International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EEIE'2013) Nov.

27-28, 2013 Johannesburg (South Africa)

Design of Ultra High Frequency Band Pass

Filter Using Active Inductors in 0.18µm CMOS
Process Technology
Mastura Binti. Omar, Mamun Bin Ibne. Reaz, and Mohammad Tariqul. Islam

small portion of silicon die area compare to passive

Abstract— The usage of spiral inductor in the band pass filters
require large silicon area which can increase the band pass filter
size.Lack of tunability of band pass filter make it non popular for
multipurpose application especially in Ultra High Frequency
Range(UHF).Band pass filters are commonly practice or use in
wireless receivers and transmitters. The second order band pass filter
is design using 0.18µm CMOS process technology that utilizes active
inductor circuit architecture. This band pass filter can be operated at
central frequency between 1.86GHz until 3.33GHz.By using power
supply at 1.5V,this filter manage to achieve high Q factor which
about 250 at 2.45GHz,consume only small power 3.407mW and the
silicon area only take about 0.07mm x 0.02mm.
Keywords— Band Pass Filter, Ultra High Frequency, Radio
Frequency, Active Inductors, Q factor.
inductor,about 1-10% and can be drive for wider frequency
range.Active inductors can be design by using only transistors
only which is compromise the standard digital CMOS circuit
which can save a lot of cost. Compare to Gm-C and Q
enhanced LC tank band pass filter,active inductor show better
performance in term of low power consumption,small silicon
area,high Q factor and also this filter can be tuned to specific
frequency needed make it more valuable and efficient [2].
Although active inductors show superior performance
compare to Gm-C and Q Enhance LC tank,some previous
researchers did found that active inductors suffer with some
problems such as large silicon area,higher power
consumption,low Q factor,high noise and etc [3-7] .

I. INTRODUCTION II. DESIGN METHODOLOGY

B AND Pass Filter is a type of device or electronic circuitry

that allows only specific signals or frequencies to pass
through it but rejected or distinguishes the unwanted signals or
A. Realization of Active Inductor
Active inductor is base on gyrator concept where two
transconductor connected back to back where one port of the
frequencies. The top application of band pass filter can be
gyrator connected to a capacitor as shown in Figure 1 [8].
found in RF world where the frequency range for Ultra High
Frequency (UHF) is between 300MHz - 3GHz. Common
application for UHF frequency range are mobile phones (GSM
900/1800), Global Position System ( 1.17645 GHz-
1.57542 GHz),wireless Local Area Network (2.45GHz),
Bluetooth (2.45GHz), Zigbee (868MHz-2.4GHz), television
broadcasting, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and
readers and many more [1].Examples of band pass filters are
commonly practice or use in wireless receivers and
Fig. 1. Gyrator Concept
transmitters of RFID tags and readers. Band pass filter
working as a device that lets selected frequency to be capture The admittance into port 2 of gyrator C network is given by
and avoided others frequency to go through the receiver.
Active inductors band pass filters can operate around (1)
800MHz until 5GHz frequency range.Active inductors
frequency range included in UHF.This type of filters only take Port 2 of the gyrator C network become as single ended
inductor where its inductance given by
Mastura Binti. Omar is with the Department of Electrical, Electronic and (2)
Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Mamun Bin Ibne. Reaz is with the Department of Electrical, Electronic This is how gyrator C network implement to achieve active
and Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, inductors. The inductance is inversely proportional to the
Selangor, Malaysia (phone: +603-89118406; fax: +603-89118359; e-mail: product of transconductor and directly proportional to
mamun.reaz@gmail.com).
Mohammad Tariqul. Islam is with the Institute of Space Science,
capacitor.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.

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 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EEIE'2013) Nov. 27-28, 2013 Johannesburg (South Africa)
B. Karsilayan Schauman Active Inductors (KSAI)
To implement the band pass filter, Karsilayan Schauman
active inductor (KSAI) circuit architecture is used. The KSAI
consist of common source transconductance as a negative
transconductnce and differential pair transconductance as a
positive feedback transconducatance as shown in Figure 2 [2].
Fig. 2. KSAI circuit architecture
Transistor M3 is a negative transconductance label –Gm2 (-
gm3) with input voltage at V3 and output current at
V1.Transistor M1 and M2 act as positive transconductance
label Gm1 (0.5gm1 if gm2=gm1) where with input voltage at
V1 and output current at V3.Hence, -Gm2 and Gm1 will be
form as a gyrator and change the parasitic capacitor C3 at node
3 into equivalent inductor at node 1.
(3)
The KSAI circuit architecture input impedance Zin, is more
likely same to an inductor together with parasitic components
which is equivalent to RLC circuit as shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 3. Equivalent RLC circuit.
From an analysis of the small signal ac equivalent circuit, it
can derive the Zin of the active inductors as shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4. AC small signal equivalent circuit
2
The approximate expression of Zin is
(4)
The parallel resistor and capacitor are
(5)
The equivalent inductance is
(6)
The resonance frequency , is
(7)
The quality factor, Q at resonance frequency is
(8)
C. Band Pass Filter Realization
Figure 5 shows the block diagram of band pass filter based
on active inductor circuit architecture [2].
Fig. 5. Block diagram of Band Pass Filter
Current that apply to active inductor is supply by the input
buffer, Min. Output buffer which consist of Mout and a current
source is added for measurement requirement. The reduction
of resonant frequency and quality factor of the filter by the
parasitic capacitor and resistor can be preventing by the
existence of output buffer. Another function of output buffer is
to driven the resistive loads [2].
D.Transistor Level of Band Pass Filter
To boost the performance of the filter, the second order
band pass filter is design using in 0.18µm CMOS process
technology using libraries from TSMC. The second order band
pass filter is achieve by connecting two active inductors
together as shown in Figure 6.
Single transistor current source of If, Is/2 and Is is use
because their higher output losses are reimbursed by the choice
of C2 [4].On the other hand, Q enhancement technique is
apply to enhance the Q factor. This is done by tuning the C2
using varactor MQ. With that, no additional circuitry needed to
boost the quality factor. The value of Vif, Vis, Vis2 is between
 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EEIE'2013) Nov. 27-28, 2013 Johannesburg (South Africa)

0.8V to 0.9V so that the filter central frequency can be tune.

Vcm value is 0.7V. While for Vbias and Vq, the value is 0.6V. Based on the simulation result, the Q factor of the band pass
filter for different type of each of central frequency is shown in
Figure 8.

Fig. 6. 2nd order band pass filter

The aspect ratio of the width and length each of the

transistor in the second order band pass filter is shown in Fig. 8. Q factor at different frequency range
Table I.
From the simulation result, it can take into account that the
TABLE I
TRANSISTORS ASPECT RATIO OF WIDTH AND LENGTH band pass filter that having central frequency of 2.45GHz
Transistors Aspect ratio (W/L) produce highest Q factor among other two. The next analyses
M11,M8 15µ/0.18µ more focusing on band pass filter where the central frequency
M15,M12 5µ/0.18µ is 2.45GHz.
M21.M18 5µ/0.18µ
M9,M6 15µ/0.18µ B. Analysis of band pass filters at 2.45GHz
M13,M10 10µ/0.18µ
M7,M4 20µ/0.1 µ Magnitude and phase plot: Based on the simulation result,
M2,M1 20µ/0.18µ the Q factor at 2.45GHz central frequency is 250.28 as shown
M5,M3 20µ/0.18µ
in Figure 9 and Figure 10 shows the value of phase for central
M17,M14 10µ/0.18µ
M43,M20 15µ/0.18µ frequency at 2.45GHz.
M19,M16 15µ/0.18µ

III. RESULTS

A. Tunability of the band pass filter

From the simulation result it shows that the central
frequency of the band pass filter can be tuned from 1.85GHz
until 3.33GHz in magnitude plot as shown in Figure 7.

Fig. 9. Q factor at 2.45GHz

Fig. 7. Tunabilty of central frequency

By varying the Vif, Vis and Vis2 from 0.8V to 0.9V as

shown in Table II, it will produce different central frequency
for band pass filter.
TABLE II
TRANSISTORS ASPECT RATIO OF WIDTH AND LENGTH
Value of Vif/Vis/Vis2 Central Frequency
0.8V 1.8642 GHz Fig. 10. Phase in radian for central frequency at 2.45GHz
0.863V 2.4541 GHz
0.9V 3.3262 GHz

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 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EEIE'2013) Nov. 27-28, 2013 Johannesburg (South Africa)

Output and input voltage: Figure 11 shows the output Figure 14 shows the output referred voltage noise for the
voltage for the band pass filters. The output voltage is band pass filter. The value of output referred voltage noise is
393.76mV and the rms output voltage is 278.43mV. While 936.18nV/√Hz. The rms voltage for the output noise voltage is
Figure 12 shows the input voltage for the band pass filter. The 661.98nV
input voltage is 500mV where the rms input voltage is
356.07mV.
The voltage gain for band pass filter in dB is

From the voltage gain value, the output of band pass filter
did face attenuation.

Fig. 14. Output referred voltage noise.

To calculate the noise figure (NF),

Fig. 11. Output Voltage

C. Layout of the band pass filter

Figure 15 shows the layout of second order band pass filter.
The layout consist of 6 PMOS and 16 NMOS. Total number of
Fig. 12. Input voltage transistor is 22.The total area of the filter is 0.07mm x 0.02µm
that equal to 1.4mm2
Power consumption: The value of power consumption or
power dissipation is obtained when running Eldonet simulating
design. The value of power dissipation is 3.407mW.
Noise Analysis: Figure 13 shows the input referred voltage
noise for the band pass filter. The value of input referred
voltage noise is 139.59nV/√Hz. The rms voltage for the input
noise voltage is 98.7nV.

Fig. 15. Layout of second order band pass filter.

IV. PERFORMANCE AND COMPARISON STUDY

Overall performance of the design second order band pass is
compare to other past researcher work. Comparison of
Fig. 13. Input referred voltage noise performance of band pass filters for each previous researcher

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 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EEIE'2013) Nov. 27-28, 2013 Johannesburg (South Africa)

works that are using active inductor as circuit architecture and [2] H. Xiao, E. R. Schaumann, “A 5.4-GHz high-Q tunable active-inductor
bandpass filter in standard digital CMOS technology”, Analog Integr
together with this work is summarizing in Table III. Circ Sig Process, vol 50, pp 1-9, April. 2007.
Comparison is made on the same process technology to have a [3] R. M. Weng, R. C. Kuo, “An ω0-Q Tunable CMOS Active Inductor for
fair judgment. RF Bandpass Filters,” IEEE Conference Signals, Systems and
Electronics International Symposium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, pp.
TABLE III 571 – 574, August 2007.
TRANSISTORS ASPECT RATIO OF WIDTH AND LENGTH [4] S. V. Krishnamurthy, K. E. Sankary, E. E. Masry, “Noise-Cancelling
Parameters [ 9] [ 10] [11 ] [ 12] This CMOS Active Inductor and Its Application in RF Band-Pass Filter
work Design,” International Journal of Microwave Science and Technology,
Technology 0.18µm 0.18µm 0.18µm 0.18µm 0.18µm vol. 2010, Article ID : 980957, pp. 1-8, January 2010.
Filter Order 2 2 2 2 2 [5] Y. Wang, L. Ye, H. Liao, H. Huang, “Cost-Efficient CMOS RF Tunable
Central 880MHz 2GHz 1.92GHz 2.2GHz 1.85GHz Bandpass Filter,” IEEE Symposium Circuits and Systems (ISCAS),
frequency – – – – - Seoul, Korea, pp 2139-2142, May 2012.
3.72GHz 2.9GHz 3.82GHz 4.15GHz 3.33GHz [6] Z. Gao and J. Ma, “A Fully Integrated CMOS Active Bandpass Filter for
Power 26mW 4mW 10.8mW 3.9mW 3.407m Multiband RF Front-Ends,” IEEE Transaction On Circuits and System
Consumptio W Journal – II: Express Briefs Journal, vol. 55, No. 8, pp 718-722,
n August 2008.
Noise Figure NA 4.3dB@ 18dB NA 18.6dB [7] A. Dinh, and J. Ge, “A Q Enhanced 3.6GHz,Tuable,Sixth-Order
2.45GHz Bandpass Filter Using 0.18µm CMOS,” VLSI Design Journal, vol.
Maximum Q 300 109 NA NA 250 2007, Article ID :84650, pp. 1-9, April 2007
factor
[8] Y. Wu, X. Ding, M. Ismail, and H. Olsson, “RF band-pass filter design
Power Supply NA 1.5V 1.8V NA 1.5V
Area 0.115mm NA 0.15mm x NA 0.07mm x
based on CMOS active inductors,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, vol.
x 0.07mm 0.2mm 0.02mm 50, no. 12, pp. 942–949, Dec 2003
[9] Y. W. Choi, and H. C. Luong, “A High-Q and Wide-Dynamic-Range
70-MHz CMOS Bandpass Filter for Wireless Receivers,” IEEE
From Table III, the band pass filter of this work manage to Transactions On Circuits and System – II: Analog and Digital Signal
be tune the central frequency between 1.85GHz to 3.33GHz.It Processing, vol. 48, No.5, pp 433-440, May 2001.
also having a very small power dissipation and occupy small [10] K. Alidina and S. Mirabbasi, “A widely tunable active RF filter
topology, in Circuits and Systems”, Proceedings of the ISCAS 2006. pp.
silicon area compare to the rest of the band pass filters. 4-8, 2006.
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noise figure compare to [10] but it manage to have higher Q RF Bandpass Filters,” IEEE Conference Signals, Systems and
factor compare to [10] .Even though the Q factor not as high Electronics International Symposium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, pp.
571 - 574, August 2007
as [9],but the band pass filter of this work have a very low
[12] Z. Gao, H. Xu and Z. Zhang, “Design consideration of multi-band RF
power consumption compare to [9]. CMOS Filter Based on Active Inductors”, Laser Physics and Laser
Technologies (RCSLPLT) and Academic Symposium on
V. CONCLUSION Optoelectronics Technology (ASOT), pp. 341-344, 2010

The objective of this work is to design band pass filter using

0.18µm CMOS process technology that can operated and
tunable at UHF frequency range using active inductor is
achieve. This filter can be operated at frequency between
1.86GHz until 3.33GHz.This filter also have high Q factor
which 250 at 2.45GHz. Other than that it also consume only
3.407mW and the silicon area only take about 0.07mm x
0.02mm.Although this filter did have a good performance, it
also suffer from high noise figure which is 18.6dB. Future
work must be done to reduce the noise figure of this band pass
filter so that it will not degrade the band pass filter
performance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia, Malaysia to support this research through its
Research University Grant (DLP-2013-016).

REFERENCES
[1] W. B. Kuhn, D. Nobbe, D. Kelly, A .W. Orsborn, “Dyamic Range
Performance of On-Chip RF Bandpass Filter,” IEEE Transaction on
Circuit and Systems – II : Analog and Digital Signal Processing, Vol
50, pp 685-694, Oct. 2003