The present invention relates to a constant voltage generator circuit including, for example, a differential amplifier circuit having a feedback circuit.
It has been reported that, when high-frequency radio waves are applied to an integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as an IC), noise of the radio waves is applied to an IC terminal, causing a malfunction. In a constant voltage generator circuit including a differential amplifier circuit having a general feedback circuit, the loop frequency of a feedback system is several hundred kHz, and is about several MHz even in a circuit that can operate in high speed.
In the feedback circuit of the constant voltage generator circuit, when a high-frequency alternative current (AC) signal outside the loop frequency band is inputted, and the difference is generated in the amplitudes of the AC signal propagating to an inverting input and a non-inverting input of the differential amplifier circuit, it has been reported that the input is converted as a direct current (DC) offset voltage. It has been already known that this leads to the malfunction of the IC.
However, there has been such a problem that, in the constant voltage generator circuit including the differential amplifier circuit having the feedback circuit, when the noise is superimposed on a power supply, ground voltage potential, or output, the difference is generated in the propagated noise amplitude between the inverting input and the non-inverting input due to a difference in impedance of elements connected to the inverting input and the non-inverting input of the differential amplifier circuit. Then, as a result, the differential amplifier generates the DC offset and causes the malfunction.
In addition, in particular, in the case of using a phase compensation capacitance in the feedback circuit of the differential amplifier circuit in order to ensure the stability of the feedback system, when the high-frequency noise components are superimposed on the substrate voltage potential, power supply, or output, there has been a possibility of greatly deteriorating the noise immunity.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and to provide a constant voltage generator circuit that can prevent the DC offset from generating even when high-frequency noise components outside the loop frequency band of a feedback circuit is inputted in a constant voltage generator circuit including a differential amplifier circuit having a feedback circuit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a constant voltage generator circuit including an operational amplifier including a feedback circuit having a first resistor, and an output transistor. The operational amplifier generates a feedback voltage generated by dividing an output voltage between an output terminal and a substrate voltage potential of the constant voltage generator circuit by the first resistor and a second resistor. The operational amplifier is configured to amplify a voltage potential difference between a predetermined reference voltage and the feedback voltage and to output a control voltage. The output transistor controls an output voltage based on the control voltage from the operational amplifier. The feedback circuit is further configured to superimpose high-frequency noise components from the substrate voltage potential.
Therefore, according to the constant voltage generator circuit of the present invention, even when the high-frequency noise components outside the loop frequency band of the feedback circuit are inputted in the constant voltage generator circuit including the differential amplifier circuit having the feedback circuit, the DC offset can be prevented from generating.
Hereinafter, a comparative example and embodiments according to the present invention are described with reference to the drawings. In the following comparative example and respective embodiments, the same reference numerals are given to similar constituent elements.
First of all, the configuration and operation of the comparative example, particularly the generation of DC offset are described below.
Referring to
The reference voltage generator circuit 2 generates a predetermined reference voltage Vref based on a voltage between the input terminal T1 and the ground terminal T2, and outputs the reference voltage to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 3.
In the reference voltage generator circuit 2 of
The reference voltage Vref is inputted to the gate of a MOS transistor M13 that configures the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 3, and a divided voltage Vfb is inputted to the gate of a MOS transistor M14 that configures the non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 3. The MOS transistors M13 and M14 configure a differential pair, and MOS transistors M15 and M16 configure a current mirror circuit to form a load of the differential pair.
Further, in the MOS transistors M15 and M16, each of the sources is connected to the input terminal T1 from which input is received, the gates are connected to each other, and a connection part of the gates is connected to the drain of the MOS transistor M16. Further, the drain of the MOS transistor M16 is connected to the drain of the MOS transistor M14, and the drain of the MOS transistor M15 is connected to the drain of the MOS transistor M13 whose drains configure the output terminal of the operational amplifier 3 to output an output voltage Vol to the gate of the driver transistor M11.
The sources of the MOS transistors M13 and M14 are connected to each other and connected to the drain of a MOS transistor M12, a bias voltage Vbias1 is applied to the gate of the MOS transistor M12, and the source of the MOS transistor M12 is grounded.
In the constant voltage generator circuit 1 configured as described above, the operational amplifier 3 amplifies the voltage difference between the reference voltage Vref and the divided voltage Vfb and outputs the voltage difference to the gate of the driver transistor M11. Then, by controlling an output current Tout output from the driver transistor M11, the output voltage Vout is controlled to be a predetermined voltage.
The high-frequency noise is an AC signal, and in the small signal equivalent circuit, both the input terminal T1 and the output terminal T3 can be regarded as grounded as shown in
When a high-frequency noise voltage Vn is generated at the substrate voltage potential, the reference voltage Vref is expressed by the following equation:
Vref=Vn×R18/(R17+R18) (1)
That is, the noise voltage of Equation (1) propagates to the reference voltage Vref. In this case, because the resistor R18 is sufficiently larger than the resistor R17 as described above, the signal of the noise voltage Vn propagates to the gate of the MOS transistor M13.
On the other hand, the gate of the MOS transistor M14 is a node to which the reference voltage Vref is applied, and the output current Tout flows to the output terminal T3 via the resistor R12 connected between the substrate voltage potential (ground voltage potential) and the feedback voltage Vfb, and the resistor R11 and the capacitor C11 as the phase compensation capacitance connected between the output voltage Vout and the feedback voltage Vfb.
As is apparent from the term jωC11R12 in the denominator of Equation (2), the higher the frequency of the substrate noise Vn, the larger the absolute value of the denominator, and the noise amplitude propagating to the feedback voltage Vfb becomes 0 V. This indicates that the noise generated in the substrate does not propagate to the feedback voltage Vfb. As a result, a difference is generated in the noise voltage propagating between the reference voltage Vref and the feedback voltage Vfb, and the DC offset described above is generated.
The present embodiment provides a constant voltage generator circuit that can prevent the DC offset from generating, in a constant voltage generator circuit including a differential amplifier circuit having a feedback circuit, when the high-frequency noise components outside the loop frequency band of the feedback system are inputted, by substantially matching each of the noise amplitudes propagating to the inverting input and the non-inverting input. In the present embodiment, in particular, in the feedback circuit 10A, each of the noise amplitudes propagating to the inverting input and the non-inverting input can be substantially matched in the high-frequency region outside the loop frequency band, by connecting a resistor R13 in series with a capacitor C11 which is the phase compensation capacitance.
Vna=Vn×R18/(R17+R18).
In this case, because a resistor R18 is sufficiently larger than a resistor R17, a signal having an approximate noise voltage Vn propagates to the gate of the MOS transistor M13.
On the other hand, at the gate of a MOS transistor M14, current flows to a terminal T3 via a resistor R12 connected between the substrate voltage potential and a feedback voltage Vfb, a parasitic capacitance C12, and the feedback circuit 10A (including a resistor R11 connected between an output voltage Vout and the feedback voltage Vfb, the capacitor C11 which is a phase compensation capacitance, and the resistor R13 connected in series with the capacitor C11).
In this case, when an angular frequency ωn of the noise voltage Vn to the substrate voltage potential satisfies the following equation, the propagation path of the noise voltage Vn mainly flows to the output terminal T3 via the resistor R12, and an equivalent circuit diagram of the noise path P2 at this time is shown in
That is,
For example, assuming that the resistance value of the resistor R12 is one MΩ and the capacitance of the capacitor C12 is 100 fF, the case in which the frequency of the noise voltage Vn in Equation (3) is lower than 1.59 MHz is the target. At this time, the noise voltage Vn propagating to the feedback voltage Vfb is expressed by the following equation:
Further, the case in which the condition of the angular frequency of the substrate noise voltage Vn is the following equation is considered:
At this time, Equation (4) is expressed by the following equation:
Next, the resistance values of the resistors R11, R12, and R13 are set to satisfy the relationship of the following equation:
R13»R12, R11»R12 (7).
At this time, Equation (6) is expressed by the following equation:
Vfb≈Vn (8).
Therefore, in the feedback voltage Vfb, the substrate noise voltage propagating to the node of the feedback voltage Vfb becomes Vn, which substantially coincides with the substrate noise Vn propagating to the reference voltage Vref. As a result, because the above-described DC offset is not generated, fluctuations in the output voltage can be suppressed.
Next, the noise path P2 in the case in which the angular frequency of the substrate noise Vn satisfies the following equation is the current mainly flowing to the terminal T3 via the parasitic capacitance C12. A small signal equivalent circuit diagram at this time is shown in
At this time, the noise voltage Vfb propagating to the node of the feedback voltage Vfb is expressed by the following equation:
Usually at this time, because the capacitor C11 which is the phase compensation capacitance is sufficiently larger than the parasitic capacitance C12, the following relationship is established:
C11>>C12 (11).
Further, the parameter values R11, R13, and C12 that satisfy the following equations are set:
By satisfying the above Equations (11) and (12), the Equation (10) is expressed by the following equation:
Vfb≈Vn (13).
As a result, the DC offset described above is not generated.
Next, in order to show that the addition of the resistor R13 does not affect the conventional feedback loop circuit as shown in
At this time, if the angular frequency of,
is outside the operating band of the constant voltage generator circuit 1A, the angular frequency does not act as phase compensation within the operating band, but functions only for the effect of increasing the high-frequency noise immunity. That is, the high-frequency noise components having the substrate noise voltage Vn have frequency components equal to or more than the feedback loop frequency of the feedback circuit 10. The phase compensation at this time is determined by the following phase constant before the resistor R13 is added:
According to the constant voltage generator circuit according to the first embodiment configured as described above, by connecting the predetermined resistor in series to the phase compensation capacitance in the feedback circuit 10A, each of the noise amplitudes propagating to the inverting input and the non-inverting input can be substantially matched, in the high-frequency region exceeding the operating band of the constant voltage generator circuit. Therefore, the generation of the DC offset can be prevented, and the malfunction of the IC can be prevented.
When the condition of Equation (9) in the first embodiment is satisfied, a noise current flows through a parasitic capacitance C12. At this time, the configuration of the feedback circuit 10B according to the second embodiment has been devised as a method of superimposing a substrate noise Vn on the voltage potential of a feedback voltage Vfb.
At this time, if the following equation holds:
Equation (17) is expressed by the following equation:
Vfb≈Vn (19).
Therefore, the feedback voltage Vfb becomes equal to the substrate noise Vn propagating to the feedback voltage Vfb, and the DC offset is not generated.
According to the constant voltage generator circuit according to the second embodiment configured as described above, by connecting a predetermined resistor in series to the series circuit of the phase compensation capacitance and the resistor in the feedback circuit 10A, each of the noise amplitudes propagating to the inverting input and the non-inverting input can be substantially matched, in the high-frequency region exceeding the operating band of the constant voltage generator circuit. Therefore, the generation of the DC offset can be prevented and the malfunction of the IC can be prevented.
As a summary of the above embodiments 1 and 2, Table 1 shows a condition correspondence table, the condition satisfying the feedback voltage Vfb=the substrate noise voltage Vn.
The comparative example described in Patent Document 1 is characterized in that the low-pass filter for limiting high-frequency noise components is provided in order to improve high-frequency noise immunity. On the other hand, the present embodiment is intended to provide the constant voltage generator circuit that includes the differential amplifier circuit having the feedback circuit and can prevent the DC offset from generating even when the high-frequency noise components outside the loop frequency band of the feedback circuit are inputted. The constant voltage generator circuit does not include a low-pass filter and has a completely different configuration.
As mentioned above in detail, according to the constant voltage generator circuit of the present invention, even when the high-frequency noise components outside the loop frequency band of the feedback circuit are inputted in the constant voltage generator circuit including the differential amplifier circuit having the feedback circuit, the DC offset can be prevented from generating.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2018/024424 | 6/27/2018 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2020/003419 | 1/20/2020 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210191442 A1 | Jun 2021 | US |