Patent Abstract:
A voltage-controlled capacitor circuit and related circuitry. The voltage-controlled capacitor circuit includes a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) varactor, a diode varactor, and/or a capacitor with fixed capacitance. The MOS varactor, the diode varactor and the capacitor are electrically connected in parallel or in series to form a capacitor with a preferred characteristic of voltage-controlled capacitance.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The invention relates to a voltage-controlled capacitor circuit and related circuitry, and more particularly, to a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) varactor and a diode varactor to form a capacitor with preferred a characteristic of voltage-controlled capacitance and other circuits with related applications.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0004]    In modern information business, all kinds of data, information, video, and so on are all transmitted electronically; therefore, a processing circuit for dealing with electronic signals becomes the most important foundation of modern information business. For example, in common information systems (such as a personal computer), a global clock is required to coordinate all digital circuits in the system, so an oscillator for generating clock is an indispensable circuit block for modern digital circuits. In addition, to synchronize circuits with different clocks, phase loop lock (PLL) circuits are needed, and a precise voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is essential for the PLL to generate different frequencies of signals. Furthermore, in some precise filters, resister-capacitor (RC) filters, in which filter frequency can be adjusted, are utilized frequently.  
           [0005]    With filter characteristics of an RC filter and the oscillation characteristic of an LC oscillator, it is possible to adjust each of them by modifying the capacitance value. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art VCO 10 . The VCO 10  has a pair of coupled MOS transistors T 1 , T 2  to form an oscillation circuit, and voltage Vd biases the VCO 10 . The gate electrodes of T 1  and T 2  are input ends of the VCO, and are connected electrically with nodes NP 2  and NP 1  separately. The drain electrodes of T 1 , T 2  are output ends of the VCO, and are electrically connected to Np 1  and Np 2  separately. A current source Ip 0  that is electrically connected to the source electrodes of transistor T 1  and T 2  provides current for the circuit. And a pair of coupled diodes Dp 1  and Dp 2  serve as varactors, and their cathodes are electrically connected to nodes Np 1  and Np 2 . Their anodes being controlled by the voltage Vc 0  makes these two diodes Dp 1  and Dp 2  reversed-biased, and results in a depletion region in the PN-junctions of each of them. This will make Dp 1  and Dp 2  form an equivalent capacitor between each of their anodes and cathodes. The capacitors provided by the diode Dp 1  and Dp 2  can form an LC tank with a pair of coupled inductors Lp 1  and Lp 2 . The capacitor provided by the diode Dp 1  and the inductor Lp 1  can be regarded as the load of the transistor T 1 . If the transistor T 1  receives an input oscillation signal from its gate electrode and outputs the signal through Np 1  to the load, it is equivalent to modifying the phase of the input oscillation signal. The input oscillation signal enters the gate electrode of the transistor T 2  through node Np 1  after being phase-modified by the transistor T 2  again, and from node Np 2  it will feedback to the transistor T 1  once again. According to the feedback mechanism mentioned above, it will produce a periodical oscillation signal at nodes Np 1  and Np 2 .  
           [0006]    Since the VCO 10  deploys the LC circuit to generate a resonant signal, the frequency of the resonant frequency is proportional to 1/{square root}{square root over ((L 0 ·C 0 ))};where L 0  is the inductance value of the inductors of Lp 1  and Lp 2 , and C 0  is the equivalent capacitance value of the diodes Dp 1  and Dp 2 . In VCO 10 , the diodes Dp 1  and Dp 2  serve as voltage-controlled varactors. The capacitance of the varactors can be simply modified by changing the voltage across the anode and the cathode. Furthermore, changing the voltage means changing the resonant frequency of the VCO, and this will achieve the goal of voltage-controlled frequency. Please refer to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are schematic diagrams of the relationship between the voltage and the equivalent capacitor across the anode and the cathode when a diode is used as a varactor. When a diode D 0  acts as an equivalent varactor, with a capacitance of Ca 0  between Na 1  (cathode) and Na 2  (anode), a relationship between Va 12  (the voltage across cathode and anode) and Ca 0  is shown in FIG. 2A; where the X-axis is the voltage of Va 12 , and the Y-axis is the capacitance of Ca 0 . On the other hand, FIG. 2B shows a relationship between the reciprocal and square root of the capacitance of Ca 0  and the voltage of the Va 12 . When the diode D 0  is applied into LC-VCO, it is better for the circuit designer to linearly voltage-control the resonant frequency of the VCO. Since the resonant frequency is proportional to 1/{square root}{square root over (Ca 0 )}, it represents that a linear relationship between the controlled-voltage and would be better. But as FIG. 2B shows, the voltage Va 12  across the diode D 0  does not show a reasonable linearity with 1/{square root}{square root over (Ca 0 )}, and would be a problem when designing the circuit. Moreover, that the characteristic of a voltage-controlled-capacitor diode varactor is mostly decided by a semiconductor manufacturing process, which cannot be adjusted by the method of circuit design, makes it inflexible to be applied into circuit design.  
           [0007]    In the prior art mentioned above, a diode is used as a varactor. Now that MOS processes have developed, MOS can now be used as a voltage-controlled varactor too. Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of the voltage-controlled characteristic of a MOS when used as a varactor. The gate electrode of the MOS M 0  form an end at node Nb 1 , the source and the drain electrodes of the transistor MO are both connected at node Nb 2  to form another end. Then an equivalent capacitor Cb 0  is formed between Nb 1 , Nb 2 , and M 0 . FIG. 3 is a relationship schematic diagram between the capacitance of Cb 0  and the voltage of Vb 12 . Where the X-axis is the voltage of Vb 12  and the Y-axis is the capacitance of the equivalent capacitor Cb 0 . As FIG. 3 shows, when the transistor M 0  is a voltage-controlled varactor, the voltage-controlled characteristic of it becomes more sophisticated, and more non-linear. Though a small segment of the characteristic curve appears to be linear, it is too narrow to be flexibly used in circuit design.  
         SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
         [0008]    It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a diode varactor, a MOS varactor, and a capacitor with fixed capacitance to synthesize a capacitor with various kinds of characteristics of voltage-controlled capacitance, and to meet all kinds of demands of a voltage-controlled capacitor used as a VCO and filter.  
           [0009]    In the claimed invention, a diode varactor, MOS varactor, and standard capacitor (fixed capacitance) are connected in parallel or in series to compose various kinds of voltage-controlled characteristics of voltage controlled capacitance circuits. In addition, the voltage-controlled characteristic can be adjusted by biases or by different fixed-capacitors in order to accomplish different characteristics of voltage-controlled capacitors.  
           [0010]    These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art VCO.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIGS. 2A and 2B are schematic diagrams of prior art characteristics of voltage-controlled capacitors.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a prior art characteristic of a MOS transistor varactor.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a voltage-controlled capacitor circuit of one embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the voltage-controlled characteristics of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a voltage-controlled capacitor circuit applied in a VCO.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 7 is a circuit schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIGS. 8A to  8 D shows various characteristic diagrams of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 9 is a circuit schematic diagram of a third embodiment of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0020]    Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a schematic diagram of a voltage controlled capacitor circuit  20  in the present invention. In this embodiment, the voltage controlled capacitor circuit  20  takes nodes N 1  and N 2  as its two outputs ends, and between these two ends, the voltage controlled capacitor circuit  20  can be taken as an equivalent voltage-controlled capacitor C 12 . The voltage controlled capacitor circuit  20  has a MOS M 1 , a diode D 1 , two fixed-capacitance capacitors C 1  and C 2 , and coupled impedances Z 1  and Z 2  for coupling the voltage biases Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  with nodes N 3  and N 4 . The MOS transistor M 1  serves as a first varactor, and its gate electrode, which is an electrode of the first varactor, is electrically connected with node N 1 . The source and the drain electrodes both electrically connect with node N 3 , and form another electrode of the first varactor. Similarly, the diode D 1  provides a PN-junction as a second varactor, and its anode, which is one electrode of the second varactor, is electrically connected to node  14 . As mentioned above, with the first varactor, which is based on the MOS transistor M 1 , the voltage across its two electrodes can control its capacitance. The voltage bias Vbias 1  inputted from node N 3  and the control voltage Vc 1  inputted from node N 1  can control the equivalent capacitance of the first varactor between nodes N 1  and N 3 . Equally, the control voltage Vc 1  inputted from node N 1  and the voltage bias Vbias 2  inputted from node N 4  can control the equivalent capacitance of the second varactor between nodes N 1  and N 4 . For convenient controlling, the Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  in the present invention can be a fixed number, so that it is possible to control the capacitances of two varactors merely modifying the control voltage Vc 1 . The coupled impedances for coupling the voltage bias Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  to nodes N 3  and N 4  can be either inductors or resistors. Since the voltage biases Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  are DC voltages, coupled impedance in the form of inductances can couple the voltage biases Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  to nodes N 3  and N 4  without disturbing the high-frequency AC signal in nodes N 3  and N 4 . The fixed-capacitance capacitors C 1  and C 2  are separately electrically connected to nodes between N 2  and N 3  and between N 2  and N 4  in order to adjust the weight of the first and the second varactors. As shown in FIG. 4, the capacitor C 12  provided by the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  between nodes N 1  and N 2  is formed by the capacitor C 1  connecting in series with the first varactor, the capacitor C 2  connecting in series with the second varactor, and finally, connecting both of them in parallel. Therefore, modifying the capacitance of the capacitor C 1  or C 2  when designing the circuit can also change the degree to which the second varactor affects the capacitor C 12 . For example, raising the capacitance of the capacitor C 1  will make the voltage-controlled characteristics of the capacitor C 12  more like what the first varactor owns.  
         [0021]    Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a schematic diagram of the voltage-controlled characteristics of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20 . The X-axis in FIG. 5 represents the voltage of the control voltage Vc 1 , and the Y-axis represents the reciprocal and the square root of the capacitance of the capacitor C 12 ; the curve  22  depicts the function relationship between the control voltage Vc 1  and the reciprocal and the square root of the capacitance of the capacitor C 12 . For easier comparison, the curves  22 B and  22 C separately depict the conditions that only the diode D 1  or the MOS transistor M 1  is included. To generate the curve  22 A, which is the characteristic of the voltage-controlled capacitor from the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20 , the following parameters can be adopted: the capacitance of the capacitor C 1  is 4 pF, C 2  is 1 Pf, the width and the length of the MOS transistor M 1  is 300 μm and 1 μm, and the area of the diode is 100 μm. As shown in FIG. 5, when adopting only the MOS transistor or diode as a varactor, its characteristic curves will be curve  22 B or curve  22 C, and the non-linear part will be obvious enough to make it harder when designing a circuit. In the contrast, the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  shows a better linearity when properly combining MOS and diode varactors, and it is more convenient to control the capacitor C 12  provided by the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20 . As mentioned above, when in LC-VCO, if the control voltage is proportional to 1/{square root}{square root over (C)}, then it is possible to linearly voltage-control the resonant frequency. The voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  in FIG. 4 can be implemented into VCO to show the characteristic curve in FIG. 5. When voltage-controlling the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20 , besides modifying the capacitors C 1  and C 2  and changing the weights of the first and second varactors, modifying the bias voltage can also shift the characteristics of the first and second varactors. For example, when the bias voltage of Vbias 1  becomes greater, the characteristic curve of the first varactor will shift from  22 C to  22 D. Thus, combining both the characteristics of the first and second voltage-controlled capacitors will result in various characteristics of a voltage-controlled capacitor.  
         [0022]    Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a schematic diagram of a voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  applied in an oscillator  30 . The oscillator  30  is voltage-biased by the voltage source Vd, and current-biased by the current source  10 . An oscillator circuit is formed by two MOS transistor Q 1  and Q 2 , and an LC-Tank is formed by two equivalent capacitors and inductors generated by the voltage-controlled capacitors. The gate electrodes of the two MOS transistors Q 1  and Q 2  can be regarded as the input ends of the oscillation signals, and nodes N 9  and N 10  are the output ends. The oscillation signal inputted into the gate electrode of the MOS transistor Q 1  would be outputted to the load of the LC-Tank, and inputted into the gate electrode of the MOS transistor Q 2  through node N 9 . The MOS transistor Q 2  modifies the phase of the oscillation signal again by the LC-Tank located in node N 10 , and feeds it back to the gate electrode of the MOS transistor Q 1 . With repeated feedback, a periodical oscillation signal is generated between nodes N 9  and N 10 . As mentioned above, simply changing the voltage of the control voltage Vc 1  can modify the capacitance of the voltage-controlled capacitor in order to modify the resonant frequency to achieve the purpose of VCO. Of course, the voltage-controlled circuit  20  in FIG. 4 can be also applied to the oscillator  10  in FIG. 1. Please refer to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is another embodiment of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit in the present invention. The voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  40  takes two nodes N 5  and N 8  as its two output ends. In voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  40 , MOS transistor M 2  serves as a first varactor, and the capacitance between nodes N 5  and N 6  are controlled by the control voltage Vc 2  and the voltage bias Vbias 3 . The diode D 2  is for a second varactor, and its capacitance between nodes N 6  and N 7  is controlled by the control voltage Vc 2  and the voltage bias Vbias 4 . Finally, a fixed capacitor C 3  is placed between nodes N 7  and N 8 . By electrically connecting the first and second varactor and the capacitor C 3  in series, the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  40  can provide an equivalent capacitor  58  between nodes N 5  and N 8 . Similar to the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  in FIG. 4, the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  40  can also fix the bias voltages of the Vbias 3  and Vbias 4  to control the capacitance of the first and the second varactor by controlling the voltage Vc 2 . The capacitor C 3  is used for adjusting the contribution percentage of which the first and the second varactor contribute to the equivalent capacitor C 58 . For the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20  in FIG. 4, or the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  40  in FIG. 7, for each it is possible to control the capacitance provided from the first and the second capacitor by controlling the bias voltage and the control voltage, and to adjust the weight of the first and the second varactor in every voltage-controlled capacitor circuit by applying the corresponding fixed-capacitance capacitor C 1 , C 2 , and C 3 . FIG. 5 shows the characteristic of the linear voltage-controlled capacitance between the control voltage Vc 1  and 1/{square root}{square root over (C 12 )} by the combination with the first and the second varactor. In addition, it is also possible to generate other characteristics of voltage-controlled capacitor circuits by the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit revealed in the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D. The figures mentioned above show four examples of the characteristics of the voltage-controlled circuit that the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit in the present invention is able to generate. Each of the X-axes of the four figures represents the controlled-voltage Vc, and each of the Y-axes represents the capacitance provided by the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit. The characteristic of the voltage-controlled capacitor shown in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B is the linear relationship between the reciprocal and the square root of the capacitance of Cv and the control voltage. The characteristic of the voltage-controlled capacitor shown in FIG. 8C and FIG. 8D is the linear relationship between the capacitance of Cv and the control voltage. In addition, the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit can also generate the linear relationship of voltage-controlled capacitor circuit between the control voltage Vc and (Cv) 2 .  
         [0023]    Please refer to FIG. 9, which is a circuit diagram of the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit of another embodiment in the present invention. Besides deployment in parallel and in series, the invention also adopts both of them to generate different kinds of voltage-controlled capacitor circuits. In the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit 50  shown in FIG. 9, the MOD M 3  and the two diodes D 3 , D 4  are taken as the three varactors. The capacitors C 4 , C 5 , and C 6  of fixed capacitance can be utilized to adjust the weight of the three combinations of varactors. Please note that the diode-connected BJT or MOS can be also taken as a PN-junction varactor in the present invention. Like the diode D 4  in FIG. 9, it forms a diode-connected BJT. The voltage difference between the control voltage Vc 3  inputted from node N 11  and the voltage bias Vbias 5  inputted from the coupled impedance Z 5  can be applied to control the capacitance of D 3  between nodes N 12  and N 11 . Equally, the control voltage Vc 4  inputted from node N 13  and the voltage bias Vbias 6  inputted from node N 14  and the coupled impedance Z 6 , and the voltage bias inputted from node N 15  and the coupled impedance Z 7  can control the capacitance of the diode D 4  and the MOS M 3  providing between nodes N 13  and N 14 , N 13  and N 15 . Using all the varactors and the fixed-capacitance capacitors, the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  50  is able to provide an equivalent circuit between nodes N 11  and N 16 .  
         [0024]    Moreover, it is not necessary to use a fixed-capacitance capacitor in the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit of the present invention. For example in FIG. 4, in the voltage-controlled capacitor circuit  20 , the capacitors C 1  and C 2  can be skipped and nodes N 3  and N 4  can be directly connect to node N 2 . Likewise, the voltage biases Vbias 1  and Vbias 2  can also be removed under this condition, and of course the coupled impedance Z 1  and Z 2  can be removed too.  
         [0025]    In the prior art, merely the diode and the MOS form the voltage-controlled capacitor. Since the voltage-controlled characteristics of the diode and the MOS are mostly decided by semiconductor process parameters, it is hard to adjust characteristics through circuit design and the prior art is unable to provide better voltage-controlled characteristics.  
         [0026]    In contrast to the prior art, the present invention calibration method combines diode-varactors and MOS transistor varactors with fixes-capacitance capacitors to generate the required voltage-controlled characteristic. During circuit design, modifying the capacitance of the fixed-capacitor or the bias voltage or other parameters is performed to acquire appropriate and better voltage-controlled characteristics.  
         [0027]    Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be constructed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7