New full-wave rectifier based on modified voltage differencing transconductance amplifier

Abstract

A full-wave rectifier based on a modified voltage differencing transconductance amplifier-MVDTA and four n-MOS transistors (or inverting full-wave rectifier), with no use of any passive elements is proposed in this paper. The proposed design is suitable for a low voltage and high frequency input voltage/current signal. The used MVDTA possesses certain new connections without any changes in the original circuit resources of VDTA. The proposed configuration possesses satisfactory zero crossing performance, excellent linearity, low component count―a simple and compact structure―which makes it an adequate candidate for implementation in the form of IC circuits. The amplitude-waveform of the current/voltage rectified signal at the output of the proposed circuit can be electronically controlled by the applied bias currents. The influence of possible non-ideality and parasitic effects was analysed, while the effects of the parasitic are only marginal due to the absence of any passive elements. To verify the validity of the presented circuits, SPICE simulations deploying 0.18 μm CMOS technology parameters and supply voltage of ±0.9 V are reported, fully consistent with the theoretical predictions. The noise and Monte Carlo analyses were also performed in order to obtain further insight into the robustness of the proposed design. The proposal is also supported by experimental results in order to confirm the workability of the proposed solution.