A Baseband Ultra-Low Noise SiGe:C BiCMOS 0.25 µm Amplifier And Its Application For An On-Chip Phase-Noise Measurement Circuit

Sylvain Godet (1) , Éric Tournier (1) , Olivier Llopis (1) , Andreia Cathelin (2) , Julien Juyon (1)

1 LAAS-MOST - Équipe Microondes et Opto-microondes pour Systèmes de Télécommunications
2 ST-CROLLES - STMicroelectronics [Crolles]

The design and realization of an ultra-low noise operational amplifier is presented. Its applications are integrated low-frequency noise measurements in electronic devices and on-chip phase-noise measurement circuit. This paper discusses the SiGe:C BiCMOS 0.25 µm design improvements used for low noise applications. The proposed three-stage operational amplifier uses parallel bipolar transistor connection as input differential pair for low noise behavior. This operational amplifier provides both low noise and high gain performances. This operational amplifier has an area of only 660x250 µm2 with an equivalent input noise floor of only 1.1 nV/√Hz at 10 kHz. The measured noise characteristics (versus total power consumption) are better than those of most operational amplifiers commonly adopted in low-frequency noise measurements. The AC gain is 83 dB and the unity gain bandwidth is 210 MHz, with a total current consumption of 18 mA at 2.5 V supply voltage.

Mots clés: ultra-low noise; high-gain; amplifier

Domaines: Electronique

Sylvain Godet, Éric Tournier, Olivier Llopis, Andreia Cathelin, Julien Juyon. A Baseband Ultra-Low Noise SiGe:C BiCMOS 0.25 µm Amplifier And Its Application For An On-Chip Phase-Noise Measurement Circuit. 2009 IEEE Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems (SIRF 2009), Jan 2009, San Diego, United States. pp.128-131. ⟨hal-00358083v2⟩