A low-voltage, ultra-low-power, high-gain operational amplifier design for portable wearable devices

Abstract

Based on the SMIC 0.13 um CMOS technology, this paper uses a 0.8 V supply voltage to design a low-voltage, ultra-low-power, high-gain, two-stage, fully differential operational amplifier. Through the simulation analysis, when the supply voltage is 0.8 V, the design circuit meets the ultra-low power consumption and also has the characteristic of high gain. The five-tube, fully differential, and common-source amplifier circuits provide the operational amplifier with high gain and large swing. Unlike the traditional common-mode feedback, this paper uses the output of the common-mode feedback as the bias voltage of the five-tube operational transconductance amplifier load, which reduces the design cost of the circuit; the structure involves self-cascoding composite MOS, which makes the common-mode feedback loop more sensitive. The frequency compensation circuit adopts Miller compensation technology with zero-pole separation, which increases the stability of the circuit. The input of the circuit uses the current mirror. A small reference current is chosen to reduce power consumption. A detailed performance simulation analysis of this operational amplifier circuit is carried out on the Cadence spectre platform. The open-loop gain of this operational amplifier is 74.1 dB, the phase margin is 61°, the output swing is 0.7 V, the common-mode rejection ratio is 109 dB, and the static power consumption is only 11.2 uW.