Distortion Analysis of Analog Integrated Circuits

With the increased efforts of the analogue design community to integrate analogue high-frequency front-ends for telecommunications, there has been heightened interest in the behaviour of nonlinear circuits since this can cause considerable degradation of signals. In analogue integrated circuits at lower frequencies, such as filters, nonlinear behaviour limits the dynamic range. Analogue integrated circuit designers often lack insight into nonlinear circuit behaviour. Indeed, designers are trained to reason in linear or linearized circuits but not in nonlinear ones. Numerical circuit simulations of nonlinear circuit behavior do not provide enough insight to the designer. This text attempts to provide both qualitative and quantitative insight into the nonlinear behavior of analogue integrated circuits at low and high frequencies. General techniques to suppress nonlinear behaviour such as pre-distortion, linear and nonlinear feedback are explained in detail and illustrated with realistic examples. In this way the book fills the gap between the theory of nonlinear systems and practical analogue integrated circuits.The book seeks to provide the reader with an in-depth analysis of elementary transistor stages, both CMOS and bipolar, as well as an analysis of several larger circuits. Use is made of advanced transistor models that are also discussed in the book. A calculation method yields closed-form expressions for nonlinear behaviour. These expressions are interpreted and illustrated with realistic numerical examples. The volume should be of interest to practising analog and mixed-signal design engineers and researchers in the field. It may also be suitable as a text for an advanced course on the subject.