S. Cannizzaro

Design Procedures for Three-Stage CMOS OTAs With Nested-Miller Compensation

Design procedures for three-stage CMOS operational transconductance amplifiers employing nested-Miller frequency compensation are presented in this paper. After describing the basic methodology on a Class-A topology, some modifications, to increase swing, slew-rate and current drive capability, are subsequently discussed for a Class-AB solution. The approaches developed are simple as they do not introduce unnecessary circuit constraints and yield accurate results. They are hence suited for a pencil-and-paper design, but can be easily integrated into an analog knowledge-based computer-aided design tool. Experimental prototypes, designed in a 0.35-mum technology by following the proposed procedures, were fabricated and tested. Measurement results were found in close agreement with the target specifications

Distortion analysis of Miller-compensated three-stage amplifiers

This paper proposes a theoretical approach for evaluating distortion in the frequency domain of three-stage amplifiers adopting two commonly used compensation techniques, namely the nested Miller (NM) and the reversed NM. The analysis is based on appropriate amplifier modeling and on the assumption that the nonlinearity generated by each stage is static. Calculations are thus greatly simplified avoiding complex methods based on the Volterra series. Only dominant contributions need to be taken into account, thereby highlighting those mechanisms generating distortion and their features in the frequency domain. Moreover, the adopted approach provides useful design guidelines and explains why the NM compensation technique allows generally better linearity performance at low frequency and why the reversed NM is best suited to high frequencies. Simulation results with Spectre on two transistor-level CMOS circuits are also provided and found to be in very good agreement with expected results.

Effects of nonlinear feedback in the frequency domain

A simple methodology to evaluate harmonic distortion in the frequency domain for circuits and systems made up of a nonlinear high-gain path with a nonlinear feedback network is presented. The approach provides compact closed-form expressions which constitute a direct extension of the classic ones valid at dc. The result improve our understanding of nonlinear frequency behavior in general feedback circuits and can even be used in manual design. The accuracy of the equations obtained was evaluated by comparison with computer simulations and measurements on an example circuit. Simulated and experimental data highly agree with the theoretical model.

An approach to model high‐frequency distortion in negative‐feedback amplifiers

In this paper, we present an analytical approach to study the harmonic distortion in the frequency domain of operational amplifiers (opamps) embedded in a nonlinear feedback network. The analysis is based on a frequency-domain block scheme that models the opamp with one block and the feedback network with two blocks, but it is demonstrated that only one feedback block needs to be characterized for the two basic inverting and non-inverting configurations. The obtained closed-form expressions extend our understanding of nonlinear frequency behaviour in feedback opamp circuits. Indeed, they give the contribution of each network component to the output distortion. As an instructive example, we analysed second- and third-order harmonic distortion of an active-RC inverting lossy integrator having all the components nonlinear. The accuracy of the proposed method is confirmed by comparison with computer simulations at transistor level. Copyright