The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.
Characteristics of a limiting amplifier include: input sensitivity, gain, bandwidth, noise margin, de offset voltage, and output voltage swing. A high speed limiting amplifier using cascaded distributed amplifier technology is provided.
According to an embodiment of the invention, five gain stages 44 using cascaded-distributed amplifiers are employed to optimize amplification. A low pass path with resistors RF and capacitors CF is used in feedback filter 48 to detect dc offset voltage at the output port while corresponding offset voltage removal is employed in input stage 42 to stabilize limiting amplifier 40. Each gain stage 44 utilizes a cascaded-distributed amplifier, configured with a Butterworth filter structure to extend bandwidth. Output buffer 46 uses an improved Cherry-Hooper amplifier, providing high speed data transmission.
Limiting amplifier 40, the embodiment in
Input Stage and Feedback Filter
Each transformer Li, connected between a corresponding input node 50 and a corresponding resistor R1, is a center-tapped transformer providing a center tap 54 for outputting intermediate differential signal Vim1. Each transformer Li has a symmetric geometry as a T-coil network to extend bandwidth.
Resistor network 52, coupled between power line VDD and input nodes 50, must satisfy the tradeoff between the 50-Ω broadband matching and input dc bias. Resistor R3, as a common resistor, is used to adjust DC bias. Resistors R1 are load resistors sharing a common terminal connected to resistor R3 while resistor R2, as a shunt resistor, has two terminals respectively connected to resistors R1. R1 and R2 are placed in parallel to robustly match 50-Ω source termination and relax the resistor variations. Adding resistor R3 in the input matching network lowers required resistance values of resistors R1 and R2 to reduce parasitic capacitance and enhance bandwidth.
The design of dc offset cancellation on input stage 42 focuses on the feedback gain of the feedback network. As low pass filters consisting of resistors RF and capacitors CF are added, the overall limiting amplifier 40 resultantly exhibits a high pass frequency response. With respect to a high-gain amplifier, the feedback gain for a low frequency band must be less than 1, to avoid oscillation resulting from the accumulation and amplification of noise through the feedback network.
Gain Stages
To provide both a broadband bandwidth and a high gain and overcome the limitations of transistor cutoff frequency, several broadband technologies are combined, including Butterworth network load, cascaded-distributed amplifiers, and active feedback. The implementation and features of each technology and resulting gain stages 44 are as follows.
Conventional broadband amplifiers employ inductive peaking to extend 80% more bandwidth to increase data transmission. To further extend the bandwidth, Butterworth filters are applied to a broadband amplifier.
Poles of the transfer function are located at
wherein K=RL/(RL+RS), N is 4, the order of the filter, and ωC and ε are the cutoff frequency and the decay factor, respectively. The plot of the transfer function is shown in
In order to approach a Butterworth response, RL is set as
As the CGD of transistor Mg3 or Mg4 contributes Miller multiplication effect, C4 exceeds C3. At the frequency of ωC, a gain peak will occur, as expressed below:
For example, if C4=2*C3 and L1=2*L2, then an output impedance frequency response as shown in
and seriously narrows the bandwidth extension to only a factor of about 2.3.
Finally, a single gain stage 44 according to an embodiment of the invention combines cascaded-distributed amplifiers, a Butterworth network, active feedback and on-chip transformers.
Constant current source IS1 provides de bias for a first differential amplifier comprising a pair of MOSs (Mg1 and Mg2) and a pair of LC-ladder low pass filters (each including inductors L1 and L2 and resistor RL). Similarly, constant current source IS2 provides dc bias for a second differential amplifier comprising a pair of MOSs (Mg3 and Mg4) and a pair of LC-ladder low pass filters (each including inductors L3 and L4 and resistor RL). The second differential amplifier is cascaded (subsequent) to the first one. Although no capacitors are shown in
An active feedback architecture 68 comprising MOSs Mg5 and Mg6 and current source IS3 negatively feeds the output signal from nodes VM of the second differential amplifier to the inputs of the second differential amplifier (the gates of MOSs Mg3 and Mg4). Beneficially, the active feedback architecture 68 does not resistively load the second differential amplifier and improves the gain-bandwidth product of one gain stage 44.
Based on simulation, the proposed architecture provides a gain of 8 db and a bandwidth of 35 GHz. The gain-bandwidth product is improved by a factor of 3.8. Meanwhile, utilizing on-chip asymmetric transformers conserves about 50% of the area required by conventional independent inductors, enabling compact layout.
Output Buffer
Output buffer 46 in
Experimental Result
A limiting amplifier according to an embodiment of the invention was fabricated in a 0.13 um CMOS technology.
An embodiment of the invention provides a 35 Gb/s CMOS limiting amplifier using cascaded-distributed amplifiers together with Butterworth network, active feedback and on-chip transformers, achieving a differential gain of 38 dB and a passband bandwidth of 26.2 GHz. Unlike conventional amplifiers, high voltage, high power consumption, and large silicon area requirement are avoided with high operating data rate enabled.
Input stage 42 alone may be combined with gain stages, an output buffer and a feedback filter other than those disclosed in this specification. Similarly, gain stages 44 or output buffer 46 can also be combined with other components in limiting amplifiers other than that disclosed.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
This application is related to and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/807,944, filed Sep. 18, 2006, entitled “A Limiting Amplifier For Optical Communication”, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60807944 | Jul 2006 | US |