A micropower CMOS continuous-time filter with on-chip automatic tuning

This paper presents a CMOS implementation of a low-voltage micropower G_m-C biquad with on-chip automatic tuning. The filter is suitable for any kind of application involving low-frequency ranges, and very low-power consumption, such as biomedical devices. The operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is implemented with the transistors working in the weak inversion saturation region, thus allowing the use of very small currents that minimize the power consumption. The aspect ratios are small enough not to degrade the frequency response. The tuning algorithm is based on amplitude tracking. The filter output amplitude is quantized using a low-power amplifier and an asymmetric comparator. A digital controller varies the tuning parameters until the maximum quantized amplitude is found. The system works down to a voltage supply of 1.75 V. The center frequency is tunable over one and a half decades, from 300 Hz to 10 kHz for bias currents changing from 6 to 200 nA and a 20-pF integrating capacitance, giving an overall filter accuracy of up to 99.55%. The power consumption of the second-order filter including the common-mode correction circuitry is in the order of 200 nW for the 10-nA bias current. It exhibits a dynamic range of 54 dB and occupies an area of 0.06 mm² excluding the area of the integrating capacitances.