Lab

EE 420L
Analog Integrated Circuit Design Laboratory
Project: Design of a Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA).

AUTHOR: Henry Mesa
EMAIL: mesah1@unlv.nevada.edu
05-06-2020

Project Overview: The transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is defined as a sensitive and fast current measurement device which converts typically weak input current signal to an output voltage of conciderable magnitude. Almost each newly degin provides a novel perspective on design with respect to the target trade-off between different perfomance measures and related technological constraints. Although historically TIAs have been mostly developed for the front-ends of the optical receivers, their usage has increased popularity in a wide range of applications such as particle physics, radiation detectors, miniuature magnetic resoance spectroscopy, vision and biological sensors, as well as, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Procedure: design a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) using either the ZVN3306A or ZVP3306A (or both) MOSFETs and as many resistors and capacitors as you need with a gain of 25k. You should try to get as fast a design as possible driving a 10k load with as large of output swing as possible. AC coupling input and output is okay as long as your design can pass a 100 Hz input current.

Due to laboratory restrictions set by Clark County School District to avoid the spread of Covid-19, experimental results in this laboratory are borrowed from student reports from previous semesters. Link to citations used in this laboratory are located at the end of this report.

Design:

Figure 1. CMOS TIA basic topology. Push-pull inverter with resistive feedback.

Hand Calculations to Detail Circuit's Operation:

Figure 2. Figure 3.

Design Schematic:

Figure 4.

Simulation:

Simulating different values of input resistance to visualize output swing.

Figure 5. Figure 6.

These AC simulations lets us visualize that we have obtained the targeted gain. Also confirms, hand calculations for R1.

Figure 7. Figure 8.

Figure 9. Figure 10.

This transient simulation lets us visualize the expected output.

Figure 11. Figure 12.

Experimental Results:

Figure 13. Figure 14.

Figure 15.

Figure 16.

Figure 17.

Conclusion: The TIA front-end is, probably, the most important block in sensor readout or optical communication systems and usually it is the TIA’s performance which limits the bandwidth, gain and the signal-to-noise ratio characteristics of the final system. Although due to the cost and integration constraints it becomes more important to implement lower-cost TIAs with CMOS, significant challenges must be addressed in terms of the design to overcome the relevant technological constraints associated with standard CMOS.

Works Cited:

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