HlGH PREClSlON CMOS MICROPOWER AMPLIFIERS

THESE No 802 (1989)

PRESENTEE AU DEPARTEMENT D'ELECTRICITE

ECOLE POLnECHNlQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE

POUR L'OBTENTION DU GRADE DE DOCTEUR ES SCIENCES TECHNIQUES

PAR

CHRISTIAN CHARLES ENZ

lngbnieur lectricien dipl6mb EPFL originaire de Herisau (AR)

acceptbe sur proposition du jury : Prof. E.A. Vittoz, rapporteur Prof. R. Castello. corapporteur Prof. M. Declercq, corapporteur Dr M. Degrauwe, corapporteur

Lausanne, EPFL 1989

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION..............................................1
References for Chapter 1.................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 2 SIMPLE FORMULATION OF LARGE AND SMALL SIGNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOS 5 TRANSISTOR 2.1 Large-signal mode1 formulation ......................................................7 2.1.1 The idealized MOS stmcturit and the basic hypothesis...................7 2.1.2 Totalsemimductorchargepcrunitanca.................................. 8 2.1.3 Pinch-off voltage and &s of operation ............................... 11 2.1.4 General expression for the drain cunent ................................. 15 2.1.5 Static current in weak inversion ........................................... 15 2.1.6 Static current in smng inversion ......................................... 16 2.1.7 Normalization and interpolation ........................................... 18 2.1.8 Channel potential versus position......................................... 19 2.1.9 Second order effects........................................................ 22 2.1.9.1 Channel length modulation ..................................... 22 2.1.9.2 Mobility saturaiion .............................................. 23 2.1.10 Comparison with experiment..............................................23 2.2 Small-signal mode1 fonnuiation .................................................... 28 2.2.1 Low-frequency mode1......................................................28 2.2.1.1 General definitions of the transconductances ................ 28 2.2.1.2 Transconductances interpolation .............................. 30 2.2.1.3 Conductances.................................................... 31 2.2.2 Medium-frequtncymode1 ................................................. 36 2.2.2.1 Quasistatic d e l for the intrinsic capacitances.............. 36 2.2.2.2 Intrinsic capacitances in weak inversion...................... 39 2.2.2.3 Intnnsic capacitances in strong inversion ....................41 2.2.2.4 Interpolation of the intrinsic capacitances ....................42 2.2.2.5 Extrinsic capacitances...........................................44 2.2.5.1 Junction capacitances................................ 44 2.2.5.2 Overlap capacitances................................. 44 2.2.3 High-frequency mode1 ..................................................... 45 2.2.3.1 First order mode1of the transadmittance .....................45 2.3 Noise ................................................................................. -50 2.3.1 T h e d noise ............................................................... 50 2.3.1.1 General expression for the thermal noise power spectmm valid in weak and in strong inversion ............. 50 2.3.1.2 Thermal noise in weak inversion .............................. 53

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OF CONTENTS

2.3.1.3 Thermal noise in strong inversion .............................53 2.3.1.4 Interpolation of the thermal noise ............................. 54 2.3.2 l/f noise ...................................................................... 55 2.3.3 Other noises somes present in the MOS transistor ....................57 2.3.4 Complete small-signal equivalent circuit in saturation..................58 2.4 Summary.............................................................................. 59 References for Chapter 2..................................................................60 CHAPTER 3 NOISE SAMPLING AND MODULATION 63 3.1 Noise sampling.......................................................................64 3.1.1 General expressions for sampled noise .................................. 64 3.1.2 Sarnpled whitenoise .......................................................71 3.1.3 Sampled l/f noise ...........................................................76 3.2 Noise modulation ....................................................................80 3.2.1 General expressions for chopper moduiated noise ..................... 80 3.2.2 Chopper modulated white noise .......................................... 83 3.2.3 Chopper modulated l/f noise .............................................. 85 3.3 Comparison with some previous works ...........................................89 3.4 Summary.............................................................................-90 References for Chapter 3..................................................................91 CHAPTER 4 LOW-FREQUENCY NOISE AND OFFSET REDUCTION TECHNIQUES 93 . . . ......................................................... 9 4 4 1 Input device optimization . 4.2 The autozero technique ..............................................................% 4.3 The chopper technique ..............................................................102 4.4 Sumrnary .............................................................................105 References for Chapter 4................................................................. 1 6 0 CHAPTER 5 CHOPPER AMPLIFIER OPTIMIZATION FOR LOW RESIDUAL OFFSET 107 5.1 General structure and equivalent uansfer function ..............................108 0 5.2 Residual offset due to the input modulator non-idealities ......................1 9 5.3 Optimum transfer function .........................................................1 1 1 5.3.1 Ideal infinite bandwidth amplifier........................................1 1 1 5.3.2 Ideal low-pas amplifier .................................................. 112 5.3.3 First order low-pass amplifier............................................ 113 5.3.4 Second order low-pass amplifier with two identical poles............116 5.3.5 Second order selective amplifiers........................................ 117 5.4 Surnmary ..............................................................................120

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T A B L E OF C O N T E N T S

CHAPTER 6 REALIZATION OF A MICROPOWER LOWFREQUENCY CHOPPER AMPLIFIER 121 6.1 Specifications....................................................................... -123 6.2 Second order selective amplifier...................................................125 6.2.1 Principle and mikation using the continuous-time filtering technique .................................................................... 125 6.2.2 Compensation of the c m n t offset due to the input differential pair .......................................................................... 129 6.2.3 Cornmon mode stabilization..............................................133 6.2.4 Biasing..................................................................... -135 6.2.5 Noise ........................................................................136 6.3 Resonance frequency and gain contrai ...........................................14 6.4 Chopper modulators ................................................................ 143 6.4.1 Offset and noise due to the input chopper d u l a t o r in the case of a resitive source impedance ...........................................143 6.4.2 O f k t and noise due to the input chopper modulator in the case of a capacitive source impedawe ........................................146 6.5 Noise and offset optimization......................................................149 6.6 Implementation and layout .........................................................151 6.6.1 General methods f a designing basic constitutive chcuits ............151 6.6.1.1 DBmnnal pair .................................................152 6.6.1.2 Cunent mim#s................................................. 155 6.6.1.3 Cascode stage..................................................-157 6.6.2 Parasitic coupling and layout .............................................158 6.7 Experimental results ................................................................ 1 0 6.7.1 Selective amplifier and chopper amplifier transfer functions ......... 162 6.7.2 Selective amplifier and chopper amplifier noise........................ 164 6.7.3 Chopper amplifier input offset ........................................... 167 6.8 Summary.............................................................................175 References for Chapter 6................................................................. 177 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION 179 APPENDIX 183 APPENDIX 1 SACMOS technological parameters ................................. 184 APPENDIX 2 Summation of series..................................................-185 APPENDIX 3 Noise calculation of the chopper rmdulator with a capacitive soume impedance...................................................... 193 APPENDlX 4 CHOPAMP3 transistors sizing .....................................-195 Curriculum Vitae 198

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Une chane d'acquisition de donnes comporte gnralement d'abord un senseur, puis un amplificateur, un ventuel film de mise en forme, un chantilloneur-bloqueur et finalement un convertisseur analogique-numrique (A-N). Le rle essentiel de l'amplificateur est d'augmenter le niveau du signal avant la conversion A-N. Une caractristique importante & cet amplificateur est sa tension d'offset. En effet celle-ci limite la pnkision de toute la chane d'acquisition. La tension de bruit reprsente tgalement une limite fondamentale la rsolution de n'importe quel systme. Ces deux lment cls doivent donc tre rduit au minimum pour obtenir la prcision dsire. Un intrt croissant est port sur les systmes totalement intgrs sur une mme puce, incluant toute la chane d'acquisition et ventuellement mme le senseur silicium. Souvent l'lectronique doit tre alimente par piles et donc la reduction de la consommation devient primordiale. Ce travail de doctorat propose un nouveau type d'amplificateurs micro-puissance entirement intgr en technologie CMOS pour des applications de prcision en bassesfdquences. Un des dsavantages de la technologie CMOS par rappart la technologie bipolaire est son b d t basse-frquence (ou bruit en l/f) beaucoup plus important. La frquence laquelle le bruit en l/f devient kgale au bruit blanc est typiquement de plusieurs 10kHz voire mme 100 kHz pour un amplificateur CMOS conventionnel, dont l'offset dpasse souvent quelques 10 mV. Bruit et offset peuvent tre rduit en appliquant des technique de dimensionnement classiques. Pour obtenir des performances suprieures il faut alors utiliser des techniques de circuit spcialis comme par exemple "l'autozero" ou la modulation "chopper". Bien que ces mthodes de rduction de bruit et d'offset sont dj bien connues et utilises, une grande wnfusion quant leurs effets respectifs sur le bruit large bande persiste. Un des objectifs de ce travail a tC de distinguer et de m e m en valeur les qualits et dfauts inhrents chacune de ces techniques. La mthode "autozero" consiste chantillonner et maintenir le bruit et l'offset de l'amplificateur, qui sont ensuite soustrait au signal amplifi, liminant ces composantes indsirables. L'chantillonnage du bruit a pour effet secondaire d'augmenter la composante de bruit blanc rsiduelle cause du phnomne de repliement. Cette technique sera donc plutot applique des circuits dj chantillonns o le repliement du bruit est de toute faon invitable. La technique "chopper" consiste multiplier le signal d'entre avec un signal carr, amplifier les bandes latrales autour de la fondamentale et finalement le dmoduler. Pour rcuprer le signal original amplifi, il faut encore filtrer passe-bas afin d'liminer les composantes hautes muences. Le bruit et I'offset provenant de I'arnplifiacteur ne sont modul qu'une seul fois la sortie et sont donc transposes en hautes frquences. Contrairement l'amplificateur "autozero", la modulation "chopper" n'a aucun effet sur le bruit large bande de l'amplificateur. Cette proprit fondamentale a motiv le choix de la technique chopper pour la ralisation d'un amplificateur faible bruit.

RESUME

L'amplicateur "chopper" prsent dans cette thse est destin l'amplification de signaux 1 provenant d'un thermocouple. 1 est ralis l'aide d'un amplificateur slectif passe-bande du deuxime degr. Le gain DC est suprieur 54 dB avec une largeur de bande gale 400 Hz. La tension de bruit ramene l'entre est de 1 pVms, alors que l'offset est infrieur au pV. Le circuit est aliment entre O et 5 V et consomme 200 pW. L'objectif fix un bruit et un offset chacun infrieur au pV a donc t atteint. D'autre part, un nouveau modle du transistor MOS destin spcifiquement la conception de circuits intgrs analogiques a t dvelopp. Ce modle propose une formulation analytique simple des caractristiques grands et petits signaux, valables dans tous les dgirnes de fonctionnement du transistor MOS.L'approche gnrale est de calculer analytiquement les relations asymptotiques valables en faible et en forte inversion, puis de les relier l'aide d'une fonction d'interpolation. En plus des caractristiques statiques et des paramtres petits-signaux basses-frquences, les diffrentes capacits intrinsques ont t values pour tous les rgimes de fonctionnement. D'autre part, une modlisation hautes-frquences des transadmittances, tenant compte de la nature distribue du canal est effectue. Ce modle sera trs utile ultrieurement, par exemple pour la conception de filtres continus hautes-frquences.

INTRODUCTION

A typical data acquisition system generally consists of a sensor, a front-end amplifier, a filter, a sample-and-hold and finally an A-to-D converter. The amplifier serves to increase the signal level prior to the analog-to-digital conversion. The input offset voltage is a key aspect of the amplifierperformance since it can lirnit the DC accuracy of the system [l]. Furthemore, the amplifier noise voltage represents also a fundamental limit on the resolution of the system. Nowadays, increasing interest has b e n shown to integrate the whole data acquisition chain on the same chip, including silicon sensors [2]. Most applications require the system to be powered by batteries, and therefore, the reduction of the power consumption becomes imperative. Highly sensitive amplifiers implemented in CMOS technology are always limited by offset and l/f noise. An offset voltage of 10 mV and a corner frequency larger than 10 kHz are typical values for a CMOS amplifier. The l/f noise can be reduced by increasing the area of the input &vice, while the offset voltage can be reduced by biasing it in weak inversion or by using the lateral bipolar transistor [3][4] compatible with any CMOS technology. Further improvements require special circuit techniques like autozero [5] or chopper modulation [6][7]. Although both techniques offer very different performances, a big confusion still exists. The autoZeTO technique takes advantage of the MOS technology to memorize the existing defects like offset and low-frequency noise on a storage capacitor, The chopper modulation transposes the signal to higher frequencies where it is amplifiai. The signal is then demodulated while the l/f noise and the offset voltage are eliminated. The chopper technique has been used for more than forty years when the best DC performance was requid. It fust was constructecl out of vacuum tubes and mechanical relay choppers. Now, thanks to the CMOS process, fully integrated chopper amplifiers have been realized [6][7]. A combination of autozero and chopper modulation was used by Poujois et al. [8] to realize such an amplifier with a typical offset of 5 pV and an equivalent input noise of 2.5 J4!!- . However two external capacitors were requirai and the amplifier consumai 240 mW! ood noise performance was obtainai by Hsieh et al. [7] in a CMOS differential chopper amplifier for SC filter applications. The equivalent input noise was 40 for a chopper fquency of 128 H z The amplifier displayed a 15 MHz gainbandwidth pr uct and 4 mW power dissipation with f7.5 V supplies. Even better performances were reached by M. Abe et al.[9]. They proposed a new type of series-shunt MOSFET chopper which allows the offset to be reduced to the nanovolts range keeping a very low drift. However, this amplifier was not integrated but realized as a discrete circuit. Furthemore, to obtain such a performance the modulator imperfections must be compensated by adjusting a resistor. This thesis presents a highly sensitive CMOS chopper amplifier realized with a 2nd order band-pass selective amplifier. The objective was to reach the pV level for both offset and noise voltages, while keeping the total power consumption below 1 mW. The bandwidth is then limitai to a few hundred hertz by the fundamental thermal noise. This research took place in a national project on rnicroelectronics which started in 1984 (Programme national de recherche PN 13). The general purpose of this research in analog IC design was to explore the limits of

certain circuit techniques for a given CMOS technology. The contribution of this specific work was fustly to clearly differentiate the two noise reduction techniques already presented and secondly to demonstrate that fully integrated highly sensitive micropower amplifiers for lowfrequency applications were realizable without a trimrning process. The chopper amplifier uses a 2nd order band-pass selective amplifier to optirnize the signal-to-offset ratio. The design of this selective amplifier involved the development of continuous-the filters, which are now very successful. A fundamentai limitation found in any MOS switched circuit is the charge injection problem or clock feedthrough. An accurate evaluation of this phenomena was necessary to optirnize the chopper amplifier design. Finally, a MOS transistor model especiaily dedicated to the design of analog circuits became indispensable. Since the MOS device is very often used in the moderate inversion region, an analytical rnodel of the transconductance valid in ail regions of operation is crucial to make an accurate design. This need motivated the development of a new MOS transistor model based on the prelirninary work of H. Oguey et al. [IO], offering a simple analytical formulation for the large and the small signal characteristics. The model has then been extended to high frequencies for the design of continuous-time filters [Il]. This model is extensively presented in Chapter 2. The large signal characteristics are first derived and interpolated to extend the validity of the model to the moderate inversion region. The small-signal parameters are then evaluated and interpolated in the moderate inversion region. A quasi-static model of the intrinsic MOS capacitances is then presented. A high frequency first order rnodel of the transadmittances vaiid in ail regions of operation and taking into account the transmission line effect occurring in the MOS channel is also proposed. Finally the thermal and the l/f noise are discussed Chapter 3 presents a formulation of the two fundamental operations of sampling and modulating a stationary random pmess. The effects of undersampling white and l/f noise are discussed. The power spectral density of a chopper modulated white and l/f noise is calculated. Chapter 4 reviews different low-frequency noise and offset reduction techniques, emphasizing the fundamental differences between the autozero and the chopper technique. The transfer function that optimizes the signal-to-offset gain of the chopper amplifier is deduced in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 presents the realization of the 2nd order selective amplifier used in the chopper amplifier. A detailed analysis of the chopper modulator parasitic effects is proposed, showing that chopper amplifiers can be used perfectly with capacitive source impedance. Finally the circuit implementation and the experimental results are presented and discussed. Chapter 7 wili provide sumrnarizing remarks and conclusions. For more clarity, some tedious mathematical derivations are detailed in Appendix A2 and A3. Each Chapter in this thesis starts with a short abstract and ends with a brief sumrnary. The formulas and the references listed at the end of each Chapter are numbered separately.

INTRODUCTION

REFERENCES CHAPTER FOR 1

[l] [2] [3] [4] 153 [6] 171 181 [9] [IO] [Il]

R. C. Yen and P. R. Gray, "A MOS switched-capacitorinstrumentation amplifier", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-17, pp. 1008-1013, Dec. 1982. S. Middelhoek, "Recent developments in integrated sensors", in ESSCIRC '84 Dig. Tech. Papers, pp. 18-19, Sept. 1984. E. Vittoz, "MOS transistors operated in lateral bipolar mode and their applications in CMOS technology", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-18, pp. 273-279, June 1983. E. Vittoz, "The design of high-pcrfommce analog circuits on digital CMOS chips", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-20, pp. 657-665, June 1985. M. Degrauwe et ai., "A mimpower CMOS-instrumentation amplifier", IEEE J. SolidState Circuits, vol. SC-20, pp. 805-807, June 1985. K. C. Hsieh et ai., "A low-noise chopper-stabilid diffe~ntial switched-capacitor filtering technique", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-16, pp. 708-715, December 1981. C. C. Enz, E. A. Vittoz and F. Krummenacher, "A CMOS chopper amplifier", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-22, pp. 335-342, June 1987. R. Poujois and J. Borel, "A low drift fully integrated MOSFET operational amplifier", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-13, pp. 499-503, August 1978. M. Abe, 1. Sugisaki, J. Nkazoe and 2.Abe, "An ultra low-drift amplifier using a new type of series-shunt MOSFET chopper", IEEE Trans. on Instr. and Meas., vol. IM-34, pp. 54-58, March 1985. H. J. Oguey and S. Cserveny,"MOS modelling at low current density," Sumrner Course on Process and Device Modelling", ESAT Leuven-Heverlee, Belgium, June 1983. F. Krummenacher, private communications.