LOW VOLTAGE HIGH PERFORMANCE CURRENT CONVEYORS AND THEIR ‘APPLICATIONS AS CURRENT SENSORS 5.8. Rajput! and S. S. Jamuar? "Thin Film Technology Group, National Physical Laboratory, New Dethi-110012 India *BE Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas New Delhi-1 10016 India Presently with Faculty of Engineering, University Putra, Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Malaysia Email ssrajput@esnpl.ren.nie.in and ssjamuar@eng.upm.edu.my ABSTRACT In this paper, we present new circuit for CCIE ‘A high peefornance low voltage current conveyor I, ‘which can operate at =.0V, is presented. The proposed (CCI has 2 bandwith of SOME Tor caren transfer nd 400M for voltage transfer. The power dissipation is 3m. The application of this etreuit as curent Sensors has alo ben explored LLINTRODUCTION npuvouput signals in curren mode crits (CMC) are primarily eurents, which termine the eicut response {1}, The voltage signals are ieelevant in determining the circuit performance of 2 CMC. The sensitive nodes inside a CMC have ow impedance, where the resultant ‘ollage svngs ae alo smal. The low impedance node ‘eansforms them into low tine constant crois and the resultant cicit bandwidth i expected to be quite high. Furthermore, CMC3_are suitable for integration in ‘CMOS tochoology and hence they have atracted more sitenton in ecent yeas [2] ‘Curent conveyors CCI, CCH and CCU are the mast, popular CMC structures {3} All tee have similar ‘Sretures but different characterises. Block diagram of 4 general CC structure whose input-output relationship is given by equation (1 is shown in Fig. 1 ebb where 4, B,C assume a value cither 1, 0 oF ~1 which will provide negative ‘ames, The renutant CC will naw have to ports (2+ tnd. Z), As CCI has been derived fom the CCI tract is properis are sila o that of pact CCH Thus is characterisis ar not presented in his paper. Fig. 3 Proposed CCU | Fig “The eurent wafer (CT characteristic for ys shown in Fig 5. The eror in the CT was found tobe negligible ‘The frequency response forthe CT for both f and fis shown a Fig 6, which gives a bandwidh of 2502 4 Port X charcterisos Freueney ine Fig, 6 Frequency response of cuent waster Pin duo . Fig 7 Voge tanfercharceiics —oo 2 3° a uw a 0 @ betama 1s | : Fig. Port Vchactersics as ‘VT is near ail to rail (-1V to 08V) witha main crvor of #1% a8 sen fom Fig. 7. VT Bandwidth is ‘o0nds as obainod fom Fig. * 5 = 22 CCH Structure Frequency in Mie A CCH sctare_(9] can easly be obtained by ‘Beoniguing the CCI o Fig. 3 The conection between Fig 8Frequney use of voage taser 3843 APPLICATIONS {1 CCU as current sensors Testing of analog/dgital ICs is now an important area of research, Due 10 high complexity of chip, the fit detection on-hip has bees gaining imporanee. One of the technique employed in detecting the fault in an IC by comparing the quiescent siply curent in an IC under test TUT) with the current ina good IC of sare ‘ype. The supply cutee sensing involves measuring the voltage developed across a resistnce, comected in series withthe de voltage source. Usually the resistance ischasen to be quit smal so that he bias conditions of TUT do not get affected. In requires high gain voltage amplifier to convert low voltage across the resistance to 4 high voltage. The use of CCs inthis pplication has ‘ot boon explored much, We present some ofthe circus ‘sed on CCT and CII for measuring the quissent ‘current in any sytem. ‘The CCI based curent sensors hive been used to rmeasie the supply eurent. But these eres require that eieut under test (CUT), should have lating power supply anda CM to transfer the supply cuent. This CM should be of high performance. CII based ccc tliminate above constants. The only constraint that i fmposed on CCIII bared cit is thatthe volage at curent tapping point should be such that it should not exceed the input voltage transfer range ofthe CCT it ranges IOV to O8V inthis case (Fig. 7). “The biock schematic of CCII bared cue sensor is shown in Fig. 9. The voltage applied at port Y transfer {o the port X where the CUT is coanecied. The eae vet this voltage flows through ort X and is available at port Yas well Since the input ports and Y present Vital shart eicuit, no wolage drop is required for Curent tapping. The current flowing into the CUT i valle at output port 2 for farther processing Vow Fig. 9 OCH based current sensor Spice simulations were cried out for verification ofthis schematic. To demonstrate the fuctoning ofthe CCCI based sensors, acre suet is shown in Fig 10. In this crit we want to measure the cuentin 8 branch and the current tapping hasbeen done as shown, 345, 1 may not be misunderstood with the circuit shown in Fig 12 Fig 10 CCU based curent sensor ‘The WIL rato for the wansistor used is chosen as 32m 6m. Te apped current lowing through CCH, andthe curent flowing through the NMOS are Indsingushable as shown in Fig. 11, To make 8 diference, the percentage enor is calculated. The or is well within ~59% for higher curents (IQA) and slightly higher at low eurents (LWA). As the curent ‘euired for monitoring is too large than the range where the large eror occurs, it poses no problem in curent monitoring. Also the ror in absolute currents terms is foo ess. Fig. 11 CCH based curent sensor performance 32. CCI as current sensors ‘The monitoring of the power supply cument in any circuit ean be done trough CCI based circuit as well. However, CCIt based circuit require that the CUT ‘operates with floating supply. To verity the CCU based ‘cuit the circuit shown in Fig, 12 i used. The crrent flowing through 2 NMOS ‘tansisor needs to be ‘monitored. P-Spice simulations were cared out to verify the finetion of his eurent sensor structure. Css ‘AB CCl bas been used here forthe simulations, The aspet rato ofthe transistors kept as 32um/1.6ym, The