 ¼ C2 ¼ 4.7 nF. Thus, the filter is
M. Dogan, E. Yuce Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305

Fig. 15. The phases and magnitudes of the impedances of the proposed, Sedra-Smith [21], Cicekoglu [22], Fabre’s [6] inductor simulators and ideal one with respect
to frequency.

Fig. 16. The gain of the transfer functions of the proposed, Sedra-Smith, Cicekoglu, Fabre’s band-pass filter and ideal one with respect to frequency.

Fig. 17. The ideal, simulation and experimental gain responses versus frequency.

304
M. Dogan, E. Yuce
designed for a resonance frequency of fo ffi 33.86 kHz and the quality
factor of Q ¼ 4.7. The experimental, simulation and ideal gain responses
which are in good agreement are shown in Fig. 17.
6. Conclusion
A new GIS with the property of low frequency performance is pro-
posed. As applications of the proposed GIS, a second-order very high-Q
BPF and a QO are developed in this study. All of the three topologies
include two CFOAs. The proposed GIS contains three resistors and a
grounded capacitor while the developed circuits from the proposed GIS
comprise four resistors and two grounded capacitors. The developed
second-order very high-Q BPF and the QO have very low THD values.
However, all of the three configurations need a single resistive matching
condition. A number of simulations based on the SPICE program and an
experiment verify our allegations. Nevertheless, an unimportant differ-
ence among ideal, simulation and experimental results is due to non-
idealities of the CFOAs.
References
[1] A.U. Keskin, Single CFA-based NICS with impedance scaling properties, J. Circuits
Syst. Comput. 14 (2) (2005) 195–203.
[2] E. Yuce, S. Minaei, Commercially available active device based grounded inductor
simulator and universal filter with improved low frequency performances,
J. Circuits Syst. Comput. 26 (4) (2017) 14.
[3] E. Yuce, Novel lossless and lossy grounded inductor simulators consisting of a
canonical number of components, Analog Integr. Circuits Signal Process. 59 (2009)
77–82.
[4] F. Kacar, H. Kuntman, CFOA-based lossless and lossy inductance simulators,
Radioengineering 20 (3) (2011) 627–631.
[5] M.T. Abuelma’atti, New grounded immittance function simulators using single
current feedback operational amplifier, Analog Integr. Circuits Signal Process. 71
(2012) 95–100.
[6] A. Fabre, Gyrator implementation from commercially available transimpedance
operational amplifiers, Electron. Lett. 28 (1992) 263–264.
[7] A. Toker, O. Cicekoglu, H. Kuntman, New active gyrator circuit suitable for
frequency-dependent negative resistor implementation, Microelectron. J. 30 (1999)
59–62.
[8] S.–J. Liu, Y.–S. Hwang, Realisation of R-L and C-D impedances using a current
feedback amplifier and its applications, Electron. Lett. 30 (5) (1994) 380–381.
305
Microelectronics Journal 90 (2019) 297–305
[9] A.M. Soliman, Applications of the current feedback operational amplifiers, Analog
Integr. Circuits Signal Process. 11 (3) (1996) 265–302.
[10] E. Yuce, S. Minaei, On the realization of simulated inductors with reduced parasitic
impedance effects, Circuits Syst. Signal Process. 28 (2009) 451–465.
[11] T.S. Arora, S. Gupta, Realization of lossy inductor employing current feedback
operational amplifier and its applications, in: Signal Processing and Integrated
Networks (SPIN), 2017 4th International Conference on, IEEE, February 2017,
pp. 340–345.
[12] M.E. Basak, F. Kacar, Lossy/lossless grounded inductance simulators using current
feedback operational amplifier (CFOA), Electrica 18 (1) (2018) 95–99.
[13] M. Dogan, E. Yuce, Supplementary single CFOA based grounded immittance
function simulators, AEÜ-International Journal of Electronics and Communications
94 (2018) 311–321.
[14] E. Yuce, S. Minaei, A modified CFOA and its applications to simulated inductors,
capacitance multipliers, and analog filters, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and
Systems –I: Regular Papers 55 (2008) 266–275.
[15] H. Alpaslan, E. Yuce, Inverting CFOA based lossless and lossy grounded inductor
simulators, Circuits Syst. Signal Process. 34 (2015) 3081–3100.
[16] R. Senani, D.R. Bhaskar, New lossy/loss-less synthetic floating inductance
configuration realized with only two CFOAs, Analog Integr. Circuits Signal Process.
73 (2012) 981–987.
[17] R. Senani, Realization of a class of analog signal processing/signal generation
circuits: novel configurations using current feedback op-amps, Frequenz 52 (1998)
196–206.
[18] D.R. Bhaskar, R. Senani, Simulation of a floating inductance: a new two-CFOA-
based configuration, in: 2013 Fifth International Conference on Computational
Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation, 2013, pp. 381–383.
[19] L.A. Said, A.H. Madian, M.H. Ismail, A.M. Soliman, Current feedback operational
amplifier (CFOA) based programmable lossless floating inductor realization, in:
Engineering and Technology (ICET), 2014 International Conference, 2014, pp. 1–4.
[20] M.T. Abuelma’atti, S.K. Dhar, New CFOA-based floating immittance emulators, Int.
J. Electron. 103 (12) (2016) 1984–1997.
[21] A.S. Sedra, K.C. Smith, A second-generation current conveyor and its applications,
IEEE Trans. Circuit Theory 17 (1) (1970) 132–134.
[22] O. Cicekoglu, New current conveyor based active-gyrator implementation,
Microelectron. J. 29 (8) (1998) 525–528.
[23] E. Yuce, S. Minaei, Universal current-mode filters and parasitic impedance effects
on the filter performances, Int. J. Circuit Theory Appl. 36 (2) (2008) 161–171.
[24] E. Yuce, A single-input multiple-output voltage-mode second-order universal filter
using only grounded passive components, Indian J. Eng. Mater. Sci. 24 (2) (2017)
97–106.
[25] E. Arslan, A. Morgul, Wideband self-biased CMOS CCII, in: Research in
Microelectronics and Electronics 2008 (PRIME 2008), 2008, pp. 217–220. June 22
2008-April 25.
[26] AD844 60MHz Monolithic Op amp. http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/
data_sheets/AD844.pdf.