Balanced microphone preamplifier in CMOS technology

Abstract: The preamplifier includes a first amplifier stage (M1A, M2A) and a second amplifier stage (M1, M2), both of which are of the differential type, have the same dimensions, have their output nodes connected in parallel to one another, and drive a load formed by a current mirror (M3, M4). A third differential amplifier stage with single-ended output (M6, M7, M8, M9, M10, M11) driven by the current mirror supplies the final output voltage of the preamplifier. The input nodes of the first stage act as input for the differential signal to be amplified, and the input nodes of the second stage are driven respectively by a preset reference voltage (V CM ) and by a voltage (V x ) which is proportional to the final output voltage of the preamplifier. A negative voltage-current feedback is thus obtained, due to the fact that a difference in current is generated between the respective output nodes of the first and second stages; the difference is proportional to the difference between the input signal to be amplified and the difference between the reference voltage and the voltage which is proportional to the final output voltage (V x - V CM ).

Description: The present invention relates to a balanced microphone preamplifier in CMOS technology, particularly telephones. As is known, modern handset telephones have microphones (such as an electret, dynamic, piezoelectric microphone) which allow a more faithful reproduction than the conventional carbon microphone used previously. However, known microphones have the disadvantage that the generated electric signal is much smaller than that supplied by the carbon microphone. Therefore it has become necessary to include a so-called preamplifier in the telephone set in order to raise the level of the signal. The usually requested characteristics of a preamplifier of this type are low noise, low distortion and a balanced input. Whereas low noise and low distortion are general requirements of any amplifier circuit, as the man of the art knows, balanced input is instead a typical requirement of said microphone preamplifiers, and is due to the need to prevent as much as possible the signal generated by the microphone from being affected by noise associated with the line which connects it to the preamplifier, i.e. while it is still at a low level. The length of the two wires which form this connection is in fact approximately 1 meter, and said wires can thus pick up spurious signals such as the 50-Hz mains signal. Said signals, however, are in common mode, and can therefore be neutralized effectively if the amplifier has a balanced input, which is known to reject common-mode noise, completely. Other desirable characteristics in microphone preamplifiers are a wide output swing, so as to set no limitations to the value of amplification of the signal, and also the possibility of varying the gain in order to adapt the preamplifier to the various types of microphone. Several instrumentation amplifiers are known to have the above listed desirable characteristics, and which could therefore be applied to telephony. However, they are almost exclusively of the bipolar transistor type (BJT), for example as described in "A High Performance Monolithic Instrumentation Amplifier" by H. Krabbe, IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, 1971, or in "A Programmable Instrumentation Amplifier for 12-Bit Resolution Systems" by Scott A. Wurcer and Lewis W. Counts, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-17, no. 6, December 1982. These amplifiers, however, are extremely complicated, with a very large number of transistors, and are thus not suitable for being integrated in CMOS technology. A bipolar balanced preamplifier stage for differential input signals is known from EP-A-032 533. The known stage includes a first differential stage connected to an output amplifying stage, an interposed feedback loop being intended for temperature compensation. However, the known preamplifier stage has both a relatively low input and output signal range. A balanced output analog differential amplifier circuit is known from US-A-4 742 308. This known circuit includes current steering input stages and an output stage. However, said known circuit does not provide for a differential feedback loop from the common node of the steering stages. Therefore, the aim of the present invention is to provide for a microphone preamplifier which can be easily manufactured in CMOS technology, which can be operated over a wide range of input signals, and which provides for a high peek output voltage. Within this aim a particular object of the present invention is the provision of a microphone preamplifier the output of which is in the range of the voltage operating the preamplifier. The invention achieves this aim and object and other objects which will become apparent from the continuation of the description with a balanced microphone preamplifier in CMOS technology as defined in the accompanying claims. The invention is now described in greater detail with reference to a preferred embodiment which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which is given by way of non-limitative example and wherein: the only figure is a circuit diagram of a microphone preamplifier according to the invention. With reference to the figure, the preamplifier, according to the preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises a first differential amplifier stage which is formed by two transistors M1A and M2A, the gates whereof constitute the two differential inputs IN- and IN+, and the sources whereof are connected in common to a transistor M5A which acts as current source and for this purpose is polarized by an adapted voltage V BIAS2 applied to its gate. The purpose of this differential stage is to produce a difference in current between the respective drains which is proportional exclusively to the difference of the voltage signal applied to the input nodes IN- and IN+ and at the same time to reject any common-mode signal present on said inputs. The preamplifier furthermore comprises a second differential amplifier stage which is formed by two transistors M1, M2 which are connected, as in the first stage and with the same dimensions, with their own current source M5 on their sources; said second stage is biased by the same voltage V BIAS2 which biases the first stage, and its purpose is to provide a negative voltage-current feedback, generating a difference in current between the respective drains which is proportional to the difference between a voltage reference V x , applied to one of its inputs, and a reference voltage V CM , generally chosen halfway between the power supplies, applied to the other input. Said signal V x is obtained by means of a resistive divider R 1 , R 2 between the output OUT and the signal V CM . As it is apparent to the man of the art, the two resistors R 1 and R 2 thus set the value A of the gain of the circuit, which is: A = 1 + R 2 /R 1 Thus, by varying R 2 it is possible to vary the amplification to adapt the preamplifier to the various types of microphone, as will become apparent hereinafter. The load which is connected in common to the drains of the first and second stages is constituted by a current mirror which is formed in a known manner by transistors M3, M4 the sources of which are connected to the ground and the drains whereof are connected to the respective drains of the two amplifier stages. The effect of the current mirror is to provide the difference of the currents associated with the drains of the two amplifier stages, to thus convert the signal from differential to single-ended, and finally to convert the signal from a current signal to a voltage signal, with a high gain, on the drain node of M4. A further amplifier stage, controlled by the current mirror M3, M4, is formed by two transistors M6, M7 which drive another current mirror M8, M9. Said stage introduces a further gain in the circuit and drives the gate of an output transistor M11 which is common-source connected and the dimensions whereof are k times those of M9, where k is the current ratio required between M11 and M9. A fixed current source, formed by a transistor M10 which is driven by a reference voltage V BIAS1 , provides the polarization current to the output circuit. In the circuit of Figure 1, the total noise, as for any CMOS circuit, can be of two types, i.e. the thermal noise V eqth and the flicker noise V eqfl . As shown for example by P.R. Gray, "Basic MOS Operational Amplifier Design: An Overview", Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences of the University of California, Berkeley, California, 1980, the thermal noise is given by: whereas the flicker noise is given by: V eqfl 2 = K f C ox WL Δf f Δf where the symbols have the same meanings as in P.R. Gray, op. cit. Since flicker noise is dominant in MOS circuits at audio frequencies, and since k F is much smaller for P-channel circuits than for N-channel ones, the above relations show that noise is minimal with a P-channel input circuit with considerable W and L (width and length) dimensions. Again P.R. Gray, op. cit., shows that the noise of the other MOS devices is fed back to the input divided by the gain between the input and the MOS devices themselves. From this point of view, only the transistors M3 and M4 are critical, since their noise is fed back to the input divided by the square of the ratio of the transconductances between the transistors M1A, M2A and M3, M4. Since transconductance is proportional to W/L L 3 , 4 >> L 1A,2A must occur, whereas W may be even comparable. As regards distortion, the linearity interval of the pair M1A, M2A must be much greater than the maximum (differential) signal voltage produced by the microphone, which, as mentioned above , is low (typically 80 mV). This condition can be met both by appropriately choosing the dimension of the transistors and by increasing the polarization current I n . To keep the distortion low, as known to the man of the art, the output stage M11 must furthermore operate in class A, i.e. it must have a fixed current source, which is constituted by M10 in the illustrated example. The two compensation capacitors C 1 and C 2 are calculated according to the method known as "nested Miller compensation" and ensure the stability of the entire circuit. The circuit according to the invention has the advantage of being of great simplicity, which leads to a reduced area occupation and power consumption with respect to bipolar solutions. At the same time, the circuit has the following advantages: balanced input; wide output swing (rail-to-rail output swing); low distortion (lower than 0.01% for V in < 100 mV); relatively low noise. On the other hand, the circuit according to the invention, as mentioned above, is limited in the amplitude of the input voltage. However, this is not a disadvantage in the microphonic application which is the subject of the invention. A preferred embodiment of the invention has been described, but it is understood that the man of the art can devise obvious modifications and variations which are comprised within the scope of the inventive concept. Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the scope of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims: Balanced microphone preamplifier in CMOS technology, for differential input signals comprising a first amplifier stage (M1A, M2A) and a second amplifier stage (M1, M2), both of said stages (M1A, M2A, M1, M2) being differential and having the same dimensions, each of said stages (M1A, M2A, M1, M2) having its own polarization current source (M5A, M5), said stages (M1A, M2A, M1, M2) having output nodes connected in parallel to one another and driving a load formed by a first current mirror (M3, M4), said first stage (M1A, M2A) having input nodes acting as balanced input for the differential signal to be amplified, said second stage (M1, M2) having input nodes, one of said second stage (M1, M2) input nodes being driven by a preset reference voltage (V CM ) and the other one of said second stage (M1, M2) input nodes being driven by a voltage (V x ) which is proportional to the final output voltage of the preamplifier, so that a difference in current is generated between the respective output nodes of the first and second stages (M1A, M2A, M1, M2), said difference being proportional to the difference between the input signal to be amplified and the difference between said reference voltage (V CM ) and said voltage (V X ) which is proportional to the final output voltage, said preamplifier further comprising a further amplifier stage (M6, M7, M8, M9) controlled by said first current mirror (M3, M4), said further amplifier stage (M6, M7, M8, M9) comprising two transistors (M6, M7) which are driven by said first current mirror (M3, M4), said two transistors (M6, M7) of said further amplifier stage (M6, M7, M8, M9) diving a second current mirror (M8, M9), said second current mirror (M8, M9) driving an output transistor (M11) which is set to operate in class A. Microphone preamplifier according to claim 1, characterized in that said voltage (V X ) which is proportional to the output voltage of the preamplifier is obtained from the intermediate node of a resistive divider (R1, R2) which is connected between the output voltage of the preamplifier and said reference voltage (V CM ). Microphone preamplifier according to claims 1 or 2, characterized in that said output transistor (M11) is provided with its own fixed current source (M10).

Inventors: NICOLLINI GERMANO, NICOLLINI, GERMANO
Applicants: SGS THOMSON MICROELECTRONICS, SGS-THOMSON MICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
Application year: 1991
Main classification: H03F3
IPC codes: H03F1, H03F3