Fixed-gain CMOS differential amplifiers with no external feedback for a wide temperature range

Abstract We present original CMOS amplifiers designed for the DC to 10 MHz frequency range and operating in the 70–380 K temperature range. Aimed applications concern readout circuitry to be associated with THz bolometric pixels (either high- T c superconducting or uncooled semiconducting), which require accuracy, low noise and low power consumption. Two designs are described that both exhibit high fixed-gain (40 dB) in a feedback-free architecture, which is based on a new low-transconductance composite transistor for an accurate control of this gain. Both amplifiers have been realized in a regular 0.35 μm CMOS process and tested in the 4.2–380 K temperature range, exhibiting good agreement between designed and measured characteristics.