Predictive design space exploration of maximum bandwidth CMOS photoreceiver preamplifiers

Abstract

This paper presents a fast and robust design method for systematically maximising the frequency response of basic CMOS transimpedance amplifiers, a class of circuit of fundamental interest to architects of MOEMS/NOEMS. This method is based on a frequential analysis of the structure and a mapping of the component values to coefficients in a filter approximation function of Butterworth type. We use the method to explore the design space and examine how parametric, structural and architectural trade-offs can alleviate stringent design constraints on the internal amplifier.