DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE WIDE-BAND AMPLIFIERS IN BICMOS TECHNOLOGY

Design techniques of high-dynamic-range wide-band amplifiers in BiCMOS technology for matching either a telescope (capacitive) or a wire (resistive) antenna are presented. The advantage of the BiCMOS process over bipolar and CMOS ones in designing such high-performance amplifiers is theoretically studied. It is analytically shown that by optimal combination of bipolar and MOS devices, BiCMOS amplifiers can be designed that show superior performance over the existing bipolar and CMOS realizations. The design principles are verified by the measurements on a bipolar test amplifier implemented in a linear gate array of a BiCMOS technology. A total equivalent input noise level as low as 0.25-mu-V(rms) within 2.5-kHz IF band is achieved and a very high dynamic range of 135 dB is measured without the use of any AGC.