On the Design of low-voltage low-power bulk-driven CMOS Current Conveyors

Research in analog integrated circuits has recently gone in the direction of low-voltage (LV), low-power (LP) design, especially in the environment of portable systems where a low supply voltage, given by a single-cell battery, is required. The current-conveyor (CCII) can be considered as the basic circuit block because all the active devices can be made by a suitable connection of one or two CCIIs. In this paper, a new principle of bulk-driven MOS transistors will be used to design a novel LV LP CCII. New possible applications can be expected in some basic analog functions such as filters, impedance simulators and converters, oscillators, etc. The designs were simulated in Cadence using a 0.7 mum CMOS technology from AMI SEMICONDUCTOR. The novel bulk-driven current conveyor was designed to work with plusmn0.6 V supply voltage only.