Nanopower multiple-input DTMOS OTA and its applications to high-order filters for biomedical systems

Abstract

A new solution for a low-voltage multiple-input dynamic threshold operational transconductance amplifier (MIDT OTA) for low-frequency signal processing applications is presented. The differential pairs of the proposed OTA combine, for the first time, the multiple-input MOS technique along with the dynamic threshold voltage MOS to achieve a very simple and power-efficient CMOS structure with increased total transconductance. Further, the proposed MIDT OTA has been used to realize a fifth-order low-pass filter (LP) and a sixth-order band-pass filter (BP) using coupled-biquads. The proposed OTA and the filter applications are supplied with 0.5 V and consume 5 nW and 25 nW, respectively. The input band pass filter noise is 82.76 µV, while the dynamic range is 59.5 dB for the third intermodulation distortion (IMD) of 2%. The proposed circuits were designed in a 0.18 µm TSMC technology, and validated by simulations using Cadence platform.