Electronically tunable high-input impedance voltage-mode universal biquadratic filter based on simple CMOS OTAs

This paper describes a new electronically tunable three inputs and single output voltage-mode universal biquadratic filter based on simple CMOS operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) and grounded capacitors. The proposed configuration provides lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop and allpass voltage responses at a high impedance input terminal, which enable easy cascadability. Additionally, the circuit parameters ω_o${\omega }_o$ and Q   can be set orthogonally by adjusting the transconductances and grounded capacitors. The filter also offers an independent electronic control of parameters ω_o${\omega }_o$ by adjusting the transconductance through the bias current/voltage of the OTA. For realizing all the filter responses, no critical component matching condition is required, and all the incremental parameter sensitivities are low. PSPICE simulation results are performed to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

1-V Inverting and Non-inverting Loser-Take-All Circuit and Its Applications

A new solution for a non-conventional loser-take-all (LTA) circuit is proposed in the paper. The circuit possesses several inverting and non-inverting input terminals and an additional current output, which increases its versatility and allows simplifying its possible applications. In order to show its usefulness and versatility, several new applications of the proposed LTA have also been developed, including a simple digital-to-analog converter, an n-bit programmable adder/summer, a chopper modulator and a precision rectifier. The LTA has been designed and fabricated with a 0.35 \(\upmu \hbox {m}\) CMOS I3T25 AMIS process, exploiting the recently proposed bulk-driven quasi-floating-gate technique. The LTA circuit operates from 1 V supply and dissipates 74 \(\upmu \hbox {W}\) of power. The simulations performed in Cadence environment and the measurements of a real chip confirm the attractive features of the proposed LTA.     

Synthesis and antifungal activity of reduced graphene oxide nanosheets

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets were produced using a modified Hummers method. Antifungal activity of rGO nanosheets was tested against three fungi i.e., Aspergillus niger (A. niger), Aspergillus oryzae (A. oryzae) and Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum). The rGO inhibits the mycelial growth of the fungi and it is believed that this is due to its sharp edges. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀), a measure of the effectiveness of the rGO in inhibiting the fungi, was investigated. IC₅₀ values of the rGO against F. oxysporum, A. niger, and A. oryzae are 50, 100, and 100 μg ml^?1, respectively.     

Electronically tunable voltage-mode universal filter with single-input five-output using simple OTAs

This article presents a new electronically tunable voltage-mode universal biquadratic filter with single-input five-output using simple operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) and grounded capacitors. The proposed configuration provides low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, band-stop and all-pass voltage responses at a high-impedance input terminal that enables easy cascading in voltage-mode. The natural frequency and the quality factor can be set orthogonally by adjusting the circuit components. The natural frequency can also be controlled electronically by adjusting the bias currents of the OTAs. For realising all the five standard filtering functions, no critical-matching conditions are imposed and all the incremental parameter sensitivities are low. Experimental and simulation results that confirm the theoretical predictions are given.     

Comparative study of sub-volt differential difference current conveyors

Enhancing the performances of analog circuits with sub-volt supplies becomes a great challenge for circuit designers. Techniques such as bulk-driven (BD) and quasi-floating gate (QFG) count among the suitable ones for ultra-low voltage (ULV) operation capability with extended input voltage range and simple CMOS circuitry. However, in comparison to the conventional gate-driven (GD) MOS transistor (MOST), these techniques suffer from several disadvantages such as low transconductance value and bandwidth that limit their applicability for some applications. Therefore, the idea of merging the BD and QFG techniques to eliminate their drawbacks appears as efficacious solution. This new merging is named bulk-driven quasi-floating gate (BD-QFG)^* technique and in order to demonstrate its advantages in compassion to BD and QFG ones, this paper presents a comparison study of three ULV differential difference current conveyor (DDCC) blocks based on BD, QFG and BD-QFG techniques. The significant increment of the transconductance and the bandwidth values of the BD-QFG are clearly observed. The proposed CMOS structures of the DDCCs work at ±300 mV supply voltage and 18.5 µW power consumption. The simulation results using 0.18 µm CMOS n-Well process from TSMC show the features of the proposed circuits.     

Cascadable Current-Mode Biquad Filter and Quadrature Oscillator Using DO-CCCIIs and OTA

This article introduces a circuit which can function both as a quadrature oscillator and as a universal biquad filter (lowpass, highpass, bandpass). When the circuit functions as a universal biquad filter, the quality factor and pole frequency can be tuned orthogonally via the input bias currents. When it functions as a quadrature oscillator, the oscillation condition and oscillation frequency can be adjusted independently by the input bias currents. The proposed circuit can work as either a quadrature oscillator or a biquad filter without changing the circuit topology. The amplitude of the proposed oscillator can be independently controlled via the input bias currents. The proposed oscillator can be applied to provide amplitude modulated/amplitude shift keyed signals with the above-mentioned major advantages. The circuit is very simple, consisting of four dual-output second generation current controlled current conveyors (DO-CCCIIs), one operational transconductance amplifier (OTA), and two grounded capacitors. Without any external resistors and using only grounded elements, this circuit is therefore suitable for IC architecture. PSPICE simulation results are depicted here, and the given results agree well with the theoretical analysis. The power consumption is approximately 7.32 mW at ±2.5 V supply voltages.     

Realization of electronically tunable voltage-mode/current-mode quadrature sinusoidal oscillator using ZC-CG-CDBA

This paper presents a first of its kind canonic realization of active RC (ARC) sinusoidal oscillator with non-interactive/independent tuning laws, which simultaneously provides buffered quadrature voltage outputs and explicit quadrature current outputs. The proposed circuit is created using a new active building block, namely the Z-copy controlled-gain current differencing buffered amplifier (ZC-CG-CDBA). The circuit uses three resistors and two grounded capacitors, and provides independent/non-interactive control of the condition of oscillation (CO) and the frequency of oscillation (FO) by means of different resistors. Other advantageous features of the circuit are the inherent electronic tunability of the FO via controlling current gains of the active elements and the suitability to be employed as a low-frequency oscillator. A non-ideal analysis of the circuit is carried out and experimental results verifying the workability of the proposed circuit are included.