Instrumentation Amplifier Design: Comparison of CMOS-Memristive and CMOS Implementations

Abstract-Instrumentation Amplifier (InAmp) is an electronic device used in many applications for testing and accuracy measurements. However, the drawbacks of InAmp include limited operation gain range, large on-chip area and high power consumption. In this paper, the results of replacing CMOS transistors and resistors with memristive devices in InAmp design are investigated. The preliminary simulation results show that the application of memristors in CMOS InAmp design has led to the reduction of on-chip area and power consumption, comparing to the original CMOS InAmp design. The simulations are performed using ideal long-channel CMOS transistor model to prove the design concept. We demonstrate the possibility to improve InAmp gain using memristive devices in the design. Furthermore, variability analysis and InAmp performance with respect to the temperature variation is provided, demonstrating the improvement of InAmp operation in a large temperature range. In addition, the noise sensitivity analysis is performed, showing that the output noise is significantly decreased comparing to the original CMOS design.