ISSCC 90 I FRIDAY, feBRUARY Hi, 1990 I CONTINENTAL BALLROOM 5-9/11:45 A_M.

SESSION 12: D/A CONVERTERS AND FILTERS

FAM 12.6: A 5V 7th-order Elliptic Analog Filter for Digital Video Applications

Venugopal Gopinathan, Yannis Tsividis

Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University

New York, NY

Khen-Sang Tan, Richard Hester

VLSI Design Lab, Texas Instruments

Dallas, TX

THE MAGNITUDE specifications of this analog antialiasing filter The master-slave tuning !;cherne� shown in Figure 3� main-
for commercial- grade digital video require the use of a 7th-order tains a stable gain constant for the Gm-C integrator by phase­
elliptic response. For h igh-frequency performance, thi, was im­ locki ng a se lf-tunin g biquad to an external reference frequency
plemented using the Gme topology shown in Figure 1. Feed­ and using its control volta�es to control the filter integrators.
forward-feedback paths for transmission zeros wert' imple me nted Th e biquad is scaled so that it has unity gain at resonance, and
by connecting capacitors between the appropriate nodes as shown, any p ha se errors in it� int e grato rs m anifest as a change in re­
based on signal flow g raph analysis. For dynamic range optimiza­ sonance gain. By observing the gain at resonance, the phase er-
tion, only integr al scaling of Gm was performed using multiple rors of the integrators can be tuned out. Since the integrators
transcunduc tance amplifiers. because the matching between two in the slave filter are lIlatched to lhose in the tuning filter
such amplifier s with nun-integer Gm ratios would not meet the ( master), the in tegrators in the slave are also expected to be
specification. To facilitate signal addition , each Gm block shown properly tuned. The transconductance amplifier at the input
is a two-input stage, single-output_stagc transconduetanc" of the master has i ts Gm scaled down by a factor equ al to the
ampli fier. quality factor of the master filter Q. The exact value uf Q is
Monto Carlo simulation indicates that the element matching immaterial for opnation of the loop as long as it is in the range
achievable in fabric ation meets specifications, p rovided the of 8 t o 10 for tuning sensitivity. The phase- lock scheme t unes
nominal cutuff frequency of the master is maintained by an th" re nter frequency uf the biquad until the phase of its low-pass
o n-chip tuning system. Simulations show that, to achIeve this. output is 90 de grees uut of phase with input refcrence_ The
it is necessary to tune both the mag nitude and the phase of the reference frequency was 2.75'\llIz. At snch frequencies, the
i
filter . The master-slave approach of tuning used ma intains syslcmatic nonidealities in the various blocks of the tu ning
accuracy in the presence of f abr ic ation tolerances, temperature circuit (finit'·, rise tim,> of the comparator, or EXNOR gates,
variations and aging. extra phas.· shift from the buffer, etc.) could produce significant
Figure 2 shows the topology of the transcondlletance amplifirr. differences betwcr.n tht� master resonance and reft'ren�e fre­
This struc ture exhibits a high output-current linearity when driven quencies. This tu ni ng scheme performs first-order correction of
2
by balanced signal s. �
The ampli fier transcolldllctan e, determined these problems by maintaining an identical path for both the signal
mainly by the drain conductance uf transistur MW1 (and MW2), from the biquad and the reference signal. Instead of using a s i nglc
can be controlled by the freque n cy control voltage, Vfe. The net­ EX NO R gate fur phase detection, two such gates are used, fed by
works comprising Ml 7A and MI7B, C1 and C2 ( a nd MHlA and A, A-, Hand B- in such a way as to produce complementa ry
MI8B. C3 and C4) introduce a variable phase lead at the output, outputs. Both of these outputs have the same nonidealities.
which can be used to correct for any excess phase the transeon­ Since the se outputs are subtracted, the sy stem is insensitive to
duetance may have due to its parasit ic poles when it is configured finite rise times or th" exact shape of the squaT<' wave s at the
"' an integrator. The amount o f ph"e lead introduced is controlled output of the comparators a nd EXNOR gatrs.
by vo lta ge Vphz. C5, C6 • .YI19A and M19B affect the output Th" complete filter w a s imple mented in a Il.lm l\-well CMOS
phase in a similar way, except that they produce a variable phase p r ocess . Fi gure 1. shuw� lhe chip micrograph. The active area i,,,
lag (cuntrolled by Vphp) in s tead of phase lead. COIIlJnon-rnudr 6mm 2. The measured frequenev response is shown in Figur e 5
feedback at the output is achieved using two networks. The and the output noise spectrum in Figure 6. To assess v iab ility
first one includes transistors MBI-MB4, which operate in the of this scheme in video antialiasing applicat ions . 92 chips frurn
triode region. Unlike other schemes working on a similar princi- various wafers were I,'sled for yield, the variability uf cutoff­
ple, since the triode-mode transi stors h ere arc not directly at the frequency, and ripple amplitude. The yield wa, 47%. T he
output stage, th" allowabl!: signal swing is not sacrificed. To aug­ measured characteristics arc given in Table 1.
ment the closed-loop bandwidth of the common - mode feedback
loop, an auxili ar y loop is used. This loop, which op era tes best at
high frequencies, consists of capacituf' CC:I11 and CCM2 and I Stmderowicz, D., et aI., "An NMOS Integrated Vector­
t ransi s tor MB15 op erati ng in the triude regiun. The Gill of the Locked Loop", IEEE Int. Symp. on Cire. and Syst., pl164-
1167; ; 1982.
cell can be varied by several fold and the output phase can be
2 Tsividis, y" et ai., "M08 Transconductors and Inte­
varied by ± 0.5 degrees. grators with High Linearity", Electronics Letters. Vol. 22,
No.5. p245-246: Feb., 27, 1986.

208 • 19$0 IEEE tntumationl1l Solid.$tate Circuits Conference 0193-653019010000-0208$01.00 © 1990 IEEE
ISSCC 90 I FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11i, 1990 I

FIGURE 4 - See page 297

FIGURE I-7th order elliptic slave filter.

1 MHz/Div

FIGURE 5-Measured frequency response.

Power supply voltage ±2.5V

Passband edge frequency:

Mean 4.36 MHz
Standard Deviation 0.11 MHz
Temperature variation (0 to 70 0C) ±O.OSMHz

Passband ripple:
Mean 1.24 dB
Standard Deviation 0.26 dB
Temperature variation (0 to 700C) ±0.20 dB

Stop-band attenuation Better than 60 dB

Differential input swing at 0.5 % THD

(Worst case over the freq. range 0 to 4.4 MHz) O.S Vpp

Input referred in-band random noise 210 �Vrms

Reference signal feedthrough, referred to the input 130 �Vrms

Dynamic range ( Signal I (Noise + Feedthrough)} 61 dB (10.1 bits)

Power supply rejection ratio (at passband edge):

VDD 49 dB
VSS 44 dB

Lock range of the tuning circuit 600 KHz to 6.8 MHz

FIGURE 2-Fully-differentiai linearized folded cascode
transconductance amplifier. Power dissipation 75mW

TABLE I-Measured performance.

I�

S
>
=
N
-.
>

i5 ..J
'"
"0

1 MHz/Div

FIGURE 6-Measured output noise spectrum

FIGURE 3-Automatic tuning circuit for frequency and phase control. (filter gain is 0.5).
 FAM 12.5:

Scared Integrator.
FIGURE 3-A die micrograph of the five-pole SI filter'CUrren t .
A'.
FAM 12.6: A 5V 7th-order Elliptic Analog Filter for Digital Video Applications
(Continued from page 209)

FIGURE 4-Chip micrograph.