A New Family of CMOS Cascode-Free Amplifiers with High Energy-Efficiency and Improved Gain

Book excerpt: This book addresses the need for energy-efficient amplifiers, providing gain enhancement strategies, suitable to run in parallel with lower supply voltages, by introducing a new family of single-stage cascode-free amplifiers, with proper design, optimization, fabrication and experimental evaluation. The authors describe several topologies, using the UMC 130 nm CMOS technology node with standard-VT devices, for proof-of-concept, achieving results far beyond what is achievable with a classic single-stage folded-cascode amplifier. Readers will learn about a new family of circuits with a broad range of applications, together with the familiarization with a state-of-the-art electronic design automation methodology used to explore the design space of the proposed circuit family.