A Self-Biased Current-Mode Amplifier With an Application to 10-bit Pipeline ADC

Seungnam Choi, Yunjae Suh, Joohyun Lee, Jinkyu Kim, Byungsub Kim, Hong-June Park, Jae-Yoon Sim

Abstract: This paper presents a self-biased current-mode amplifier (CMAMP) suitable for a switched-capacitor circuit. The CMAMP uses a subthreshold-biased transimpedance stage as a current-sensing load, and minimizes static power dissipation by passing bias current only at the input stage. The first-order system behavior with single dominant pole gives stable phase margin without complicated frequency compensation. Self-biasing circuits automatically generate bias voltages to sustain performance over a wide range of supply voltage. The designed CMAMP is verified in a 10-bit pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC) fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process. The ADC achieves a figure of merit of 14.3 fJ/c-s with a supply voltage of 0.6 V at 2.5 MS/s.