A CMOS CURRENT-CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR

AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Chunyan Wang, M. Omair Ahmad, Fellow, IEEE and M.N.S. Swamy, Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Concordia University,
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8
E-mail: [ chunyan, omair, swamy ] @ece.concordia.ca
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present the design of a new current-
controlled oscillator (ICO). The control current of this
I C0 is in a nano or sub-nano Ampere range and the
sensitivity of the frequency of its output voltage to the
control current is about 700 MHz per PA. The circuit can
operate with a low supply voltage, e.g. VDU <1 V when it
is implemented with a 0.18-pm technology. It requires no
bias current, thus have very low power dissipation. The
circuit can be easily implemented using a standard digital
CMOS technology. Some applications of the proposed
ICO, particularly those for AID conversion, are also
described in the paper.
1. INTRODUCTION
Current-controlled oscillators (KO) are important
building blocks in the design of electronic signal
generation, processing or data-conversion circuits. Many
of the existing current-controlled oscillators are based on
multi-vibrators or ring oscillators, in which multiple stages
of delay elements are included. Logic gates and
operational amplifiers (OpAmp) are often used as such
delay elements. In the former, the current available to
charge or discharge a capacitance of each of the gates is
adjusted in order to change the frequency of oscillation[ 11.
In the latter, the control current is used to adjust the circuit
bias so that the gain of the OpAmps can he modified in
order to adjust the frequency [Z] - [ 5] . In either case, a
current variation of several nano-Amperes may not be
large enough to result in a significant change of the
frequency.
In this paper, we propose the design of a current-controlled
oscillator that is able to operate with a control current in a
nA or sub-nA range. Some of the applications of the
proposed circuit are also considered.
2. CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
As shown in Figure I , the proposed current-controlled
oscillator consists of a CMOS latch (Invl and InvZ), a
PMOS switch pair (PI and P2), and two NMOS switch
pairs (NI and N,, N3 and N4). Voltages V, and V, are,
respectively, the r e m and set signals of the latch, and V,
and V, are the complementary output voltages of the
circuit.
Figure I Circuit diagram of the proposed current-
controlled oscillator. The control current i, i s steered
alternatively to thecapacitor at thenodeV, or Vb, resulting
in an alternative set or reset of the latch. The frequency of
the complementary output voltages, V, and V,, are
controlled by the current i , .
As Pi and P, are controlled by V, and V,, only one of them
is turned on. The control current i, is thus switched to
charge the gate capacitor of the transistor NI or Np , raising
the respective voltage V, or V,. Then, the rising voltage
becomes high enough to set (or reset) the state of the latch.
0-7803-7761-3/031$l7.00 02003 IEEE
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After that the current i , will be switched to charge the
other gate capacitor. Therefore, i, is switched alternatively
to the two gate nodes of NI and N,, V, and Vb are raised to
the high level alternatively, i.e. the latch is set, or reset,
alternatively, and V, and V, change their levels
periodically. Meanwhile, V, and V, are applied at the gates
of the two transistors, Nj and N4, respectively, so that V,
and Vb are pulled down to 0 V alternatively.
The following points i n the circuit design should be noted.
A differential PMOS switch pair, controlled by the
output voltages of the circuit, is used to steer the
control current i , alternatively to the two nodes V, and
V b
The cycle time, K of the pulse signals depends on the
time required for V, or V, to be changed from zero to
the level high enough to toggle the state of the latch. If
the circuit structure are fixed and the device parameters
are given, the frequency of the I C0 will depend on the
voltage rate dVJdt =i/Ca and dVddt =i/Cb, where C,
and cb are the capacitances at node V, and V,,
respectively. As all the switches can be minimum-sized
transistors, C, and Cb are usually small. A small
current variation of the control current can make a
significant change in the voltage variation rate. Thus,
the frequency can be highly sensitive to the current
variation. This feature also implies that the decrease of
transistor feature size leads to a decrease in C, and C,,
i.e., an increase in the sensitivity of the I C0 to the
control current.
A very weak control current may result i n a relatively
long rise time of V, and Vb However, the rise or fall
time of the output signals, V, and V,, depends mainly
on the current driving capacity of the inverters and the
regenerative process of the latch. Thus, the quality of
the output pulses of the I C0 is not affected by the weak
control current.
Six MOS switches are used to switch the control
current and discharging currents. All these switches are
controlled by the voltage signals generated in the
circuit. The circuit is, in fact, a switched-current circuit
operating without any external control voltages,
It should also be noted that the proposed I C0 operates
with a supply voltage (VDD) lower than (Vt, +IV,&
where V,, and Vtp are, respectively, the threshold voltages
of the NMOS and PMOS transistors of the inverters. If
VDD >(Vtn +lVtpl). the circuit may have an unstable
equilibrium when V, and V, are both at the level of the
threshold voltage of the inverters. In this case, all the MOS
switches are turned on, and i, is divided by the two PMOS
switches. Such a state may be terminated by some random
excitations, such as heat agitation, and the duration of such
a state i s thus undetermined. If VDD <(Vt, +lVtp'), the
inverters have a voltage transfer characteristic with
hysteresis as shown in Figure 2. In this case, the two
transistors in each inverter will never be turned on
simultaneously, and thus, the state of the unstable
equilibrium is eliminated.
Figure 2 Voltagetransfer characteristic of the inverters
employed in the proposed KO. The supply voltage of the
circuit is smaller than (Vtn +IV& the sumof the NMOS
and PMOS threshold voltages. This kind of inverter is
often used in electronic instrumentations.
3. SIMULATION RESULTS
The I C0 (Figure I ) has been simulated using the transistor
models of a 0.18-pm technology. All the transistors of this
I C0 are minimum-sized. The waveforms of the signals,
when the control current i, =2 nA and the supply voltage
VDD =0.6 V, are shown in Figure 3. Figure 4 illustrates the
frequency-versus-current characteristics of the circuit. Due
to the limitation of appropriate use of the transistor
models, the minimal value of i, is chosen as 2 nA in the
simulation. However, we can be sure that. in practice, the
control current can be much lower. The sensitivity of the
IC0 is about 0.7 MHdnA. The power dissipation of the
circuit depends on the frequency of the output voltage and
it is 0.7 p W when the output frequency is about 140 MHz.
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Tmnsient Response 0
ti me
Figure 3
obtained when VDD =0.6 V and i, =2 nA
Simulation waveforms of the proposed KO,
Figure 4 Frequency-versus-current characteristics of
theproposed ICO. The supply voltage Voo =0.6 V.
4. APPLICATIONS
I C0 circuits, in general, can he used in signal processing
and communication systems for example, in frequency
modulation or signal generation. It can also he an
important part in a PLL circuit. However, the proposed
I C0 is particularly useful for optical signal sensing and
processing. An incident light can he converted linearly
into a current signal and then this current can be processed
by the circuits involving the I C0 and other processing
units. In this process, two features of the proposed I C0
need to he highlighted. First, the high sensitivity of the
frequency of the proposed I C0 to theinput current makes
the circuits capable of effectively responding to very weak
currents converted from optical signals. Thus, the
application of the I C0 can improve thecircuits capability
of operating with weak optical signals. Second, the IC0
converts a current signal into a voltage one that carries the
information through the duration of its cycle, instead of its
magnitude. The dynamic range of the circuit is, therefore,
not limited by the supply voltage, thus making the circuit
to have a large dynamic range as well as a high sensitivity.
Since the I C0 converts an analog current signal to a
voltage pulse signal, it is obviously to he used for an A D
conversion. Figure 5 shows such an example. The
photocurrent ia converted from the incident signal is
fed to the ICO. The number of the pulses of the output of
the I C0 is then counted during a period of T that is related
to the weakest input signal. At the end of the period, the
counter will output a n-bit digital signal converted from
the input current of the KO.
-
Figure 5
electrical conversion and AID conversion.
Diagramof a circuit performing optical-to-
As the I C0 outputs a voltage pulse signal, the information
carried by its analog input can be processed digitally. The
circuit shown in Figure 6 is such an example. This circuit
has two optical incident signals, and its operation is
controlled by a clock signal elk. During the first half of elk,
the signal QINy is converted into a pulse train and the
counter counts up. When elk starts the other half, the
counter starts to count down with the number of the pulses
related to ( J / ~ Hence, at the end of the elk cycle, the
difference between $lNv - $IM( can be read at the digital
output of the circuit. In this circuit, the two currents, idx
and ialc are processed in the same ICO. Thus, there is no
problem of the mismatch of the conversion gains. This
circuit can also be used for a comparison of two optical
signals. If the outputs of the two AND gates are applied,
successively only to the up input of the counter, when
elk =0 and elk =I , respectively, the result of qINY +$ , N~
will he obtained.
The I C0 can also be used for data conversions along with
other types of computations. An example is shown in
Figure 7. In this circuit. the pulse width of the output
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Figure 6
I
down
cl k Counter
IelCl
I
Diagramof a circuit performing optical-to-electrical conversion. subtraction and AID conversion.
signal of the I C0 is T,, and the cycle duration of the pulse
train applied to the other input of the AND gate is Ty
where Ty <<T,. The number of the pulses counted during
each period of T, is then TJTy that is inversely
proportional to the incident signal $lm If the pulse train is
the output signal of another I C0 whose the input current is
converted from another incident signal QINR the digital
output signal will be the result of a division operation of
QINY QIW
Digital
ourpv,
I C0 Counter
Figure 7 Diagram of a circuit of which the digital
output is inversely proportional to the incident intensity
@rm-
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed a current-controlled
oscillator (KO) circuit. The proposed I C0 is a CMOS-
latch-based switched-current circuit. Compared to most of
the existing I C0 circuits, the new circuit has a simpler
structure, higher sensitivity, better ability to operate in
nano-Ampere range or below with a very low supply
voltage, and lower power dissipation. Moreover, the circuit
does not need external control/bias signals and can be
easily implemented using a standard digital CMOS
technology.
Some of the applications of the I C0 have been proposed.
In particular, we have presented a very simple A/D
convertor involving the proposed ICO, and, based on this
AID converter, we have presented other simple circuits,
each capable of performing optical-to-electrical
conversion, arithmetical computations and A/D conversion
simultaneously. Other applications of the I C0 can be in
low-power signal generating circuits, signal processing
and communication systems.
6. REFERENCES
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tion circuits, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits, Vol. SC-
22, no. 2, April. 1987, pp. 255-261.
D. Mijuskovic, Current-controlled oscillator with
linear output frequency: US. Patent, No. 5,206,609,
Apr. 27, 1993.
[3] L. Tsai and H. Wallance, Dual adjust current-con-
trolled phase locked loop, U.S. Patent, No.
5,691,669, Nov. 25, 1997.
Y. Chang and E. W. Greeneich. A current-controlled
oscillator coarse-steering acquisition-aid for high
frequency SO1 CMOS PLL circuits, in Proc. IEEE
International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,
May-J une, 1999, pp. I1 561-564.
H. Djahanshahi and A. Salama, Differential 0.35
pmCMOS circuits for 622 MHd933 MHz monolith-
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