This paper proposes a circuit to linearize the signal current and improve the distortion characteristics at the input of a current-mode circuit. Input voltage-to-current (V/I) conversion is carried out by a resistor that connects the signal source and the current input terminal of the current-mode circuit. The signal current flowing into the current-mode circuit through this resistor is distorted because of the signal-dependent voltage change at the current input terminal, and it is linearized by injecting a current that is proportional to the signal-dependent voltage change at the current input terminal, into the same current input terminal of the current-mode circuit. A current-mode sample-and-hold amplifier (SHA) that adopts the proposed scheme was fabricated and a 0.35-mum CMOS process was used to verify the effectiveness of the scheme. It operated from a 2-V supply voltage in the analog part and a 2.5 V in the digital part with a 100-MHz clock and realized a 77- and a 86-dB spurious-free dynamic range values for 0 and -10 dB of full-scale signal current level (plusmn100 muA), respectively, of the 1-MHz signal input. More than a 13-bit equivalent SFDR for -14 to -4 dB of full-scale input was obtained, proving the effectiveness of the proposed scheme at realizing distortionless signal current processing.
['Yasuhiro Sugimoto', 'David Haigh']
A Current-Mode Circuit With a Linearized Input V/I Conversion Scheme and the Realization of a 2-V/2.5-V Operational, 100-MS/s, MOS SHA