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A Low-Voltage Wide-Swing Programmable-Gain Current Amplifier

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Abstract

A CMOS low-voltage, wide-swing continuous-time current amplifier is presented. Exhibiting an open-loop architecture, the circuit is composed of transresistance and transconductance stages built upon triode-operating transistors. In addition to an extended dynamic range, the current gain can be programmed within good accuracy by a rapport involving only transistor geometries and tuning biases. Low temperature-drift on gain setting is then expected.

In accordance with a 0.35 μm n-well CMOS fabrication process and a single 1.1 V-supply, a balanced current-amplifier is designed for a programmable gain-range of 6–34 dB and optimized with respect to dynamic range. Simulated results from PSPICE and Bsim3v3 models indicate, for a 100 μA pp -output current, a THD of 0.96 and 1.87% at 1 KHz and 100 KHz, respectively. Input noise is 120 pA√Hz @10 Hz, with S/N = 63.2 dB @1%-THD. At maximum gain, total quiescent consumption is 334 μW. Measurements from a prototyped amplifier reveal a gain-interval of 4.8–33.1 dB and a maximum current swing of 120 μA pp . The current-amplifier bandwidth is above 1 MHz.

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de Lima, J.A. A Low-Voltage Wide-Swing Programmable-Gain Current Amplifier. Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing 41, 147–157 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ALOG.0000041632.20239.2c

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ALOG.0000041632.20239.2c

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