Novel First-order and Second-Order Current
mode filters using dual-output OTAs and
Grounded capacitors
Dattaguru V. Kamat1, P.V. Ananda Mohan2 Fellow, IEEE and K. Gopalakrishna Prabhu3
Abstract— In this paper, a general first order structure using
dual output OTA is explored to derive new first-order and
second–order filters using OTAs with dual outputs and
grounded capacitors. Two first-order all-pass filters that have
been obtained are presented together with an analysis of non-
idealities of OTAs viz., finite bandwidth and parasitic output
and input resistances and capacitances. Second–order all-pass
filters obtained by using OTA-C simulated inductances using
the first-order structure are also presented. The realization of
Quadrature oscillators using the proposed first-order all-pass
networks is also considered.
Index Terms— Active filters, OTA-C filters, All-pass filters,
First-order Filters, Current-mode circuits
I. INTRODUCTION
T he OTA-C approach [1]-[4], [6] is one of the most
successful design methods for continuous-time integrated
filter design at high frequencies. At present there is growing
interest in current-mode signal processing [5] because of its
advantages like increased band-width, high dynamic range
and reduced power supply requirements. The Single-Output
OTAs (SO-OTA) have only one current output and hence
may be restricted in their use in applications requiring
current feedback to realize filtering functions. Hence, the
current-mode active filters employing active elements like
Dual output OTAs (DO-OTA) and multiple (≥ 2) output
OTAs (MO-OTA) [6-13] have become an attractive
research topic. These filters are generally based on two-
integrator-loops.
1
Dattaguru.V. Kamat , Department of E&C Engineering, Manipal
Institute of Technology, Manipal-576104, India
2
P.V. Ananda Mohan , R&D, Electronics Corporation of India
Limited, 30/1 Cunningham Road, 2nd Floor, Leeman’s complex,
Bangalore 560052) e-mail: anandmohanpv@hotmail.com
3
Gopalakrishna Prabhu K, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal-576104,
India
The all-pass filters are widely used in analog signal
processing as group delay equalizers in order to shift the
phase while keeping the amplitude constant. First-order all-
pass filter can also be used as a building block to realize
second-order filters [14-17] and quadrature oscillators. The
group-delay equalizers are employed in video and
communication applications especially video filters,
magnetic storage and disk-drive read channel circuits.
The design of first-order current-mode all-pass circuit
using DO-OTA has not been adequately addressed in
literature but can be derived from [9]. However, the
reported realization needs two DO-OTAs, one SO-OTA and
one grounded capacitor and needs one matching condition
for two OTA transconductances. It is therefore of interest
to derive circuits needing much less hardware while
retaining the other properties such as use of grounded
capacitances.
The proposed configurations of first-order all-pass
structures are presented in Section II. The effect of non-
idealities of the OTAs on the performance of the first-order
all-pass filter is considered in detail in section III. The basic
first-order all-pass structure will be shown to be useful to
realize second-order all-pass filters in Section IV and
oscillators in Section V. The effect of non-idealities of the
OTAs are also analyzed for these circuits. Simulation
results obtained using SPICE for some of the proposed
circuits are presented in Section VI. A concluding section
summarizes the results of our investigations.
II. NOVEL FIRST-ORDER ALL-PASS FILTER USING DO-OTA
The symbol of DO-OTA is presented in Fig.1.This device is
characterized by following equations:
Io+ = -Io- = gm+ (Vi+ - Vi-) (1)
Vi+ Io1
+
-
Vi- Io2
Fig.1. Circuit Symbol of DO-OTA
 C1 +
Yn -
Iin
Io - gm Io
Iin - + Iin -
Iin
+ Io +
Iin Iin -1
Io C1
Gm1 - gm1
Yp gm1
+
gm2
(a)
(a) (b)

YP Gm1
C1
Io Gi1
Iin -
+ - Ci1
+ Iin - -
Iin
-Io Io +
Iin
Yn gm1 C0i
+ G0i
- Ci2
gm2 Gi2
(b)
(c) (d)
Fig 2. DO-OTA based current-mode configurations to realize first
and second-order filters Fig.3. CICO All-pass filters (a) and (b) and Wu-El-Masry circuit
(c) and model of non-ideal OTA (d).
where Io+, Io- are the two output currents , Vi+ and Vi-
denote the non-inverting and inverting input voltages of the Interestingly, the same circuit can realize an amplitude
DO-OTA respectively. equalizer under the condition Yn = sC1 and Yp = -gm2 and the
The proposed DO-OTA based first-order current-mode resulting the transfer function can be obtained as
OTA-C filters are shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). Note that by
choice of different admittances, different transfer functions ⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞
can be realized using these basic configurations as will be ⎜ s + ⎜ m2 ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟
demonstrated later. I o g m1 ⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠
= . (2c)
The generalized current transfer function for the circuit I in g m 2 ⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞
of Fig.2(a) can be shown to be ⎜ s + ⎜ m1 ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟
⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠
I o g m1 (Y n − Y p )
= (2a) Note that this circuit needs a negative transconductance.
I in Y p (g m1 + Y n )

Using the choice of components viz., Yn = sC1 and Yp = gm2 We next consider the configuration of Fig.2 (b) whose
(see Fig.3(a)), the transfer function of the circuit can be transfer function is given as
obtained as
⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞ Io g m1 ( Y n − Y p )
⎜ s − ⎜ m2 ⎟ ⎟ =− (2d)
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟
I o g m1 ⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠ I in Y p ( g m1 + Y n )
= . (2b)
I in g m 2 ⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞
⎜ s + ⎜ m1 ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟
⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠ With the choice of components viz., Yn = sC1 and Yp = gm2
(see Fig.3 (b)), the transfer function realized is
Evidently, under the matching condition gm1 = gm2, a first-
order all-pass transfer function with unity gain is realized.
 ⎛ ⎛ ⎞⎞ 1
⎜ s − ⎜ g m2 ⎟ ⎟ g mi = g mio (5)
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟ ⎛ s ⎛ ⎞ s ⎞
Io g ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠ ⎜1 + ⎟⎜ ⎟
= − m1 .⎝ (2e) ⎜ ω ⎟⎜1 + ω ⎟
I in g m2 ⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞ ⎝ pi1 ⎠⎝ pi 2 ⎠
⎜ s + ⎜ m1 ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟
⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠ where i = 1, 2 for the i-th OTA, the realized transfer
function for the circuit of Fig.3 (a) can be obtained as
Next, considering the choice Yn = sC1 and Yp = -gm2, the
circuit realizes an amplitude equalizer:
⎧⎪ s 3 C ⎛ 1 1 ⎞ ⎫
⎨ + s 2C ⎜⎜ + ⎟ + sC − g m 20 ⎪⎬
⎪⎩ ω p11ω p12 ⎟
⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞ I o g m10 ⎝ ω p11 ω p12 ⎠ ⎪⎭
⎜ s + ⎜ m2 ⎟ ⎟ =
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟ I in g m 20 ⎪⎧ s C ⎛ 1 1 ⎞ ⎫
⎟ + sC + g m10 ⎪⎬
3
Io g ⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠ + s 2C ⎜⎜ +
= − m1 . (2f) ⎨ ⎟
I in g m2 ⎛ ⎛ g ⎞⎞ ⎪⎩ ω p 21ω p 22 ⎝ ω p 21 ω p 22 ⎠ ⎪⎭
⎜ s + ⎜ m1 ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎜ C ⎟⎟ (6)
⎝ ⎝ 1 ⎠⎠
We first consider the case of a single-pole model i.e. ωpi2 =
∞, which modifies (6) as
III. OTA NON-IDEALITY AND PARASITIC EFFECTS ON FIRST-
ORDER ALL-PASS FILTERS
⎧⎪ 2 ⎛ 1 ⎞ ⎫
The effect of OTA non-idealities viz., finite input and ⎨ s C ⎜⎜ ⎟ + sC − g m 20 ⎪⎬
⎟
output resistances Roi and capacitances Cii and Coi, and I o g m10 ⎪⎩ ⎝ ω p11 ⎠ ⎪⎭
= (7)
frequency dependence of the transconductance needs to be I in g m 20 ⎧⎪ 2 ⎛ 1 ⎞ ⎫
analyzed next. The non-ideal OTA including parasitics is ⎨s C ⎜⎜ ⎟ + sC + g m10 ⎪⎬
⎟
modeled as shown in Fig. 3(d). Denoting the conductances ⎩⎪ ⎝ ω p 21 ⎠ ⎭⎪
as Gij, Goj and capacitances as Cij and Coj for j = 1, 2 for the
j-th OTA and denoting G´ = Gi1+Gi2+Go2, C´ = Ci1+Ci2+Co2, Evidently, a parasitic pole and zero are introduced. It can be
G´´= Gi1+Go1 and C´´= Ci1+Co1, the resulting transfer easily seen that the filter is stable and will realize a pole-Q
function for the circuit of Fig.3 (a) can be derived as g m10
of =
ω 0 < 1 since the desired pole-frequency
Io {( )
g m − g m2 + G ′′ − G ′ + s (C1 + C ′′ − C ′)
= 1
} (3)
ω p 21 C ω p 21
ωo is usually less than the pole frequency ωp21 of the OTA.
I in {g m 2 + G ′ + sC ′}{g m1 + G ′′ + s( C1 + C ′′ )}
Note that two real zeros are present: one roughly at ωo,
another at – (ωp11+ ωo) which is quite far from the desired
It may be noted from (3) that a parasitic real pole frequency ωo. Considering the two-pole model, from the
− (G ′ + g m 2 ) g denominator of (6), it can be shown that the system is stable
is created and the desired pole at - m1 has
C′ C since ωo << 2ωp21.
been perturbed because of the various non-idealities. For the sake of completeness, we also consider the
Substituting the actual values for G′, G′′, C′ and C′′, and pole-zero model of the OTA [18], viz.,
assuming that Gi1 = Gi2 = Gi , Go1 = Go2 = Go, Co1 = Co2 = Co,
Ci1 = Ci2 = Ci , then (3) becomes ⎛ s ⎞
⎜⎜1 + ⎟⎟
⎝ ω zi ⎠
Io ( )
g m 2 ⎛⎜⎝ − g m1 − Gi + s(C − Ci )⎞⎟⎠ g mi = g mio (8)
= ⎛ ⎞
I in {g m1 + 2Gi + Go + s( 2Ci + Co )}{g m1 + Gi + Go + s( C + Ci + Co )} ⎜1 + s ⎟
⎜ ω pi ⎟
⎝ ⎠
(4)
Then, the transfer function given by (2b) modifies as
The parasitic poles are dependent on gm1, gm2 and the
various Coi and Cii , Gii and Goi values. Since the parasitic
⎞ ⎧⎪ s C ⎛ g m 20 1 ⎞ ⎫⎪
2
capacitances are very small and parasitic resistances are ⎛ s
g m10 ⎜⎜ + 1⎟⎟ ⎨ + sC ⎜⎜1 − ⎟⎟ − g m 20 ⎬
very high, these parasitic poles will be at very high Io
= ⎝ ωz 1 ⎠ ⎪⎩ ω p1 ⎝ C ω z1 ⎠ ⎪⎭
frequency. It is interesting to note that the zero is affected
only by Gi and Ci, since the other non-idealities tend to
I in ⎛ s ⎞ ⎧⎪ s 2C ⎛ g m10 1 ⎞ ⎫⎪
g m 20 ⎜⎜ + 1⎟⎟ ⎨ + sC ⎜⎜1 + ⎟⎟ + g m10 ⎬
compensate each other. ⎝ ωz 2 ⎠ ⎪⎩ ω p 2 ⎝ C ωz 2 ⎠ ⎪⎭
(9)
We next consider the non-ideal frequency-dependent
gm of the OTAs. Considering the two-pole model of the It is evident that additional poles and zeros are
OTA given by introduced and the circuit is stable unconditionally. The
 ωo Where
ωp 2
realized pole pair has a pole-Q of which is less g m1
⎧ ωo ⎫ k= and
⎨1 + ⎬ g m1 + g c + s C c
⎩ ωz 2 ⎭
than 1. The zeroes realized are approximately at ωo and
⎛ ωp ⎞ G c = G o 4 + G i 4 + G i1 , C c = C o 4 + C i 4 + C i1 ,
− ⎜⎜ ω p + ωo − ω o ⎟. C a = C o 3 + C i 2 + C i1 + C o1 , G a = G i1 + G i 2 + G o 3 + G o1 ,
⎝ ω z ⎟⎠
It is relevant to compare the proposed all-pass filter with Gb = Go2 + Gi 3 , C b = C o2 + C i 3
previously reported circuits using multiple current outputs
of OTAs. The proposed circuits need two OTAs (one with It can be seen that the pole-frequency and pole-Q are
dual outputs and one with single output) and a grounded slightly affected by the parasitic capacitances and output
capacitor. The circuits need a matching condition of two impedance of the various OTAs.
gms. Both the proposed circuits need two current inputs and Taking into account the finite bandwidth of the OTA, the
can also realize low-pass and high-pass functions. The realized transfer function can be seen to be of fifth-order.
circuit due to Wu and El-Masry [12] shown in Fig.3(c) Neglecting terms of the order of s3, s4 and s5, the
while needing the same hardware realizes low-pass and approximate second-order denominator of the transfer
high-pass transfer functions only. The structure due to Sun function can be shown to be
and Fidler [9] needs three OTAs, two of them with dual
outputs and a grounded capacitor. ⎛ ⎛ 1 1 ⎞⎟ ⎞⎟ ⎛⎜ G G ⎞
s 2 ⎜⎜ C1 C 2 + C 2 G m1 ⎜⎜ +
⎟
+ s C 2 G m1 + m 2 m 3 ⎟
⎜
⎝
⎟
⎝ ω p 2 ω p3 ⎠ ⎠ ⎝ ω p1 ⎟⎠
IV. SECOND-ORDER FILTERS DERIVED FROM THE + G m 2 G m3
GENERAL BASIC TOPOLOGY OF FIG.2 (12)

It is possible to obtain second-order flters by using the basic

structure of Fig. 2(a) and Fig. 2(b) by replacing the
admittance Yp with a L in parallel with C and Yn with a
resistance in Fig. 2(a) and vice versa in Fig. 2(b). The
-
resulting circuit is presented in Fig.4. Note that Gm4 realizes -
Yp and the grounded inductance is realized by OTAs Gm2 +
C2 +
and Gm3 and capacitor C2. The inductance value realized is C1
Gm2Gm3/C2. The transfer function of the circuit of Fig. 4 is Gm2 Gm3
given by
Iin
I o g m1 ⎛⎜ s L C 1 − sL Y n + 1 ⎞⎟
2
= (10)
I in Y n ⎜⎝ s L C1 + sL g m1 + 1 ⎟⎠
2
-
+
Evidently under the condition Yn = gm1, a second-order all-
pass current transfer function is obtained. The sensitivity of Gm1 Io
Iin
the pole-frequency and pole-Q can be seen to be low with
respect to all Gm and capacitor values.
-
Taking into account the various input and output +
impedances of the OTAs, the transfer function realized can Gm4
be shown to be

⎛ s 2 ( C1 + C a − C c )( C b + C 2 ) ⎞
⎜ ⎟ Fig.4. Second-order all-pass filter derived from the configuration
⎜ + s (( − − )(
G a G m4 G c C b C 2 + ) + ( + − )
C1 C a C c G b ⎟
) of Fig. 2 (a)
⎜+ ( − ⎟
Io
=k ⎝ Gb G a G m4 − G c ) + G m2 Gm3 ⎠
I in ⎛ s 2 ( C1 + C a )( C b + C 2 ) ⎞
⎜ ⎟ Evidently the pole-frequency and pole-Q are affected by the
⎜ + s (( G a + G m1 )( C b + C 2 ) + ( C 1 + C a ) G b )⎟ bandwidths of the OTAs:
⎜+ ⎟
⎝ G b G m1 + G m 2 G m 3 ⎠
ωo2 = 1 + 2 ωo (13a)
2 Qωp
(11) ω op
 +2V, Vss = -2V. The resulting amplitude and phase
and responses were found to be in good agreement with theory.

ωo Q p ωo Q p
=1+
ω op Q pp ω p1
Note that second subscript p indicates “perturbed” values.
V. QUADRATURE OSCILLATOR USING THE PROPOSED ALL-
PASS FILTERS
One application of the proposed all-pass filter circuits is
in the well-known current-mode quadrature Oscillator. The
block diagram representing the implementation of the
oscillator circuit is shown in Fig 5(a), in which the first
block is a non-inverting type first-order all-pass filter with
unity gain and the second is an inverting type one. It can be
shown that the circuit oscillates unconditionally at a
frequency given by ωo= 1/RC. The implementation of the
oscillator is shown in Fig 5(b). The condition for oscillation
is given by gm1 = gm2 = g3 = g4 = g and C1 = C2 = C.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
(13b)
In this paper, two first-order current-mode all-pass filter
realizations based on DO-OTA and grounded capacitors are
presented. The study of the effects of OTA non-ideal
frequency response and parasitics at the input and output
terminals has been carried out. The application of the
proposed configuration to realize a second-order all-pass
filter using simulated inductance is also considered. This
circuit exhibits low sensitivity to component tolerances.
Further, a second-order oscillator using the proposed all-
pass network is also presented. P-SPICE simulations are
carried out for the firs-order all-pass networks to verify the
theoretical results. Further work is being carried out to use
the proposed first-order all-pass network in the well-known
Moschytz’s modified Tarmy-Ghausi filter configuration.
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