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Noise Analysis and Optimization of Programmable Gain Amplifier with DC Offset Cancelation

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Abstract

The noise contribution of a DC offset cancelation (DCOC) circuit in a programmable gain amplifier (PGA) is studied for the first time in this paper. The analysis presented shows that the DCOC-induced noise may deteriorate the PGA’s noise performance significantly if we do not pay enough attention to it. For an analog DCOC (ADCOC), it is concluded that the PGA’s noise increases rapidly as the output DC offset decreases, thereby causing difficulties to achieve both low noise and low DC offset simultaneously. We propose an optimization technique that can effectively alleviate the noise issue by increasing the feedback amplifier’s gain and the resistor’s value simultaneously, while maintaining a reasonable DC gain. For a digital DCOC (DDCOC), the extra noise comes from the transistors of the current source (sink) bank. The transistors with a longer channel length are preferred for their lower thermal and flicker noise current. The proof-of-concept prototypes are designed in a 0.18-\(\upmu \)m CMOS process, and a 3-stage PGA with ADCOC is fabricated. The measurement results validate the analysis and simulation results well.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61306069, 61106024). The authors wish to thank Wei Li and Li Zhang for technical instructions. The authors are also gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of the reviewers, which have improved the presentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of RF- and OE-ICs, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Li Ma, Zhigong Wang, Jian Xu, Rong Wang & Najam Muhammad Amin

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  1. Li Ma
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  2. Zhigong Wang
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  3. Jian Xu
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  4. Rong Wang
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  5. Najam Muhammad Amin
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Correspondence to Zhigong Wang.

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Ma, L., Wang, Z., Xu, J. et al. Noise Analysis and Optimization of Programmable Gain Amplifier with DC Offset Cancelation. Circuits Syst Signal Process 35, 753–770 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-015-0093-6

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