Abstract
This paper presents two new inductorless differential variable-gain transimpedance amplifiers (DVGTIA) with voltage bias controlled variable gain designed in TowerJazz’s 0.18 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology (using CMOS transistors only). Both consist of a modified differential cross-coupled regulated cascode preamplifier stage and a cascaded amplifier stage with bias-controlled gain-variation and third-order interleaving feedback. The designs have wide measured transimpedance gain ranges of 24.5–60.6 dBΩ and 27.8–62.8 dBΩ with bandwidth above 6.42 GHz and 5.22 GHz for DVGTIA designs 1 and 2 respectively. The core power consumptions are 30.7 mW and 27.5 mW from a 1.8 V supply and the input referred noise currents are 10.3 pA/√Hz and 21.7 pA/√Hz. The DVGTIA designs 1 and 2 have a dynamic range of 40.4 µA to 3 mA and 76.8 µA to 2.7 mA making both suitable for real photodetectors with an on-chip photodetector capacitive load of 250 fF. Both designs are compact with a core area of 100 µm × 85 µm.
Highlights
The demand for data transmission will increase immensely in the future due to applications such as cloud-computing and the internet of things, causing an insufficient capacity for the current Wi-Fi frequency channels used
Other than for visible light communication (VLC), transimpedance amplifier (TIA) can be utilized in other applications such as magnetic resonance imagining for healthcare, infra-red night vision and even sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, that have microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components as Electronics 2020, 9, 1058; doi:10.3390/electronics9071058
Coupled design similar to [14], but it uniquely takes a single-ended input with a single to become a differential output while maintaining the low regulated cascode (RGC) configuration unlike in [15]
Summary
The demand for data transmission will increase immensely in the future due to applications such as cloud-computing and the internet of things, causing an insufficient capacity for the current Wi-Fi frequency channels used. The key advantages of VLC include the fact that light signals can be confined within opaque walls, keeping data transmission secure within a room, rapid replacement of fluorescent lighting to LED lighting as well as the low costs of the LEDs themselves [1,2]. This allows them to be well-suited for a wide variety of near-field wireless communication applications such as secure office/home and vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-traffic-light communication [1,2]. As different applications require different design specifications [3], this paper focuses on TIA designs for VLC
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