Comparator applications

About: Comparator applications is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2518 publications have been published within this topic receiving 26639 citations.

Cmos comparator circuit and method of manufacture

Abstract: A chopper stabilized comparator which compares two low level DC signals, and converts these signals to an AC signal which is amplified by AC amplifiers. The AC amplifier output is proportional to the difference between the two DC signals. The circuit has the advantage that it does not have any DC offset terms, for example, it does not drift with temperature. The comparator is implemented in CMOS technology wherein the actual physical layout of the circuit is chosen such that changes in mask orientation during the fabrication process have no effect upon the proper operation of the circuit.

Analysis and design of low-voltage low-power high-speed double tail current dynamic latch comparator

Abstract: The demanding need of ultra-high speed, area efficient and power optimized analog-to-digital converter is forcing towards the exploration and usage of the dynamic regenerative comparator to minimize the power, area and maximize the speed. In this paper, detailed analysis of the delay for the various dynamic latch based comparators is presented and analytical expressions are derived. With the help of analytical expressions, the designer can obtain insight view of the different parameters, which are the contributors of the delay in the dynamic comparator. Based on the findings, various tradeoffs can be explored. Based on the literature and presented analysis, a new dynamic latch based comparator is proposed. The basic double tail dynamic latch based comparator and shared charge logic are modified for low-power and high-speed with the reduced power supply in the proposed comparator. With the modified structure of double tail latch comparator and adding the shared charge logic, the regeneration delay is reduced, at the same time, power consumption is also reduced. Simulation results in 90 nm CMOS technology confirm the claimed reductions. The simulation is carried out using 90 nm technology with a supply voltage of 1 V, at 1 GHz of frequency resulting into the delay of 50.9 ps while consuming 31.80 μW of power.

Power-up/interrupt delay timer

Abstract: A delay for short power interruptions by using a first comparator to compare the power supply voltage to a voltage reference. A second comparator has a first input coupled to the same voltage reference, and an output which generates the reset signal. A capacitor coupled to the second input of the second comparator determines when a reset signal is issued. The capacitor is normally charged by a current source. When the power supply falls below a set point indexed to the reference voltage, as indicated by the first comparator, a discharging circuit discharges the capacitor. The rate at which the capacitor is discharged and the threshold of the second comparator determines how long of a power interrupt is required to issue a reset signal. In the preferred embodiment, the discharging circuit is a latching current source. The current source is latched into the on position by the output of the comparator, and is reset when the comparator indicates that the voltage supply is returned to normal. When reset, the discharging current source is turned off.

CMOS strobed comparator with programmable hysteresis

Abstract: A comparator produces a digital output based upon a differential input signal and hysteresis. To inject positive feedback, a second differential pair is added. This feedback pair is nominally identical to the input pair. If the comparator has recently sensed a positive input of sufficient magnitude to drive the comparator output high, switches are turned on coupling a positive hysteresis voltage to the inputs of the feedback differential pair. By coupling a fixed current differential from the second differential pair to the input differential pair, the effective switching threshold of the comparator is changed. A non-overlapping clock generator is formed so that the switches will not turn on simultaneously so as to short the hysteresis reference voltage source. The hysteresis voltage source can be centered at any voltage that does not exceed the common mode range of the input pair. In a first alternative embodiment, the ratio of feedback is not unity, such that the hysteresis voltage is linearly related to the noise margin. In a second alternative embodiment, a more complicated switch matrix can be used to provide a variety of different hysteresis voltage levels. By including a more complicated switch matrix having several taps, the level of hysteresis can be made programmable. In a third alternative embodiment, the comparator structure according to the present invention is translated so that the differential pairs are formed with p-channel transistors. In a fourth alternative embodiment, the programmable hysteresis is applied to a sense amplifier.

Comparator circuit with built-in hysteresis offset

Abstract: A high-gain comparator has a built-in hysteresis offset voltage generation feature. The comparator is characterized as having several elements, including a differential amplifier pair that is provided with first and second input voltages, an offset voltage element that creates an offset voltage between the first and second elements of the differential amplifier pair, an output generation element operably coupled to the differential amplifier pair that generates an output voltage of the comparator which is indicative of a voltage difference between the first and second input voltages, and a control element operably coupled to the output signal that controllably adjusts the offset voltage from a first state to a second state in accordance with the output signal to create a hysteresis condition of the comparator.