A robust high-speed and low-power CMOS current comparator circuit

Abstract

As an important component of a current-mode signal processing circuit, a new continuous-time CMOS current comparator with high speed and low power is proposed. It comprises one CMOS complementary amplifier with a feedback MOS resistor, two resistive-load amplifiers and two CMOS inverters. Its features include short response delay, low power consumption and small area. Because of the absence of bias currents and voltages, this circuit is also robust to process deviations. Transient HSPICE simulation results with a 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process verifies its superiority of speed/power ratio over other existing high-performance CMOS current comparators.