Some Circuit Configurations for Broad-Band Micropower Amplifiers

Abstract

With the advent of microelectronics, broad-band amplifiers, which serve as building blocks of linear systems, are required to operate at micropower levels. Although silicon bipolar transistors of the planar and the epitaxial planar types are available for such applications, their operating characteristics deteriorate at reduced levels of power dissipation. This necessitates the use of optimum design techniques to realize good performance from the micropower broad-band amplifiers. With this in view, some circuit configurations are suggested for satisfactory broad-band amplification at micropower levels, and their characteristics compared. From the analysis and the supporting practical work, it is shown that the differential configuration is well suited for realizing broad-band micropower amplification economically. The object of this paper is to describe this investigation.