Exploring the Noise Limits of Fully-Differential Micro-Watt Transimpedance Amplifiers for Sub-pA/√Hz Sensitivity

Lei, K.-M., Heidari, H. , Mak, P.-I., Law, M.-K. and Maloberti, F. (2015) Exploring the Noise Limits of Fully-Differential Micro-Watt Transimpedance Amplifiers for Sub-pA/√Hz Sensitivity. In: IEEE Conference on Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), Glasgow, UK, 29 Jun - 02 Jul 2015, pp. 290-293. (doi: 10.1109/PRIME.2015.7251392)

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Abstract

This paper explores the noise performance limits of the differential configurations of differential transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), which serve as a current detection front-end and converts signals for backend signal processing. TIA is one of the most frequent module adopted in biological and environmental sensing such as hall sensors and DNA synthesis detection, which require noise density down to sub-pA/√Hz with micro-watt power consumption so detailed analysis on the noise performance is required. The noises for three different TIAs, including the common-gate topology, op-amp based resistive feedback and capacitive feedback, have been investigated and simulated. Among them, op-amp based capacitive feedback, which bases on integration of input current, displays the lowest noise and best performance. Simulated in 180 nm CMOS process, the capacitive feedback technology shows an input-referred noise of 16 fA/√Hz (80~fA/√Hz) at 10~kHz (100~Hz), featuring it a promising solution for current detection.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Heidari, Professor Hadi
Authors: Lei, K.-M., Heidari, H., Mak, P.-I., Law, M.-K., and Maloberti, F.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering

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