DIFFERENTIAL AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT
20240080006 ยท 2024-03-07
Inventors
Cpc classification
H03F3/45632
ELECTRICITY
H03F2200/405
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H03F1/56
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
An embodiment differential amplifier circuit includes an amplifier section including differential pair transistors to which a differential signal is input and a tail current circuit made up of a short stub provided between a ground terminal of the amplifier section and a ground. In an embodiment, an electrical length of the short stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of an operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
Claims
1.-7. (canceled)
8. A differential amplifier circuit comprising: an amplifier section comprising a differential pair transistor to which a differential signal is input; and a tail current circuit made up of a short stub provided between a ground terminal of the amplifier section and a ground.
9. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 8, wherein an electrical length of the short stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of an operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
10. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 9, further comprising a capacitance provided in parallel with the short stub between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
11. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 10, further comprising a resistor inserted in series with the capacitance between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
12. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 9, further comprising an open stub having a first end connected to the ground terminal of the amplifier section and a second end that is opened, wherein an electrical length of the open stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of the operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
13. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 8, further comprising a capacitance provided in parallel with the short stub between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
14. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 8, further comprising an open stub having a first end connected to the ground terminal of the amplifier section and a second end that is opened, wherein an electrical length of the open stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of an operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
15. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 14, further comprising a resistor inserted in series between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the open stub.
16. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 15, wherein the amplifier section comprises: a source-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; an emitter-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; or a cascode amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor and a pair of transistors cascode-connected to the differential pair transistor.
17. The differential amplifier circuit according to claim 8, wherein the amplifier section comprises: a source-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; an emitter-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; or a cascode amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor and a pair of transistors cascode-connected to the differential pair transistor.
18. A method of providing a differential amplifier circuit, the method comprising: providing an amplifier section comprising a differential pair transistor to which a differential signal is input; and providing a tail current circuit made up of a short stub provided between a ground terminal of the amplifier section and a ground.
19. The method according to claim 18, wherein an electrical length of the short stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of an operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising providing a capacitance in parallel with the short stub between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
21. The method according to claim 20, further comprising inserting a resistor in series with the capacitance between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
22. The method according to claim 19, further comprising providing an open stub having a first end connected to the ground terminal of the amplifier section and a second end that is opened, wherein an electrical length of the open stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of the operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
23. The method according to claim 18, further comprising providing a capacitance in parallel with the short stub between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the ground.
24. The method according to claim 18, further comprising providing an open stub having a first end connected to the ground terminal of the amplifier section and a second end that is opened, wherein an electrical length of the open stub is shorter than a quarter wavelength of an operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
25. The method according to claim 24, further comprising inserting a resistor in series between the ground terminal of the amplifier section and the open stub.
26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the amplifier section comprises: a source-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; an emitter-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; or a cascode amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor and a pair of transistors cascode-connected to the differential pair transistor.
27. The method according to claim 18, wherein the amplifier section comprises: a source-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; an emitter-grounded amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor; or a cascode amplifying circuit comprising the differential pair transistor and a pair of transistors cascode-connected to the differential pair transistor.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS
Principles of Embodiments of the Invention
[0041] In embodiments of the present invention, the aforementioned problem is solved by applying a circuit based on a transmission line to a tail current source circuit of a differential amplifier circuit.
[0042] The differential pair transistors Q1 and Q2 constitute an amplifier section 5. The transistors Q1 and Q2 each constitute a source ground amplifier circuit. The gate terminals of the transistors Q1 and Q2 become an input terminal of the amplifier section 5, the drain terminal becomes an output terminal of the amplifier section 5, and the source terminal becomes a ground terminal of the amplifier section 5.
[0043] The bias circuit 1 is made up of, for example, a resistor that applies the bias voltage V.sub.GG2 to the gate terminal of the transistor Q1 and a resistor that applies the bias voltage V.sub.GG2 to the gate terminal of the transistor Q2. Similarly, the bias circuit 2 is made up of, for example, a resistor that applies a power supply voltage V.sub.DD to the drain terminal of the transistor Q1 and a resistor that applies the power supply voltage V.sub.DD to the drain terminal of the transistor Q2.
[0044] In embodiments of the present invention, a short stub S1 including a transmission line is used as a tail current circuit of the differential amplifier circuit as shown in
[0045] In embodiments of the present invention, since a current source transistor is not required, the problem of increase in power consumption, which is a problem of a conventional differential amplifier circuit, can be solved. In addition, by using the short stub S1 capable of realizing a symmetrical structure, it is possible to solve a problem in layout due to usage of an asymmetrical inductor.
[0046] However, in the configuration shown in
[0047] Normally, in the frequency band of 300 GHz or more, since the gain per transistor is small, it is possible to configure an amplifier circuit having a significant gain first by making the transistors multi-stage as described in NPL 2. In such a multi-stage amplifier circuit, a reduction in loss of an inter-stage matching circuit that connects the amplifier circuits as much as possible is an extremely important design factor for ensuring the gain of the multi-stage amplifier circuit. In order to reduce the loss of the inter-stage matching circuit, it is important to shorten the physical length of the inter-stage matching circuit as much as possible as described in NPL 2.
[0048]
[0049] The inter-stage matching circuits 3 and 4 of a first stage are inserted between the input ports INP and INN and the gate terminals of the transistors Q1 and Q2 of the first stage. An inter-stage matching circuit 3 of the first stage matches the impedance of the input port INP with the impedance of the gate terminal of the transistor Q1 of the first stage viewed from the input port INP. The inter-stage matching circuit 4 of the first stage matches the impedance of the input port INN with the impedance of the gate terminal of the first stage transistor Q2 viewed from the input port INN.
[0050] The input terminal of the inter-stage matching circuit 3 other than the first stage is connected to the drain terminal of the transistor Q1 of the previous stage, and the output terminal is connected to the gate terminal of the transistor Q1 of the subsequent stage. The input terminal of the inter-stage matching circuit 4 other than the first stage is connected to the drain terminal of the transistor Q2 of the previous stage, and the output terminal is connected to the gate terminal of the transistor Q2 of the subsequent stage. The inter-stage matching circuit 3 other than the first stage matches the impedance of the drain terminal of the transistor Q1 of the previous stage with the impedance of the gate terminal of the transistor Q1 of the subsequent stage viewed from the drain terminal. The inter-stage matching circuit 4 other than the first stage matches the impedance of the drain terminal of the transistor Q2 of the previous stage with the impedance of the gate terminal of the transistor Q2 of the subsequent stage viewed from the drain terminal.
[0051] The drain terminals of the transistors Q1 and Q2 at the final stage are connected to output ports OUTN and OUTP.
[0052] Although the specific connection of the bias circuit is not described in the example shown in
[0053] As is apparent from the layout of
[0054] In order to quantitatively explain that the gain of the differential amplifier circuit of
[0055] Reference numeral 30 of
[0056] On the other hand, reference numeral 31 of
[0057] As is apparent from
[0058] Therefore, it is desirable that the length of the short stub S1 is made shorter than a quarter wavelength of the operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit. Therefore, the configuration shown in
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[0060] Also, it is found that even when the short stub S1 shorter than the quarter wavelength is used, the gain is reduced by the gain degeneration effect. The gain degeneration effect obtained by making the short stub S1 shorter than a quarter wavelength is very small at a low frequency. However, since the gain of the transistor is small in the vicinity of 300 GHz, it is found that even when a short stub S1 having a length of 80 ?m is used, the common mode gain can be set to 0 dB or less. Therefore, if the circuit shown in
[0061] As described above, in embodiments of the present invention, a short stub made up of a transmission line is used as the tail current circuit of the differential amplifier circuit. In particular, in order to reduce the matching loss of the inter-stage matching circuit which is important when designing the multi-stage amplifier circuit, a stub length shorter than a quarter wavelength is used, and common mode gain is reduced by taking advantage of the fact that the short stub acts as an inductor with an equivalent gain degeneration effect.
EXAMPLE 1
[0062] Referring to the drawings, a description will be given of examples of embodiments of the present invention.
[0063] Similarly to
[0064] In this example, the calculation results of the differential gain and the common mode gain of the differential amplifier circuit when the lengths of the short stub S1a and the inter-stage matching circuits 3a and 4a are set to 80 ?m are shown in
[0065] It is understood from
EXAMPLE 2
[0066] Next, a description will be given of a second example of embodiments of the present invention.
[0067] The capacitance C constitutes an LC resonance circuit at the inductance L of the short stub S1a and the following frequency F. Since the LC resonance circuit is a parallel resonance circuit, it becomes equivalent to open at a resonance frequency F when viewed from transistors Q1 and Q2. Therefore, in this example, a very large CMRR can be obtained.
Equation(1): F=1/(2??LC)(1)
[0068] This resonance frequency F may be set to the operation frequency of the differential amplifier circuit.
[0069] As can be seen from the comparison between
[0070] As a further effect of this example, the short stub S1a can be shortened. That is, if the short stub S1a is shortened within a range in which the value of the equation (1) becomes the same resonance frequency F and the capacitance C is increased instead, it is possible to obtain the same CMRR improvement effect as a case where the short stub S1a is long.
[0071] For example, when the inter-stage matching circuits 3a and 4a are made shorter, the short stub S1a disposed between the inter-stage matching circuits 3a and 4a may be made shorter. In other words, it is possible to cope with the above problem, by reducing the inductance L of the equation (1) and increasing the capacitance C. In general, in a frequency band exceeding 300 GHz, the width of the inductance L (length of the short stub S1a) and the capacitance C, which can be realized by the layout, is determined. Therefore, the length of the short stub S1a which can be laid out and the value of the capacitance C can be found within the range that satisfies the equation (1). Thus, in this example, by appropriately selecting the length of the short stub S1a and the value of the capacitance C, it is possible to improve the degree of freedom in layout of the differential amplifier circuit.
EXAMPLE 3
[0072] Next, a description will be given of a third example of embodiments of the present invention.
[0073] In general, a small capacitance of about several fF has a large fringe effect, and it is difficult to estimate an accurate value at the time of layout. Therefore, as shown in
[0074] By determining the length of the open stub S2 so that the equivalent capacity satisfies the equation (1), the capacity of several fF which is generally difficult to be realized can be realized with high accuracy.
EXAMPLE 4
[0075] Next, a fourth example of embodiments of the present invention will be described.
[0076] According to this example, the Q value of resonance determined by the equation (1) can be reduced, and the common mode rejection effect can be exhibited over a wider band.
[0077] As shown in
[0078] In the first to fourth examples, an example of a differential amplifier circuit using two transistors Q1 and Q2 constituting a source ground amplifier circuit has been each described, but embodiments of the present invention may be applied to a cascode type differential amplifier circuit.
[0079] As described in the first to fourth examples, the bias voltage V.sub.GG2 is supplied to the gate terminals of the transistors Q1 and Q2 of each stage from the bias circuit 1. Further, the bias voltage V.sub.GG3 may be supplied from the bias circuit 6 to the gate terminals of the transistors Q3 and Q4 of each stage, and the power supply voltage V.sub.DD may be supplied from the bias circuit 2 to the drain terminals of the transistors Q3 and Q4 of each stage.
[0080] When the differential amplifier circuit shown of
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INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
[0082] Embodiments of the present invention can be applied to a differential amplifier circuit.
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST
[0083] 1, 2, 6 Bias circuit [0084] 3a, 4, 4a Inter-stage matching circuits [0085] 5, 5a Amplifier section [0086] Q1 to Q4 Transistor [0087] C Capacitance [0088] R Resistance [0089] S1, S1a Short stub [0090] S2 Open stub