Double Tail Comparator
Double Tail Comparator
Double Tail Comparator
Comparator
Introduction
The comparator compares the voltages that appear at their inputs and outputs a voltage
representing the sign of the net difference between them. Comparators are important
elements in modern mixed signal systems. Speed and resolution are two important
features which are required for high speed applications such as on-chip high frequency
signal testing, data links, sense amplifiers and analog-to-digital converters. On-chip
testing of high frequency pseudo random binary sequences (PRBS) requires a high
speed comparator at the electrical interface stage 1,2
A clocked comparator generally consists of two stages. In that first stage is to interface
the input signals. The second (regenerative) stage consists of two cross coupled
inverters, where each input is connected to the output of the other. In a CMOS based
latch, the regenerative stage and its following stages consume low static power since
the power ground path is switched off either by a NMOS or PMOS transistor [10]. In
many applications comparator speed, power dissipation and transistor count are more
important. If comparator speed is a priority, the regenerative stage could be designed to
start its operation from midway between power supply and ground [6], for example,
conventional comparator2 [4]. However, the static power consumption is relatively high.
If comparator was designed with priority given to power reduction, then transistor count
increases thereby reducing the speed, for example double tail latched comparator or
conventional comparator1[4].
Comparator design largely depends on the target application. However, an inputreferred latch offset voltage
mismatches such as threshold voltage Vth, current factor (=CoxW/L) and parasitic
node capacitance and output load capacitance mismatches, limits the accuracy of such
comparators [8], [9]. In this paper, we present a design of high-speed and low power
dissipating clocked comparator for stack circuit applications. The comparator is
attractive for the applications where both speed and power consumption are of the
highest priority.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The speed and power limitations of the
two conventional comparators design and areas for improvements are investigated in
Section II. An overview of the dynamic latched comparator design [13] is given in
Section III. Application of dynamic latched comparator in SAPTL was given in Section
CONVENTIONAL COMPARATORS
The circuit and schematic diagrams of the comparator presented in [3] are shown in Fig.
1. This comparator is compared with our design because of its speed and suitability for
low supply voltage applications. In the rest of the paper it will be referred to as
conventional comparator1.It operates in 2 phases 1)Reset phase 2)Regeneration phase
.While the clock is low(reset phase), M7 and M8 transistors are ON. M9 transistor is off.
As M7 and M8 transistors are ON Di+ and Di- nodes are pre-charged to Vdd. So M10
and M11 become ON and discharge the output nodes OUT+ and OUT- to ground. While
the clock is high (regeneration phase), M9 and M12 transistors are in ON condition. M7
and M8 transistors are in OFF state. So Di nodes starts discharging as M9 is ON. The
difference between voltages of Di+ and Di- (VDi) are given to M10 and M11
transistors. As Di nodes starts discharging, M10 and M11 are initially in ON condition
and gradually M10 and M11 becomes OFF. Output nodes OUT+ and OUT- starts
regenerating when M10 and M11 are unable to ground the outputs. The intermediate
stage formed by M10 and Mll passes VDi to the cross-coupled inverters and also
provides additional shielding between the input and output, ith less kickback noise as a
result.The conventional comparator2 is composed of two stages as shown in Fig. 3. The
first stage is the amplification stage, which consists of the transistors M1M4 and M9.
The second stage is the regenerative stage that is comprised of the transistors M5 M8
and M10. The circuit works in two phases, namely the amplification phase and the
regenerative (evaluation) phase. When the clock (CLK) is low (amplification phase), the
tail transistor M9 turns ON and M10 turns OFF. When CLK was LOW only amplification
stage works here. In addition, the amplification stage is designed to produce its output
close to VDD-|Vthp| which can effectively reduce the charging time. In this stage Vp-Vn
is amplified and fed to regenerative stage. When the clock (CLK) is high (regeneration
phase), M10 turns ON and M9 turns OFF. Only regenerative stage works here. There is
a reduction of the delay time in the conventional comparator2 over the conventional
comparator1. Since the conventional comparator2 uses an amplification stage, it
consumes static power during the amplification period and hence the energy
consumption in the conventional comparator2 becomes higher than the conventional
comparator1.
There is a reduction of the power dissipation in the conventional comparator1 over the
conventional comparator2. In order to avoid these drawbacks in conventional
comparators, dynamic latched comparator was introduced in the subsequent section.
THE DYNAMIC LATCHED COMPARATOR
The dynamic latched comparator is composed of two stages as shown in Fig. 5. The
first stage is the interface stage which consists of all the transistors except two cross
coupled inverters. The second stage is the regenerative stage that is comprised of the
two cross coupled inverters, where each input is connected to the output of the other. It
operates in two phases.
1) Interface phase
2) Regeneration phase.
It consists of single nmos tail transistor connected to ground. When clock is low tail
transistor is off and depending on Vp and Vn output reaches to VDD or gnd. When clock
is high tail transistor is on and both the outputs discharges to ground. Since the
comparator offset [11] can be reduced by using known techniques [3], the main focus of
this paper is the comparator speed and power dissipation. Simulation comparing the
delay versus the supply voltage and power dissipation versus the supply voltage of the
comparator 1.2V supply has been done. The results show that the dynamic latched
comparator outperforms the other 2. Hence the 2 conventional and the dynamic latched
comparator will be compared. The layouts are automatically extracted and simulated
with a microwind simulator. Fig. shows simulation results of the power dissipation, delay
versus supply voltages (Vdd) respectively for the dynamic latched comparator and
conventional designs. The results show that the dynamic latched comparator circuit has
less delay time and less power dissipation than the conventional designs. As in the
dynamic latched comparator circuit design, both the power dissipation and delay will be
less [13] as shown in table1. This makes the dynamic latched comparator circuit more
attractive for the low power and high speed applications. Both conventional comparators
and dynamic latched comparator are used
1) To compare the outputs of stack circuit.
2) Clocked comparator combined with stack circuit acts as
OR (or) NOR circuit.
The basic architecture of clocked comparator based PTL is
shown in the Figure.
It consists of
1) The pass transistor tree, called the stack. It computes the
required logic function.
2) The root driver (inverter) injects signals into the stack and
3) The sense amplifier replaced with clocked comparator is
used to compare the stack outputs and also to perform NOR
(or) OR operation.
Stack:
The stack circuit consists of an NMOS pass transistors only. Full-swing inputs are
provided to the stack circuit and low swing pseudo differential outputs are obtained to
perform the required logic functions. Fig shows the logical paths of stack circuit that can
be connected according to Boolean function using the programmable switches.
As shown in fig by using the programmable switches, the stack implements a given
Boolean expression by connecting the minterm branches of the tree to one output s
and the maxterm branches to the other output sn such that by drawing karnaugh map
we must obtain Boolean expression of OR gate . Consider the Boolean function of OR
(or) NOR gate. In this case for the stack circuit if we provide Vin as 1 then due to
inverter, 0 will be provided to stack circuit and stack circuit performs NOR operation. If
we provide Vin as 0 then due to inverter, 1 will be provided to stack circuit and stack
circuit performs OR operation.
Driver:
Since the stack has no supply rail connections, a driver, which is a simple inverter, is
placed at the root input of the stack, to inject the evaluation current.
Clocked comparator:
In fig7 sense amplifier was used to recover both voltage swing and performance. If we
place either of the conventional comparators or dynamic latched comparator in place of
sense amplifier, it is useful to perform two operations. a) To compare the outputs of the
stack circuit. As the designed stack circuit performs NOR (or) OR operation, this NOR
(or) OR outputs are compared by the clocked comparator. b) Combination of both
Clocked comparator and stack can also be used as NOR (or) OR circuit. I.e. the output
of clocked comparator based PTL (stack) is same as stack circuit (NOR (or) OR circuit).
VHDL
BACKGROUNT DETAILS:
VHDL is an acronym which stands for VHSIC Hardware Description
Language. VHSIC is yet another acronym which stands for Very High Speed
Integrated Circuits. If you can remember that, then you're off to a good start. The
language has been known to be somewhat complicated. The acronym does have a
purpose, though; it is supposed to capture the entire theme of the language that is
to describe hardware much the same way we use schematics.
on and off, these areas of silicon remain physically connected; therefore, when one
domain is turned off, it is still connected electrically to other domains. For example,
when the MP3 component of a cell phone is turned off, it is still connected to the touch
pad circuitry, which remains on. This is a potential source of leakage, because electricity
seeks a balance in voltage level.
There are other reasons why it is important to control the values of a power domains
ports when it is powered down. For example, when a wire is used as a reset in a
downstream block that is powered on, it should not become active incidentally because
the power is shut down in an upstream domain (or temporarily toggles to an active level
during the wake-up power-on sequence). If it is active low, it may start as a 1, but if it
doesnt continuously drive a 1, it could end up floating and drop below the threshold and
be seen as logic 0, causing that part of the design to reset when this is not intended. To
prevent this, the output of the upstream domain can be clamped to its current value, or
a specific value, when isolation is enabled just prior to power shut down. When the
clamp value is a dont care, the typical default clamp value is 0 (low), as 0 is 0 at any
voltage level, eliminating the need for level shifting of the isolation value. Clamps
maintain the integrity of the downstream power domain. Thus, when one domain
powers off it does not corrupt elements that are still on. Similarly, it may be necessary to
isolate input ports. For example, a clock input signal to a domains logic should be gated
when the power is gated. Isolating the clock input signal is one way to implement clock
gating.
Moving Low Power Specification to the RTL
As mentioned earlier, power gating requires early verification. Waiting for the gate-level
netlist is too costly for a number of reasons, including slow simulation times and more
difficult debugging and problem resolution. In addition, information is needed at the RTL
to validate that low power techniques are implemented correctly in the early as well as
the final stages of the design flow.
The power specification data provides the low power design intent. The corruption
semantics (for that matter, any semantics) are implied by that intent. Thus, the power
specification captures the systems power states; enough information about the power
supply network to know how the power supply is distributed and controlled for each
state; which registers need retention; how isolation and level shifting are handled; and
how retention is performed. This information can be used to functionally verify the
design at the RTL (or higher) and ensure that the low power design intent is
implemented in the gate-level design through synthesis. Synthesis tools can use the
same information to create an appropriate power aware gate-level netlist automatically.
table defines the power states in terms of the supply net states, ensuring integration of
the system power design with the low power design implementation. The UPF also
allows you to specify all the supply network information needed to verify and implement
the power supply distribution, and it provides the control required to realize the system
power states.
The supply network consists of power switches; supply ports that are defined for power
domains and power switches, supply nets that connect supply ports and logic ports and
propagate the supply state; and the supply states. Each supply port has one or more
supply states defined. The port may drive only Figure 3. The UPF side file provides a
consistent semantic for all tools throughout the design flow. one state at any given time.
That state is propagated by the supply net connected to the port. The power state table
is defined in terms of these states. UPF automates the connection of the supply network
to the logic elements in the design based on the semantics defined for specific types of
supply nets.
Specifying Power Domains
Power domains enable the automation of supply network connectivity for primary
supplies. A power domain is a collection of design logic elements that share a primary
supply. A primary supply consists of a single power and a single ground supply net pair.
This definition of a power domain enables the automatic connection of the primary
power and ground nets to all logic elements within the domain. For verification, UPF
specifies the semantics of power-off as primary power and/or primary ground are in the
off state. The behavioral semantics of power-down mirrors what happens in actual
hardware:
All registers are corrupted.
All signals driven by powered-down logic are corrupted.
All behavioral processes within the powered-down domain are deactivated.
Equally important are the semantics for when power is restored to a domain. On powerup:
All combinatorial and latch (level sensitive) processes are evaluated, including
continuous assignment statements.
Edge-triggered processes (flops) are not evaluated until the next active edge.
All behavioral processes are re-enabled for evaluation.
MODULE DESCRIPTION
Module 1:
applications. This application module developed consist of a single-tail this comes under
the clocked regenerative comparator that can make fast decisions with the positive
feedback. The main parameters considered here are the clock inputs and with this the
double tail comparator is developed.
Module 2:
the dynamic clocked regenerative comparator and the double-tail comparator. The
conventional double tail comparator is developed and its delay analysis is performed.
The analysis results help to find out the disadvantages of the current double-tail
comparator design.
Module 3:
performance are implemented with the Model Sim software simulation results.
DETAILED ABSTRACT
Design and analysis of Low-power, area efficient and high speed analog-to-digital
converters is pushing toward the use of dynamic comparators, which is used to
maximize speed and power efficiency. In the existing design, an analysis on the delay of
the dynamic comparators will be presented and analytical expressions are derived.
From the analytical expressions, designers can obtain an intuition about the main
contributors to the comparator delay and fully explore the tradeoffs in dynamic
comparator design. Based on the presented analysis, a new dynamic comparator is
proposed, where the circuit of a conventional double tail comparator is modified for lowpower and fast operation even in small supply voltages. Without complicating the design
and by adding few transistors, the positive feedback during the regeneration is
strengthened, which results in remarkably reduced delay time.
Post-layout simulation results in a 0.18-m CMOS technology confirm the analysis
results. It is shown that in the proposed dynamic comparator both the power
consumption and delay time are significantly reduced. The maximum clock frequency of
the proposed comparator can be increased to 2.5 and 1.1 GHz at supply voltages of 1.2
and 0.6 V, while consuming 1.4 mW and 153 W, respectively. The standard deviation
of the input-referred offset is 7.8 mV at 1.2 V supply.
Clocked regenerative comparators have found wide applications in many high-speed
ADCs since they can make fast decisions due to the strong positive feedback in the
regenerative
latch.Many
comprehensive
analyses
have
been
presented,which
HARDWARE DESCRIPTIONS
FEATURES OF FPGA
5 ns pin-to-pin logic delays
System frequency up to 178 MHz
72 macrocells with 1,600 usable gates
Available in small footprint packages
- 44-pin PLCC (34 user I/O pins)
- 44-pin VQFP (34 user I/O pins)
- 48-pin CSP (38 user I/O pins)
- 64-pin VQFP (52 user I/O pins)
- 100-pin TQFP (72 user I/O pins)
- Pb-free available for all packages
Optimized for high-performance 3.3V systems
- Low power operation
- 5V tolerant I/O pins accept 5V, 3.3V, and 2.5V
signals
- 3.3V or 2.5V output capability
- Advanced 0.35 micron feature size CMOS
Fast FLASH technology
Advanced system features
- In-system programmable
- Superior pin-locking and routability with
Fast CONNECT II switch matrix
- Extra wide 54-input Function Blocks
- Up to 90 product-terms per macrocell with
individual product-term allocation
- Local clock inversion with three global and one
product-term clocks
- Individual output enable per output pin
- Input hysteresis on all user and boundary-scan pin
inputs
- Bus-hold circuitry on all user pin inputs
- Full IEEE Standard 1149.1 boundary-scan (JTAG)
Fast concurrent programming
Slew rate control on individual outputs
Enhanced data security features
Excellent quality and reliability
- Endurance exceeding 10,000 program/erase
cycles
ARCHITECTURE OF FPGA
SIMULATION RESULTS
RTL SCHEMATIC OUTPUT
DYNAMIC COMPARATOR
DYNAMIC COMPARATOR
PROPOSED COMPARATOR