Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AE) 66 (2012) 214218

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AE)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/aeue

Resistor-less current-mode four-phase quadrature oscillator using CCCDTAs and

grounded capacitors
Winai Jaikla a, , Abhirup Lahiri b
a
b

Department of Electronic Technology, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Dusit, Bangkok, 10300, Thailand
36-B, J and K Pocket, Dilshad Garden, Delhi-110095, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 September 2010
Accepted 8 July 2011
Keywords:
Oscillator
Current-mode
CCCDTA

a b s t r a c t
A current-mode four-phase quadrature oscillator (FPQO) using 2 current controlled current differencing
transconductance ampliers (CCCDTAs) and 2 grounded capacitors is presented. The proposed oscillator
can provide 4 sinusoidal output currents with 90 phase difference. The oscillation condition and oscillation frequency can be controlled independently and electronically by adjusting the bias currents of the
CCCDTA. Both the oscillation condition and oscillation frequency tuning laws are non-interactive and
dual-current controlled. High output impedances of the conguration enable the circuit to be cascaded
without additional current buffers. The use of only grounded capacitors is ideal for integration. The circuit performances are depicted through PSPICE simulations, they show good agreement to theoretical
anticipation.
2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Quadrature oscillators (QOs) are important blocks for various
communication applications, wherein there is a requirement of
multiple sinusoids which are 90? phase shifted, e.g. in quadrature
mixers and single-sideband modulators [1]. Recently, currentmode circuits have been receiving considerable attention of due
to their potential advantages such as inherently wide bandwidth,
higher slew-rate, greater linearity, wider dynamic range, simple
circuitry and low power consumption [2].
In 2003, a new active building block, namely current differencing transconductance amplier (CDTA) is introduced to provide
new possibilities in the current-mode circuit. CDTA seems to be
a versatile component in the realization of a class of analog signal processing circuits, especially analogue frequency lters [3,4].
It is really current-mode element whose input and output signals
are currents. In addition, output current of CDTA can be electronically adjusted. Besides, the modied version of CDTA wherein the
parasitic resistances at two current input ports can be electronically controlled has been proposed in Ref. [5]. This CDTA is called
current controlled current differencing transconductance amplier
(CCCDTA).
From literature survey, it is found that several implementations
of oscillator employing CDTAs or CCCDTAs have been reported

Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: winai.ja@ssru.ac.th, winai.ja@hotmail.com (W. Jaikla),
abhirup.lahiri@nsitlounge.in (A. Lahiri).
1434-8411/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2011.07.001

[616]. Unfortunately, these reported circuits suffer from one or

more of following weaknesses:
1. Non-availability of independent tuning laws for the condition
of oscillation (CO) and the frequency of oscillation (FO) in Refs.
[810]. Independent tuning laws are very desirable if the oscillator is to be used as a variable frequency oscillator (VFO).
2. Use of oating capacitors in Refs. [8,10,14] which is not desirable
from monolithic integration point of view [12].
3. The circuit in Refs. [8] (created using cascade of two all-pass
ltering sections) employs large number (six) of passive components four resistors and two capacitors. The circuits in Refs.
[11,13] require 3 CDTAs.
4. Non-availability of quadrature outputs (voltage or current) in
Ref. [14]. The availability of explicit-current-outputs (ECOs) is
not investigated in Refs. [6,7]. The problem of quadrature currents owing into working impedances in Ref. [7] and their
reconstruction for explicit utilization is considered in Ref. [15].
5. The circuits in Refs. [15,16] are very compact and employs
only one CCCDTA element and two grounded capacitors while
also providing quadrature explicit-current-outputs. The circuits,
however, require multiple x current output terminals (there are
two gm s in CCCDTA). The oscillator in Fig. 2 of Ref. [15] wants
multiple x terminals to cancel a current term so as to yield the frequency of oscillation tuning law in Eq. (8) from (4). The non-ideal
analysis in Section 2.3 of Ref. [15] clearly proves that the tuning
laws for the circuit, i.e. Eqs. (10) and (11), are non-independent.
The authors in this paper propose a novel current-mode fourphase quadrature oscillator using CCCDTA that overcomes all the

W. Jaikla, A. Lahiri / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AE) 66 (2012) 214218

I B1

ip

in

IB2
x

input ports, respectively. These parasitic resistances are equal and

can be controlled by the bias current IB1 . The difference of the ip
and in currents ows from port z. In some applications, to utilize
the current through z terminal, an auxiliary zc (z-copy) terminal is
used [22]. The internal current mirror provides a copy of the current owing out of the z terminal to the zc terminal. The voltage
vz on z terminal is transferred into current using transconductance
gm, which ows into output terminal x. The gm is tuned by IB2 . In
general, CDTA can contain an arbitrary number of x terminals, providing currents Ix of both directions. The characteristics of the ideal
CCCDTA are represented by the following hybrid matrix:

ix

CCCDTA
ix
x
zc
z
iz
izc

ip

i
n n

g mVz

Rp

Rn

g mVz

i p in

215

iz

Vp
Rp
Vn 0
I = 1
z
Ix
0

0
0
Rn 0
1 0
0
0

0
Ip
0
In
V .
0
x
Vz
gm

(1)

For a BJT CCCDTA, the parasitic resistances (Rp and Rn ) and the
transconductance (gm ) can be expressed to be
VT
2IB1

Rp = Rn =

(2)

and

zc

Fig. 1. CCCDTA (a) symbol (b) equivalent circuit.

aforementioned drawbacks. The proposed circuit provides the following advantageous features:
1. Availability of four quadrature explicit-current-outputs from
high-output impedance terminals. The explicit-current-outputs
can also be own into external loads to give four quadrature
voltage outputs. Explicit-current-outputs also facilitate cascading with other current-mode circuits without requiring the use
of external current-followers [1719].
2. The proposed circuit employs only grounded capacitors and
which is advantageous from the point of view of integrated circuit implementation [1921] as grounded capacitor circuits can
compensate for the stray capacitances at their nodes.
3. The circuit is completely resistor-less, i.e. no external resistors are employed. Instead, the parasitic resistances at input
terminals of CCCDTA and transconductance elements are used
to simulate resistors.
4. The circuit is governed by independent condition of oscillation
and frequency of oscillation tuning laws. The tuning laws are
completely decoupled and none of the term appearing in the
condition of oscillation is present in the frequency of oscillation
and vice versa. This enables non-interactive dual-current control
for both the condition of oscillation and the frequency of oscillation. Thus, the circuit can be used as electronically controlled
VFO.
The characteristics of the CCCDTA are briefed in the following
section, which is followed by the proposed four-phase quadrature
oscillator circuit and nally, PSpice circuit simulations have been
included which verify the workability of the proposed circuit.

gm =

IB2
.
2VT

(3)

VT is the thermal voltage. If the CCCDTA is realized using CMOS

technology, Rp , Rn and gm can be respectively written as

Rp = Rn =
and

gm =

(4)

8n Cox W
I
L B1

n Cox

W
IB2 .
L

(5)

For this work, the BJT CCCDTA is used to show the examination.
The internal construction of BJT CCCDTA is shown in Fig. 2. It can be
also realized in CMOS technology by replacing all BJTs by MOSFETs.
3. Proposed current-mode quadrature oscillator
The proposed oscillator circuit is shown in Fig. 3. Using routine
circuit analysis, the characteristic equation can be found as

s2 C1 C2 Rn1 + sC2 1

Rn2 gm2
2

+ gm1 = 0.

(6)

From Eq. (6), it can be seen that the proposed circuit can produce
oscillations if the oscillation condition is fullled:
2 gm2 R2 .

(7)

If the above condition of oscillation is satised the circuit produces

oscillations with frequency of

osc =

gm1
.
Rn1 C1 C2

(8)

Substituting the intrinsic parasitic resistance and transconductance

as depicted in Eqs. (2) and (3) into Eqs. (7) and (8), yields the following condition of oscillation and frequency of oscillation:

2. Basic concept of CCCDTA

8IB3 IB4 ,

Since the proposed circuit is based on CCCDTA, a review of

CCCDTA is given in this section. The principle of the CCCDTA was
published in 2006 by Jaikla and Siripruchyanun [5]. It was modied from the rst generation CDTA [5]. The schematic symbol and
the ideal behavioural model of the CCCDTA are shown in Fig. 1(a)
and (b). It has nite input resistances: Rp and Rn at the p and n

and
osc

1
=
VT

(9)

IB1 IB2
.
C1 C2

(10)

From Eqs. (9) and (10), it can be seen that the condition of oscillation
can be adjusted independently from the frequency of oscillation by

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W. Jaikla, A. Lahiri / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AE) 66 (2012) 214218

Q15

Q16 Q17

p
Q7

IB1
Q2

Q1

Q18 Q19

Q12

Q11

Q13

n
Q8

Q3

Q20

Q4

Q22 Q24

Q29
Q14
z

zC

Q5

Q6

Q21

Q23

Q34

IB2

Q30

Q32

Q31

Q33

+x

Q25 Q26

Q10

Q9

Q27 Q28

Q49

Q50

Q51
Q53

Q47

+x

-x

Q35

Q36

Q38

Q37

Q39

Q54

-x

Q45

Q40

VCC
Q52

Q42 Q43

Q46
Q44
VEE

Fig. 2. Internal construction of CCCDTA.

varying IB3 and IB4 while the oscillation frequency can be adjusted
by IB1 and IB2 . Thus both condition of oscillation and frequency of
oscillation have dual-current control for tuning. All the active and
passive sensitivities of the oscillator are low as shown in Eq. (11):
1
1
osc =
= , Sgm1
.
2
2

2 ,Rn1

(11)

From circuit in Fig. 3, the relationship between the explicit-currentoutputs for can be found as
Io2 (s) = Io4 (s) =
Io1 (s) =

sC2 gm2 Rn2

;
gm1
.

(12)

sC2 gm2 Rn2

Io3 (s)
gm1

For sinusoidal steady state, Eq. (12) becomes

Io2 (j) = Io4 (j) =
Io1 (j) =

C2 gm2 Rn2 j90

e
;
gm1
.

Model PX PNP
+RB = 327 IRB = 0 RBM = 24.55 RC = 50 RE = 3
+IS = 73.5E 18 EG = 1.206 XTI = 1.7 XTB = 1.866
+BF = 110 IKF = 2.359E 3 NF = 1 VAF = 51.8 VJE = 0.5
+ISE = 25.1E 16 NE = 1.650 BR = 0.4745 XCJC = 0.037
+IKR = 6.478E 3 NR = 1 VAR = 9.96 ISC = 0 NC = 2
+TF = 0.610E 9 TR = 0.610E 8 CJE = 0.180E 12
+MJE = 0.28 CJC = 0.164E 12 VJC = 0.8 MJC = 0.4
+CJS = 1.03E 12 VJS = 0.55 MJS = 0.35 FC = 0.5
Model NX NPN
+RB = 524.6 IRB = 0 RBM = 25 RC = 50 RE = 1 BF = 137.5
+IS = 121E 18 EG = 1.206 XTI = 2 XTB = 1.538
+IKF = 6.974E 3 NF = 1 VAF = 159.4 ISE = 36E 16
+NE = 1.713 BR = 0.7258 IKR = 2.198E 3 NR = 1
+VAR = 10.73 ISC = 0 NC = 2 TF = 0.425E 9 TR = 0.425E 8
+CJE = 0.214E 12 VJE = 0.5 MJE = 0.28 CJC = 0.983E 13
+VJC = 0.5 MJC = 0.3 XCJC = 0.034 CJS = 0.913E 12
+VJS = 0.64 MJS = 0.4 FC = 0.5

(13)

C2 gm2 Rn2 j90

e
Io3 (j)
gm1

It is evident from (13) that all the explicit-current-outputs are

phase-shifted by 90 from each other and thus the oscillator can
be used as four-phase quadrature oscillator.

100

IO (A)

SCosc
,C

Table 1
Parameters of the transistors.

4. Analysis of non-ideal case

-100

For a complete analysis of the circuit, it is necessary to take into

account the following non-idealities of CCCDTA,

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Time (s)
Fig. 4. The simulation result of output waveforms during initial state.

1. Iz = p ip n in , IzC = Iz , Ix = gm Vz
(14)
where p , n and are the parasitic current transfer gains
from p, n and zc terminals to z terminal, respectively.  is the
parasitic current gains associated with copies of the current from

C1

IB2

CCCDTA 1

C2

IO (A)

I B1

x
x
x
zc

100

I O1
IO3

I B3
p
n

CCCDTA2
z

x
x
x

zc

Fig. 3. Proposed current-mode quadrature oscillator.

-100
20.0

IB4

IO1
IO2
IO3
IO4

20.4

20.8

21.2

21.6

22.0

Time (s)
Fig. 5. The simulation result of quadrature outputs.

IO 2
IO 4

x terminal. All these gains slightly differ from their ideal values
of unity by current tracking errors.
2. The parasitic resistances and capacitances appear between the
high-impedance z and x terminals of the CCCDTA and ground.
The parasitic capacitances can be absorbed into the external

W. Jaikla, A. Lahiri / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AE) 66 (2012) 214218

1.0

1.0n

IO1
IO2
IO3
IO4
fosc=2.15MHz
THD=1.14%

10

12

14

16

18

1.05
1.04
Voltage vs FO

1.03
20

Frequency (MHz)
Fig. 6. The simulation result of output spectrum.

FO (MHz)

IO (A)

1.0m

1.02
1.01
1.00
.99

100

217

IO1(A)

.98
0

.97
1

-100
-60
100

IO2(A)

Voltage Supply
-40

-20

20

40

60

IO2(A)

520
515
Voltage vs FO

-100
-60

-40

-20

20

40

60

FO (kHz)

510
505
500

IO3(A)
495

100

c
IO3(A)

490
0

485
1

-100
-60

-40

-20

20

40

Voltage Supply

60

IO4(A)

106

Fig. 7. Lissagous gures.

Voltage vs FO

capacitance C1 and C2 , as they appear in shunt with them. To

alleviate the effects of the parasitic capacitances and resistances
the operating
frequency osc should be

 chosen such that osc >
max

1
1
,
(C1 +Cx1 +Cx2 )(Rx1 //Rx2 ) (C2 +Cz1 )Rz1

10 8

Frequency(Hz)

10 7

FO (kHz)

104

102

100

98
Theoretical C=0.1nF
Theoretical C=1nF
Theoretical C=10nF
Simulated C=0.1nF
Simulated C=1nF
Simulated C=10nF

96
1

Voltage Supply
10 6
Fig. 9. Supply sensitivity.

10 5

Considering the aforementioned non-ideal effect, the oscillation

condition and oscillation frequency are as follows:

10 4

1=

n1 p2 1 2 gm2 Rn2
,
1 + n2

and

10 3
10

100

IB1 ,I B2 ( A)
Fig. 8. Oscillation frequencies against bias currents in the proposed circuit for various capacitances.

osc =

n1 1 gm1
.
Rn1 (C1 + Cx1 + Cx2 )(C2 + Cz1 )

(15)

(16)

It is found that parameters; p , n , and  will effect both

oscillation condition and oscillation frequency. These parameters

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W. Jaikla, A. Lahiri / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AE) 66 (2012) 214218

originate from the intrinsic resistances and stray capacitances in

the CCCDTA, which are dependent on temperature variations. Consequently, these errors affect the sensitivity to temperature and
the high frequency response of the proposed circuit, the CCCDTA
should be carefully designed to minimize these errors. Considering
this fact and make it possible in practice, these deviations are very
small and can be ignored in theory.
5. Simulation results
To prove the performances of the proposed quadrature oscillator, the PSpice simulation program was used for the examination.
The PNP and NPN transistors employed in the proposed circuit were
simulated by using the parameters of the PR200N and NR200N
bipolar transistors of ALA400 transistor array from AT& T [23]
with parameters tabulated in Table 1. Internal construction of
CCCDTA used in simulation is shown in Fig. 2. At 2.5 V supply
voltages and IB1 = 50 A, IB2 = 150 A, the small-signal parameters and parasitic elements are as follows: p = 0.955, n = 0.973,
= 1.01,  = 0.77, Cz = 2.85 pF, Cx = 2.17 pF. The oscillator has been
designed with C1 = C2 = 0.2 nF, IB1 = 50 A, IB2 = 150 A, IB3 = 40 A
and IB4 = 315 A. This yields oscillation frequency of 2.15 MHz,
where the calculated value of this parameter from Eq. (8) yields
2.65 MHz (deviated by 18.86%). The power consumption of the circuit is 12.1 mW. Figs. 4 and 5 show simulated quadrature output
waveforms. Fig. 6 shows the simulated output spectrum, where
the total harmonic distortion (THD) is about 1.14%. The quadrature
relationships between the generated waveforms have been veried
using Lissagous gures and shown in Fig. 7. The quadrature phase
error is less than 1.8%. The electronic tuning of the FO with the bias
current IB (IB1 = IB2 = IB ) for different capacitor values is shown in
Fig. 8. The supply sensitivity of the oscillator for different oscillation frequency is shown in Fig. 9(a)(c). The oscillation starts when
the supply voltage exceeds 1.5 V and the supply pulling of oscillation frequency is small when the supply changes from 1.5 V to
5 V.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for
providing valuable comments which helped improve the paper
substantially, also Assoc. Prof. Dr. Montree Siripruchyanun, Department of Teacher Training in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of
Technical Education, King Mongkuts University of Technology
North Bangkok for his support and guidance.
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Winal Jaikla received the B. Tech. Ed. degree in telecommunication engineering
from King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, the M. Tech. Ed. degree in
electrical technology from King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok
(KMITNB) and Ph.D. degree in electrical education from King Mongkuts University
of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), Bangkok, Thailand, in 2002, 2004 and
2010, respectively. He has been with Department of Electronic Technology, Faculty
of Industrial Technology, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
since 2004. His research interests include electronic communications, analog signal
processing and analog integrated circuit. He is a member of ECTI (Thailand).
Abhirup Lahiri received Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree from the Division
of Electronics and Communications, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (erstwhile, Delhi Institute of Technology), University of Delhi, India. His research interests
include mixed-mode circuit design, analog signal processing, noise analysis of circuits and low-power low-voltage analog circuit design. He has authored/coauthored
twenty-ve international journal, conference papers and design ideas and has acted
as a reviewer (by editors invitation) for international journals and conferences. He
is a member of ACEEE, IAENG and IACSIT.