Micropower Class AB Low-Pass Analog Filter Based on the Super-Source Follower

An improved class AB version of the super source follower is used to implement a compact and power-efficient second order analog low-pass filter. The proposed circuit achieves a 41% power reduction as well as an improvement in linearity and pass band gain with respect to its class A counterpart. Measurement results of a test chip prototype fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS technology show a power consumption ranging from 50.3 $\mu \text{W}$ to 85.27 $\mu \text{W}$ for cutoff frequencies from 600 kHz to 890 kHz, with a supply voltage of ±0.75 V. A third order intermodulation distortion of −35.34 dB (for an input signal of 0.4 mV_pp and 350 kHz) and a THD of −69.7 dB (for an input signal of 0.4 mV_pp and 100 kHz) are measured, which results in an improvement with respect to the conventional class A version of 13.98 dB and 43.6 dB, respectively. The silicon area is 0.0592 mm² (using external capacitors).