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 used. These LV circuits have to show a reduced
power consumption to maintain a longer battery lifetime as well. In this
area, traditional voltage-mode techniques are going to be substituted by
the current-mode approach, which has the recognized advantage to
overcome the gain-bandwidth product limitation, typical of operational
amplifiers. Then they do not require high voltage gains and have good
performance in terms of speed, bandwidth and accuracy. Inside the
current-mode architectures, the current-conveyor (CCII) can be
considered the basic circuit block because all the active devices can be
made of a suitable connection of one or two CCIIs. CCII is particularly
attractive in portable systems, where LV LP constraints have to be taken
into account. In fact, it suffers less from the limitation of low
current utilisation, while showing full dynamic characteristics at
reduced supplies (especially CMOS version) and good high frequency
performance. Recent advances in integrated circuit technology have also
highlighted the usefulness of CCII solutions in a large number of signal
processing applications.
In Low Voltage, Low Power CMOS Current Conveyors, the authors start
by giving a brief history of the first and second generation CC. Then,
the second generation current-conveyor (CCII) will be considered as a
building block in the main active feedback devices and in the
implementation of simple analog functions, as an alternative to OA. In
the next chapters, the design of CCII topologies will be considered,
together with a further look into CCII modern solutions and future
trends. The authors will, therefore, describe LV LP CCII
implementations, their evolution towards differential and generalized
topologies, and new possible CCII applications in some basic analog
functions such as filters, impedance simulators and converters,
oscillators, among others.
Being a concise and modern book on current conveyors, Low Voltage, Low
Power CMOS Current Conveyors considers these kinds of devices both in
a general environment and for low-voltage low-power applications. This
book can constitute an excellent reference for analog designers and
researchers and is suitable for use as a textbook in an advanced course
on Microelectronics
