Abstract

Techniques that can provide non-degraded performance at low power supply voltages and consuming less power are demanded and will continue to evolute. In this thesis a novel bulk-driven CMOS voltage to current transconductor (VCT) is introduced. In contrast with the conventional gate-driven transconductors, this new transconductor (called bulk-driven VCT) has great potential to be used in low power low voltage supply system. Characteristics (DC, AC, etc.) related to this VCT circuit have been investigated. Noise performance of the circuit has been studied as well. Simulation and test results on several prototype chips fabricated in a 1.5 micron CMOS process show close agreements between the theoretical and test results. The functional parameters versus power consumption of the new VCT is very impressive compared with similar gate-driven VCTs that have been reported in the literature. This bulk-driven VCT can be further used to synthesize many components (like resistors and inductors). Using VCT-based inductors, a large system (filter) has been built. Advantage and disadvantage of the synthesized filter system have been shown through simulation and test results respectively. This VCT circuit may find its applications in audio devices and biomedical equipment, in which a modest working frequency band and efficient power consumption are required.