A 16-channel CMOS inverter transimpedance amplifier array for 3-D image processing of unmanned vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents a 16-channel transimpedance amplifier (TIA) array implemented in a standard 0.18-urn CMOS technology for the applications of panoramic scan LADAR (PSL) systems. Since this array is the front-end circuits of the PSL systems to recover three dimensional image for unmanned vehicles, low-noise and high-gain characteristics are necessary. Thus, we propose a voltage-mode inverter TIA (I-TIA) array in this paper, of which measured results demonstrate that each channel of the array achieves 82-dBQ transimpedance gain, 565-MHz bandwidth for 0.5-pF photodiode capacitance, 6.7-pA/sqrt(Hz) noise current spectral density, and 33.8-mW power dissipation from a single 1.8-V supply. The measured eye-diagrams of the array confirm wide and clear eye-openings up to 1.3-Gb/s operations. Also, the optical pulse measurements estimate that the proposed 16-channel TIA array chip can detect signals within 20 meters away from the laser source. The whole chip occupies the area of 5.0 × 1.1 mm2 including I/O pads. For comparison, a current-mode 16-channel TIA array is also realized in the same 0.18-μm CMOS technology, which exploits regulated-cascode (RGC) input configuration. Measurements reveal that the I-TIA array achieves superior performance in optical pulse measurements. © The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers.