Abstract:
The system described comprises various circuit units (10, 11, 12) each having a capacitor (C0, C1, C2) and charging means (G0, G1, G2) for defining a quantity depending upon the ratio (I/C) between the charging current and the capacitance of the capacitors. In order to compensate automatically for deviations of the actual capacitances from the nominal capacitances due to fluctuations in the parameters of the integrated-circuit manufacturing process, the system has a phase-locked loop (PLL) which uses one (10) of the circuit units as an adjustable oscillator, and current transducer means (17) which regulate the charging currents of the capacitors (C1, C2) of the circuit units (11, 12) in dependence on the regulated charging current of the capacitor (C0) of the oscillator (10) or the error current of the PLL loop.
Abstract:
A method for reducing the settling time in PLL circuits, particularly for use in an RF transceiver, which comprise a phase comparator (2), a filter (4), a digital-analog converter (8) and an adder (5) which are suitable to produce in output a voltage (V c ) for controlling a voltage-controlled oscillator (6) provided by means of a varactor, characterized in that it comprises the steps of:
-- determining the dependency of the control voltage (V c ) of the voltage-controlled oscillator (6) on the frequency of a selected channel of a transmitter; -- generating a law describing the variation of the output current (I DAC ) of said digital-analog converter (8) such that the voltage (V DAC ) obtained from the output current of the digital-analog converter, added to an output voltage (V f ) of said filter (4), is such as to keep said filter voltage (V f ) constant, in order to reduce the settling time of the PLL circuit as a selected channel varies.
Abstract:
A BiCMOS Transconductor differential stage (10) for high frequency filters comprises an input circuit portion having signal inputs (IN+,IN-) and comprising a pair of MOS transistors (M1,M2) having their respective gate terminals (G1,G2) corresponding to the signal inputs as well as an output circuit portion having signal outputs (OUT-,OUT+) and comprising a pair of two-pole transistors (Q1,Q2) connected together with a common base in a circuit node (B) and inserted between inputs (IN+,IN-) and outputs (OUT-,OUT+) in cascode configuration. The stage (10) in accordance with the present invention calls for a switching device (3) associated with at least one of said added two-pole transistors (Q1,Q2) to change the connections between the parasite capacitors present in the transconductor stage. The switching device (3) also comprises at least one added two-pole transistor (Q1x, Q2x) connected in a removable manner in parallel with the corresponding two-pole cascode transistor (Q1,Q2). In a variant embodiment there are also provided respective added MOS transistors (M1x,M2x) connected in parallel with the MOS transistors (M1,M2) of the input portion to change the ratio W:L of each of the input transistors (M1,M2).
Abstract:
The amplifier described has an output stage constituted by an npn transistor (Q1) and a pnp transistor (Q2) in a push-pull arrangement, and a driver stage. The latter comprises a current-mirror circuit having, in its input branch, a pnp transistor (Q3) in series with a first constant-current generator (G1) and, in its output branch, an npn transistor (Q4), and two complementary transistors (Q5 and Q6) of which the collectors are connected together to the output terminal (OUT) and the bases are connected together to the input terminal (IN) of the amplifier. The emitter of the pnp transistor (Q5) of the driver stage is connected to the positive terminal (vdd) of the supply by means of a second constant-current generator (G2) and to the base of the npn transistor (Q1) of the output stage, and the emitter of the npn transistor (Q6) of the driver stage is connected to the negative terminal (gnd) of the supply by means of the npn transistor (Q4) of the output branch of the current-mirror circuit and to the base of the pnp transistor (Q2) of the output stage. The amplifier has a very low or zero offset ( Vos = Vout-Vin ).