Voltage/Current Conversion Circuit

The present invention relates to a voltage/current conversion circuit in which an output current is taken out which is proportional to an input voltage.

Shown in FIG. 1 is a prior art voltage/current conversion circuit in which an input voltage V.sub.i is applied to a non-inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier 11 and the output of the latter is applied to the base of a transistor Q.sub.1 constituting a current converting stage. The emitter of the transistor Q.sub.1 is connected both to a power supply V.sub.cc through a resistor R.sub.1 and to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 11. The collector of the transistor Q.sub.1 is connected to the collector connected as a transistor Q.sub.2 of a diode. The transistor Q.sub.2, together with a transistor Q.sub.3 having a base commonly connected to the base of the transistor Q.sub.2, and emitter resistors R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 of the transistors Q.sub.2 and Q.sub.3, respectively, constitutes a current mirror circuit 12.

With such a circuit arrangement where a PNP transistor (Q.sub.1) is employed in the current converting stage, it is a usual practice to use a lateral PNP transistor due to the fact that a monolithic IC is relatively simple to fabricate in a IC manufacturing process. The lateral PNP is, however, disadvantageous in that transition frequency f.sub.T is low and is degraded in linearity of the current amplification factor h.sub.FE in a large current flow region, resulting that a preferrable characteristic has not been obtained.

Although the foregoing disadvantage can be resolved if a vertical PNP transistor is employed, it is disadvantageous in another aspects such that the IC manufacturing process becomes complicated involving a number of manufacturing steps, and therefore the cost for manufacturing the same becomes expensive.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a voltage/current conversion circuit giving an output current linearly proportional to an input voltage, which circuit is easy to fabricate in forming an IC.

In accordance with the invention, the foregoing and other objects are accomplished by applying an output of an operational amplifier, to one input of which a predetermined input voltage is applied, to bases of first and second transistors, each of the transistors having an emitter resistor, and feeding back the collector output of the first transistor to the other input of the operational amplifier, wherein the output current is taken out from the collector of the second transistor.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating a prior art voltage/current conversion circuit;

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a voltage/current conversion circuit according to the invention; and

FIG. 3 is a specific circuit diagram of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2.

A preferred embodiment according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing one preferred embodiment according to the invention, in which a predetermined input voltage V.sub.i is applied to a non-inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier 21. To an output terminal of the operational amplifier 21, bases of first and second transistors Q.sub.4 and Q.sub.5 are commonly connected. The collector of the transistor Q.sub.4 is connected both to a power supply V.sub.cc through a resistor R.sub.4 and to a non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 21 to thereby form a negative feedback loop. The respective emitters of the transistors Q.sub.4 and Q.sub.5 are connected to another power supply V.sub.EE through emitter resistors R.sub.5 and R.sub.6, respectively. With the circuit thus arranged, an output current I.sub.O is derived from the collector of the transistor Q.sub.5. The voltage V.sub.A at point A is set to be in phase with the input voltage V.sub.i, and it is assumed that the transistors Q.sub.4 and Q.sub.5 have equivalent characteristics and the resistance values of the resistors R.sub.5 and R.sub.6 are equal to each other.

With such a circuit arrangement, the collector current I.sub.A of the transistor Q.sub.4 must comply with the following condition in order that the voltage V.sub.A at point A can be equal to the input voltage V.sub.i.

Here, provided that the current amplification factor h.sub.FE of the transistor Q.sub.4 is large and the linearity of h.sub.FE with respect to the variation in current is good, the emitter current I.sub.E of the transistor Q.sub.4 becomes equal to I.sub.A.

Furthermore, since the transistors Q.sub.4 and Q.sub.5 have equivalent characteristics and R.sub.5 is equal to R.sub.6, the collector current I.sub.O of the transistor Q.sub.5 is expressed as follows:

As is apparent from equation (2), it is possible to derive the output current I.sub.O which is in proportional to the input voltage V.sub.i from the collector of the transistor Q.sub.5.

A specific circuit diagram of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. 3. The operational amplifier 21 includes transistors Q.sub.6 and Q.sub.7, the emitters of which are commonly connected so as to effect differential operations. A constant current source 22 is connected to the common juncture point of the aforementioned transistors. Transistors Q.sub.8 and Q.sub.9 constituting a current mirror circuit in which the collectors of the transistors Q.sub.6 and Q.sub.7 are commonly connected to the collectors of the transistors Q.sub.8 and Q.sub.9, respectively, and the bases of the transistors Q.sub.8 and Q.sub.9 are commonly connected to each other. The base of the transistor Q.sub.7 is connected to the collector of the transistor Q.sub.4. The input voltage V.sub.i is applied to the base of the transistor Q.sub.6 and the output current is derived from the collector of the transistor Q.sub.5.

As described, in accordance with the invention, neither lateral PNP transistors nor vertical PNP transistors are employed, the former being low in transition frequency f.sub.T and undesirable in linearity of current amplification factor h.sub.FE in the large current flowing region, and the latter being complicated in forming with an IC.

Accordingly, the output current which is linear or in proportional to the input voltage is obtainable and furthermore the IC formation can be easily performed according to this invention.

The voltage/current conversion circuits according in the invention is usable to a VCA voltage/current conversion circuit, FM multiplex multiplier circuits, or the like.