12/16/2011

ECE 4430 Project 2

Operational Amplifier
Dennis Larsen
Yining Zhang
Julius Ivester

Design Specifications
Technology

TSMC 0.18 m

Supply Voltage (V)

1.8

Maximum Power Consumption (W)

200

Differential Gain (dB)

100

CMRR (dB)

100

ICMR (V)

0 - 1.8

Output Swing (V)

0 - 1.8

Bandwidth - 3dB (kHz)

50

Loading (pF || kOhm)

10 II 100

Slew Rate (V/us)

20

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Initial Design
The wide swing Diff Amp with constant gm topology was
chosen to achieve the rail to rail swing.
Initially open circuit tests were used to determine the
number of required stages to achieve 100 dB.
Max power consumption is 200uW and Supply is 1.8 V
so there is room for more current.
Choose Push-Pull output buffer for full output swing.
Only two stages were needed one Diff Amp and one
Push-Pull output buffer.

Design Steps
Added two source followers to match the high DC
output of ~.9 V from the Diff Amp and the low input of
~.3 V of the buffer.
Changed topologies after finding poor VDD sensitivity.
Changed from Voltage output Diff amp to Current
output Diff amp.
No longer need the source followers.
Fine tuned the output buffer to change the differential
transition region and improve differential gain.
Add Cc equal to 70fF for phase margin.
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Topology Changes
Topology

Reasoning

Classic Diff Pair with Common Source

amplifier and Push-Pull buffer

Gave up some ICMR to increase Gain,

CMRR, and improve Power Dissipation.

Classic Diff Pair with Source Follower

and Push-Pull buffer

Gave up ICMR to improve Power

Dissipation and increase Gain

Wide Swing Diff Amp with Source

Follower and Push-Pull buffer

Achieved ICMR, Gain, and CMRR but

VDD sensitivity was bad.

Current
Wide Swing Diff Amp with Push-Pull
buffer

Achieved close to all targets, but more

tuning is needed to achieve everything.

Overview of Circuit

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Original Differential Amplifier Topology

Topology was based on Baker Figure 24.48

Current Differential Amplifier Topology

Topology was based on Baker Figure 24.48

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Output Stage

Slew Rate

There is no noticeable ringing in output waveform.

Rise Time = 126 ns
Fall time = 163 ns

Positive Slew Rate = 14 V/us

Negative Slew Rate = 11.6 V/us

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THD

The Output swinging from rail to rail.

11

Output Swing

The output swings exactly from 0 - VDD

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PSRR

A usual graph for an OpAmp that has a supply of VDD and 0 rather than
+/- VDD
13

DC/Avc Sweep

A common mode sweep of the amplifier without the

constant gm stage.
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CMRR

The CMRR goes out of spec when one of the

NMOS or PMOS pairs turns off and extra
current is added
15

AC gain with Common mode input

The amplifier maintains a gain of over 97 dB between

.25V and 1.37V
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Minimum VDD for differential output

17

Final Specs and Results

Specification

Result

Output Swing (Vmin ~ Vmax)

0 - VDD

Diff. Amp topology

Wide swing
with const. gm

VDD PSRR (dB)

9.15

Nominal output voltage (V)

0.9

Reference topology

BGR

Min Supply (V)

0.805 V

Input offset voltage (mV)

676 nV

Unloaded Bandwidth (kHz)

417 Hz

Loaded Bandwidth (kHz)

494 Hz

Gain bandwidth product (MHz)

46.1 MHz

Compensation capacitor (pF)

70 fF

Max Supply (V)

N/A

Diff. Amp Gain (dB)

36.6

CMRR (dB)

84 138

Ref. power consumption (W)

25.6

OpAmp power consumption with

zero input (W)

467

OpAmp power consumption with

no load (W)

675

Phase margin (degrees)

53

Total power consumption (W)

684

Rise time (ns)

126

Positive Slew Rate (V/us)

14

Fall time (ns)

163

Negative Slew Rate (V/us)

ICMR (Vmin ~ Vmax)

11.6

Settling time (ns)

THD for full Swing (%)

2.53

0.25 1.37

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Changes from required Specifications

Parameter

Specification
Required

Specification
achieved

Max Power
Consumption (uW)

200

684

Differential Gain (dB)

100

97

CMRR (dB)

100

84 138

ICMR (V)

0 1.8

0.25 - 1.37

Output Swing (V)

0 1.8

0 1.8

Bandwidth - 3dB (kHz)

50

494 Hz

Slew Rate (V/us)

20

14

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Conclusions
We have much larger power consumption to improve
the slew rate.
Could fine tune the Differential Amplifier stage to
improve ICMR.
Phase margin is high enough to prevent oscillations in
the step response.
The cascoded structures lowered the ICMR.
All testing was done by altering the total schematic no
test structures were used.
The output stage consumed most of the power.
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