US 11,223,335 B2Granted

Inverter stacking amplifier

AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System

InventorsNan Sun, Linxiao Shen

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Abstract

The exemplified disclosure presents a highly power efficient amplifier (e.g., front-end inverter and/or amplifier) that achieves significant current reuse (e.g., 6-time for a 3-stack embodiments) by stacking inverters and splitting the capacitor feedback network. In some embodiments, the exemplified technology facilitates N-time current reuse to substantially reduced power consumption. It is observed that the exemplified disclosure facilitates significant current-reuse operation that significantly boost gain gm while providing low noise performance without increasing power usage. In addition, the exemplified technology is implemented such that current reuse and number of transistor has a generally linear relationship and using fewer transistors as compared to known circuits of similar topology.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising an array of N stacked inverters having capacitive feedback split across N feedback paths to provide 2N-time current reuse for a single channel input, the apparatus comprising:

an array of inverter-based transconductors comprising a first inverter-based transconductor and a second inverter-based transconductor vertically stacked with respect to the first inverter-based transconductor, the array of inverter-based transconductors being coupled to a summing circuit configured to combine currents outputted from each respective inverter-based transconductor of the array;
and
a capacitive feedback network comprising a plurality of capacitive elements, wherein the capacitive feedback network is coupled to the combined current outputs of the array of inverter-based transconductor and is split into paths corresponding to a number of inverter-based transconductor in the array such that a voltage input stage of the array of inverter-based transconductor is AC-coupled to each invertor-based transconductor stage of the array.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/614,625Filed 4 Jun 2018 · us provisional application
Priority: 2 Jun 2017
Published: US 2020/0186106 A111 Jun 2020
Granted: 11 Jan 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

H03F 3/16
With semiconductor devices only: with field-effect devices
H03F 1/26
Details of amplifiers with only discharge tubes, only semiconductor devices or only unspecified devices as amplifying elements: modifications of…
H03F 1/3211
Modifications of amplifiers to reduce non-linear distortion: in differential amplifiers
H03F 3/195
With semiconductor devices only: in integrated circuits