Abstract
The ”flipped voltage follower (FVF)” is an enhanced buffer cell widely employed for low-power and/or low voltage operation. The applications of the FVF and its variations in analog and mixed signal (AMS) circuit design have increased continuously over the last few years. These are specially promising in deep submicrometer CMOS technology. In 2004 the paper ”The Flipped Voltage Follower: A useful cell for low-voltage low-power circuit design” was published [1], where the most important information about this versatile cell was compiled. Since then, several modifications of the FVF and a wide variety of new applications have been reported. No other article with a similar purpose has been published since then. The aim of this chapter is to make a compendium summarizing some of the most relevant information published to date on the FVF. In order to facilitate AMS designers the utilization of this cell in this chapter we revisit, classify and summarize most applications of the basic FVF and its variations. Although it is tutorial in nature, it can be helpful for those who want to introduce themselves in the study of this cell or for experienced designers who want to become familiar with the principle of operation, improved versions and applications, so that both can exploit to its maximum the potential of the FVF in a wide number of applications or also to develop new ones.
Keywords
- Differential Pair
- Gain Bandwidth
- Open Loop Gain
- Voltage Follower
- Output Swing
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Carvajal, R.G., Ramírez-Angulo, J., López-Martin, A., Torralba, A., Galán, J., Carlosena, A., Muñoz, F.: The Flipped voltage follower: A useful cell for low-voltage low-power circuit design. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I 52, 1276–1291 (2005)
Gupta, S., Padilla, I., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Torralba, A., Jimenez, M.: Comparison of conventional and new flipped voltage follower structures. In: IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 1151–1154 (2005)
Gray, P.R., Hurst, P.J., Lewis, H., Meyer, R.G.: Design of analog integrated circuits, 4th edn. John Wiley and Sons, New York (2001)
Ramirez-Angulo, J., Lopez, A.: MITE Circuits: The continuous time counterpart to switched capacitor circuits. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II 48, 45–55 (2001)
Torralba, A., Carvajal, R.G., Jiménez, M., Muñoz, F., Ramírez-Angulo, J.: A new low-voltage CMOS unity-gain buffer. In: Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 919–922 (2006)
Torralba, A., Carvajal, R.G., Jiménez, M., Muñoz, F., Ramírez-Angulo, J.: A new, true low voltage, Class-AB current mirror. IEICE Electronics Express ELEX 2, 103–107 (2005)
Acosta, L., Jimenez, M., Lopez-Martin, A., Ramirez-Angulo, J.: Highly linear tunable CMOS Gm-C low-pass filter. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems 56, 2145–2158 (2009)
Acosta, L., Carvajal, R.G., Jimenez, M., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Lopez-Martin, A.: A CMOS transconductor with 90 dB SFDR and low sensitivity to mismatch. In: Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (2006)
Sanchez-Rodriguez, T., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Lopez-Martin, A., Carvajal, R.G., Patil, C.: Gain enhancement and low voltage techniques for analogue circuits in deep submicrometer CMOS Technology. In: Krysztof, I. (ed.) CMOS Nanoelectronics: Analog and RF VLSI Circuits. McGraw Hill, New York (2009)
You, F., Embabi, S.H.K., Sánchez-Sinencio, E.: Low-voltage class AB buffers with quiescent current control. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 33, 915–920 (1998)
Peluso, V., Steyaert, M., Sansen, W.: Design of low-voltage low-power Sigma-delta A/D converters. Kluwer Academics Publishers, Boston (1999)
Pardoen, M.D., Degrauwe, M.G.: A rail-to-rail CMOS input/output power amplifier. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 25, 501–504 (1990)
Ramírez-Angulo, J., Carvajal, R.G., Torralba, A.: Low supply voltage high-performance CMOS current mirror with low input and output voltage requirements. In: Proc. of the IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 510–513 (2000)
Torralba, A., Carvajal, R.G., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Munoz, F.: Output stage for low supply voltage, high-performance CMOS current mirrors. IEE Electronics Letters 38, 1528–1529 (2002)
Ducoudray, G.O., Carvajal, R.G., Ramírez-Angulo, J.: A High-speed dynamic current sensor scheme for iDD test using a flipped voltage follower. In: Proc. of the Southwest Symposium on Mixed-Signal Design, pp. 50–53 (2003)
Man, T.Y., Leung, K.N., Leung, C.Y., Mok, P.K.T., Chan, M.: Development of single transistor control LDO based on flipped voltage follower for SoC. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I 55, 1392–1401 (2008)
Chen, H., Leung, K.N.: A fast transient LDO based on buffered flipped voltage follower. In: Proc. of the IEEE Electron. Devices and Solid State Circuits (2010)
Peluso, V., Coreland, P.V., Steyaert, M., Sansen, W.: A 900 mV differential class AB OTA for switched op-amp applications. IEE Electronics Letters 33, 1455–1456 (1997)
Torralba, A., Carvajal, R.G., Martínez-Heredia, J., Ramírez-Angulo, J.: Class AB output stage for low voltage CMOS Op-Amps with accurate quiescent current control. IEE Electronics Letters 36, 1753–1754 (2000)
Carvajal, R.G., Galán, J., Ramírez-Angulo, J., Torralba, A.: Low-power low-voltage differential class-AB OTAs for SC circuits. IEE Electronics Letters 38, 1304–1305 (2002)
Ramírez-Angulo, J., Carvajal, R.G., Torralba, A., Nieva, C.: A new class AB differential input stage for implementation of low-voltage high slew rate op amps and linear transconductors. In: Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 671–674 (2001)
Ramirez-Angulo, J., Thoutam, S., Lopez-Martin, A., Carvajal, R.G.: Low voltage CMOS analog four quadrant multiplier based on flipped voltage followers. IEE Electronic Letters Proc. 39, 1771–1772 (2003)
Lopez-Martin, A., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Chintham, R., Carvajal, R.G.: Class AB CMOS analogue squarer circuit. IEE Electronics Letters 43, 1059–1060 (2007)
Palmisano, G., Palumbo, G.: A simple CMOS CCII+. International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications 6, 599–603 (1995)
Ramirez-Angulo, J., Gupta, S., Carvajal, R.G., Lopez-Martin, A.: New improved class AB buffers based on differential flipped voltage followers. In: Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 3914–3917 (2006)
Ramirez-Angulo, J., Lopez-Martin, A., Carvajal, R.G., Chavero, F.M.: Very low-voltage analog signal processing based on quasi-floating gate transistors. IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits 39, 434–442 (2004)
Ramírez-Angulo, J., Ducoudray-Acevedo, G., Carvajal, R.G., López-Martín, A.: Low voltage high performance voltage mode and current mode WTA circuits based on flipped voltage follower. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II 52, 420–423 (2005)
Ramirez-Angulo, J., Molinar-Solis, J.E., Gupta, S., Carvajal, R.G., Lopez-Martin, A.: A high swing, high speed CMOS WTA using differential flipped voltage follower. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II 54, 668–672 (2007)
Bikumandla, M., Ramírez-Angulo, J., Urquidi, C., Carvajal, R.G., Lopez-Martin, A.: Biasing CMOS amplifiers using MOS transistors in subthreshold region. IEICE Electronics Express 1, 339–345 (2004)
Marri, S., Ramirez-Angulo, J., Lopez-Martin, A., Carvajal, R.G.: New high performance second generation CMOS current conveyor. In: Proc. of the XXIV Conference on Design Circuits and Integrated Systems, pp. 388–391 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ramirez-Angulo, J. et al. (2013). The Flipped Voltage Follower: Theory and Applications. In: Fakhfakh, M., Tlelo-Cuautle, E., Castro-Lopez, R. (eds) Analog/RF and Mixed-Signal Circuit Systematic Design. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 233. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36329-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36329-0_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36328-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36329-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)