This invention relates to complementary metal oxide semiconductor active pixel sensors (CMOS APS), and more particularly to power amplifiers used in CMOS APS systems.
Conventional active pixel digital video camera devices for video cell phone application are typically designed for operation at a frame rate of 30 fps (frames per second). However, due to the limited bandwidth of the existing phone network, they may operate at a slower frame rate of about 15 fps. Since the power consumption and settling time of conventional digital video camera devices was originally optimized for performance at 30 fps, operating the devices at a slower frame rate may result in excessive power consumption and increased susceptibility to noise.
A voltage amplifier is provided. The voltage amplifier includes an amplifier stage to amplify an input signal. A bias current generator supplies a bias current to the amplifier stage. The bias current generator is controllable in response to a frame rate signal that is representative of a video frame rate. A compensation network stabilizes a loop response of the voltage amplifier. The compensation network is controllable in response to the frame rate signal.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
As shown in
A compensation network 76 is coupled to the amplifier stage 70 to control the gain-bandwidth of the voltage amplifier 68 so that loop stability is maintained. The frame rate signal 74 may control the compensation network 76 in conjunction with the bias current generator 72 to maintain effective stability margins for the voltage amplifier 68. The stability margins preferably include a loop phase margin of about 60 degrees to provide a critically damped response to load transients and input voltage transients. The voltage amplifier 68 will operate at phase margins both significantly greater and less than 60 degrees. As the phase margin approaches zero degrees, the voltage amplifier 68 exhibits an underdamped response to transients, becoming much more susceptible to noise. At phase margins significantly greater than 60 degrees, the voltage amplifier 68 exhibits an overdamped response, reacting sluggishly to transients. As an example, in response to the frame rate signal indicating a lower frame rate, the bias current may be set to one-half the former bias current value, and the compensation network 76 adjusted to have a lower open-loop gain crossover frequency with a phase margin of about 60 degrees. Reducing the bias current, decreases the power consumption of the voltage amplifier 68, while changing the compensation network to lower the crossover frequency reduces the noise susceptibility of the voltage amplifier 68.
For operation at 30 fps, a 10 uA bias current is generated by each of the bias current generators 88-92 to bias the first and second stages 84 and 86. The compensation network 82 is adjusted to provide an amplifier bandwidth of about 83 MHz.
For operation at 15 fps, a 5 uA bias current is generated by each of the bias current generators 88-92 in response to the frame rate signal to reduce power consumption. The compensation network 82 is adjusted to decrease the amplifier bandwidth to about 36 MHZ to reduce susceptibility to off-band noise and increase the settling time of the voltage amplifier 80.
The controlled capacitance 96 may include two or more capacitors 98-100 in combination with a switch 102. The switch 102 may be in series or parallel with selected ones of the capacitors 98-100 so that the capacitance of the controlled capacitance 96 is varied by changing the state of the switch 102 between open and closed.
The controlled impedance 94 may include two or more resistors 104-106 in combination with a switch 108. The switch 108 may be in series or parallel with selected ones of the resistors 104-106 so that the resistance of the controlled impedance 94 is varied by changing the state of the switch 108 between open and closed. The controlled impedance 94 may also be implemented with a transistor 110 such as a Field Effect Transistor (FET) that is operated in the active region so that the flow of current through the transistor is controlled.
A number of embodiments of the invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/003,662, filed Oct. 18, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,982,758 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application entitled “FLEXY-POWER AMPLIFIER: A NEW AMPLIFIER WITH BUILT-IN POWER MANAGEMENT”, filed Jul. 23, 2001, Application Ser. No. 60/307,513, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20060023095 A1 | Feb 2006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60307513 | Jul 2001 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10003662 | Oct 2001 | US |
Child | 11240355 | US |