A Capacitive Feedback Transimpedance Amplifier with a DC Feedback Loop Using a Transistor for High DC Dynamic Range

This study proposes a capacitive feedback transimpedance amplifier (CF-TIA) using a transistor in the direct current (DC) feedback loop for high DC dynamic range. In some applications, the background DC input can vary widely from the minimum to the maximum, and TIA have to sense the target signal even on the top of the maximum DC input. In a conventional CF-TIA, however, the allowable DC input is constrained by the value of the resistor in the DC feedback loop. To allow a fairly high DC input, the resistor is set to a very low value. This causes the thermal noise current to increase significantly. The increased thermal noise is always present even in the minimum DC input, thus degrading the overall noise performance. The circuit proposed herein overcomes this shortcoming by using the transistor instead of the resistor. The adverse effect of the parasitic capacitance of the transistor on system stability is compensated for as well. Then, the analyses of the overall frequency response and design parameters, including the cut-off frequency and attenuation ratio associated with system stability, are presented for the proposed circuit. In addition, in order to cope with the problem that stability is dependent on the amount of DC input, a simple method for ensuring system stability regardless of DC component value is introduced. The presented analyses and the method are generalized for all CF-TIA applications.