Design of ultra low noise amplifiers

Vojtch Jansek, www.janascard.cz (update 1/2012,10/2013) Various types of ultra-low noise amplifiers both for DC and AC signals are described. Ultralow noise here means that voltage noise density is bellow nV!s"rt#$ for AC amplifiers or noise less then %% nVpp for DC amplifiers. 1. Ultra-low noise AC amplifiers &p amplifiers '&A( are widely used as AC amplifiers. )or ultra-low noise amplifiers are suitable especially *+ %,- or *+ ,- 'old but the lowest noise available &A as far as . /now( from *inear +echnology 'www.linear.com( or ADA0-1- or AD-213 from Analog Devices 'www.analog.com(. 4oth amplifiers have voltage noise density at /#$ around nV!s"rt#$ and also offers e5cellent DC precision. +. 'www.ti.com( offers some very low noise amplifiers li/e &6A, with noise . nV!s"rt at supply current 7.8 mA from 2 V and *9:0111% with very low distortion. 9a5im 'www.ma5im-ic.com( offers 9A;187, with noise bellow nV!s"rt #$. &A have also some drawbac/s< . input differential stage has voltage noise density s"rt , times increased against simple input transistor. ,. Ultra low noise &A usually re"uire at least % V '=-2V( supply voltage and supply current is often more then 2 mA. .f only AC amplification is necessary> it is possible to design a lower noise discrete amplifier with lower power consumption and lower cost. 1.1 Ultra-low noise AC amplifiers with bipolar transistors ?ith bipolar transistors> the value for emmiter-base voltage noise and base current noise of an ideal transistor can be e5pressed as follows @ A>@,A<

?ith real transistor> additional noise source which can be modeled as additional resistor rbb must be added. +he third noise source is base current noise which flows through source resistance rs. Bo total noise of a transistor connected to voltage source with resistance rs can be e5pressed as<

)or low source impedance> the rbb of transistor should be added to source impedance rs. +o find the collector current which yield the minimum overall e"uivalent input noise with a given source impedance> the last formula can be differentiated with respect to .c and set e"ual to $ero @,A and gives<

)or accurate calculation /eep in mind that h): isnCt constant and also depends on .c. )ormulas ',(>'7( are clear but in practice the main problem is that value of rbb isnCt specified in nearly any transistor data sheet. +he noise of transistor is usually described as noise figure measured at low current 'usually about %% uA or less( with relatively high source resistance and doesnCt help here very much. B6.C: simulation must be also used very carefully because available models donCt reflect noise performance correctly. Voltage noise density of a low noise 4C201 at collector current % mA was simulated with 7 different models D &ECADCs

built in model> model from 6hilips and model from )airchild. +hree totally different results were obtained< %. , nV!s"rt#$> %. 1 nV!s"rt#$ and .7 nV!s"rt#$ and corresponding rbb is % &hm> &hm and %% &hm. +he last value is the closest to reality. +hat measurement also shows that so called low noise transistors are not suitable for really low noise applications at higher collector current due their high rbb value. .t can be e5pected that transistors with higher .cma5 have also lower rbb> so several transistors with higher .cma5 were measured. Commonly available transistors li/e ,F71%0> ,F,,,,> 4C773> 4C- 3>4C68- were tested. All that transistors had lower noise at .cG .7 mA than 4C201. +he lowest noise was obtained with the 4C773 'rbbG7% &hms(.
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)ig. . An ultra-low noise AC amplifier +he )ig. . shows a practical e5ample - an ultra low noise amplifier with gain %% based on 4C773 derived from @,A. Although very simple> the amplifier has input noise below %.3 nV!s"rt#$ D lower than any monolithic &A and re"uires only 7 mA from 2 V supply. Hain is set by the ratio of E2>E8> noise of E8 is added to input noise so low value 0.3E is used. Bmall signal bandwidth e5ceeds 9#$. +his simple approach has also some drawbac/s> the main is that output voltage swing is limited to only several hundred mV. &pen loop gain of the amplifier is only 8% d4> so gain accuracy> distortion performance and output impedance is worse compared to &A. )le5ibility is a big advantage of the circuit D increasing resistors E G 8%/> E,G,3/> E7G,,/> E0G28%/> E2G,.0/>E8G,, reduces supply current to ,%% uA and voltage noise density is still only .3 nV!s"rt#$> it is about % times lower then a &A with the same current consumption. Bmall signal bandwidth e5ceeds %% /#$> it is also very good value for a such low power circuit. An improved version of the ultra low noise amplifier is shown in )ig.,. 6F6 transistor was replaced with &A. I Cs collector voltage is set by resistor divider E3>E8> bias point is controlled via DC feedbac/ path E,. +he noise contribution of the U can be neglected if its noise density is lower then enJAu!7 where en is voltage noise density of input transistor> Au is gain of the input stage> Au G 0% J .c J E7. ?ith values shown in )ig.,> amplifier with noise density bellow ,% nV!s"rt#$ should be used. Hain is precisely set by divider E,> E KKE1> gain up %%%% is possible due high open loop gain of the U . Distortion and output impedance is also greatly reduced over previous circuit. *ow fre"uency corner is given by E C0. DC bias of C0 is bellow %% mV so low voltage low :BE type can be used.

)ig.,. An improved version of ultra-low noise amplifier 4oth circuits have voltage noise density around %.3 nV!s"rt#$> if lower noise density is re"uired> input transistors can be simply paralleled. .f F transistors are used> noise is s"rt'F( reduced and result can be modeled as one transistor with rbbC G rbb!F and .cCG F J .c. +his approach has also some drawbac/s - base current noise is s"rt'F( times increased and transistors must be matched. 9atched monolithic pairs are available from several vendors> for instance *9710 from Fational Bemiconductors 'www.national.com( or 9A+-% >9A+-%,> 9A+-%7 from Analog Devices. +he matched pairs have also very low and fully specified noise at higher collector current. .f more transistors are necessary> matched "uad +#A+7%% from +#A+ corporation 'www.thatcorp.com( is available. +he main disadvantage of the matched transistors is high price. +ransistors neednCt be matched with high accuracy> ,%L difference in collector current is acceptable> so raw selection of 4C773 can be done. .f no selection can be used> e"uali$ation emitter resistors %% &hm with bloc/ing capacitor 03% u) in every emitter reduce differences between transistors D )ig .7.
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)ig. 7. 6aralleling with emitter resistors

1.2 Ultra-low noise AC amplifiers with unipolar transistors Amplifiers with bipolar transistor offer very low noise but have also some drawbac/s D low input impedance and high input current noise> so they are suitable especially for signal sources with low output impedance> typically bellow /&hm. .f high input impedance or very low input noise current is necessary> an input stage with unipolar transistors is a better choice. &As with ):+ inputs e5ists> but their noise is significantly worse then with bipolar ones D en is usually higher then 0 nV!s"rt#$. :5ample is M):+ &6A-,3 from +. or C9&B AD-822>AD-828 from Analog Dev> 9A;0032 from 9a5im or M):+ *+ 31, from *inear +echnology. Unipolar transistors in ultra low noise applications have two disadvantages< !f noise corner is relatively high D usually more then /#$ 'bipolar transistors have !f noise corner some #$ or tens #$( and voltage noise density is relatively high D usually some nV!s"rt#$ or more. Foise of the unipolar transistor can be modeled as a noise of the resistor with value !Nfs> so transistors with high transfer admittance and usually high .dss are good candidates for low noise applications. )ortunately there are a few types with very low noise. +hat is an ultra low noise M):+ ,BO 3% and ,BO781 from +oshiba 'now obsolete( or e"uivalent *BO 3% from *inear Bystems 'www.linearsystems.com(@2A with voltage noise density bellow nV!s"rt#$. )or higher fre"uency> 4)-8, from 6hilips is an e5cellent choice. )ig. 0. shows an ultra-low noise amplifier with two M):+s ,BO 3% with gain %% and voltage noise density bellow %.3nV!s"rt#$. As with bipolar transistor> +7 can be replaced with &A> but care must be ta/en because voltage gain of the input stage Au G Nfs J E, is usually lower then with bipolar transistor at the same .c> so a low noise &A must be used. .f lower noise than nV!s"r#$ is necessary> M):+s can be paralleled as shown on )ig.0. .f only two transistors are necessary> matched pair *BO,-1 from *inear Bystems is a good choice.
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)ig. 0. An ultra low noise amplifier with ):+ 9atching of single transistors is more difficult then with bipolars due wider spread of .dss between M):+s> so it is usually simpler to set DC bias point for every transistor separately and use AC feedbac/ only as shown on )ig 0. Drawbac/ of no DC feedbac/ is worse bias point stability and accuracy> so it can be necessary to replace E, with trimmer / and set +7 Uce to ,.2V-7.% V. +he big advantage against bipolar transistors is that there is no input current noise penalty> so it is simple to connect in parallel as many transistors as necessary. +he limit is only power consumption and increased input and feedbac/ capacity. .f low input capacity and high bandwidth is important> 4)-8, is the best choice.

2. Ultra-low noise DC amplifiers )or accurate amplification of small DC signals> amplifiers with low offset> low offset drift and low noise are necessary. +he best choice between bipolar &A are the same &as as for AC amplifiers. .f even better parameters are necessary> chopper or auto$ero amplifiers must be used. +here is a lot of monolithic chopper or auto$ero amplifiers with e5cellent offset and offset drift performance but noise performance is much worse than with mentioned bipolar &A although the main noise source D !f noise is removed. +ypical values are more then ,% nV!s"rt#$. )ortunately some new amplifiers with improved performance appear> actually it is ADA02,- with en 2.8 nV!s"rt#$ 4etter results can be obtained with discrete chopper amplifier described above. +his chopper amplifier is based on a 0% nVpp Chopped ):+ Amplifier @7A>@0A but it is significantly improved. .t has lower noise> power consumption and component count. +he main difference is a very low noise AC amplifier composed by + and +,> see )ig.2. +he e5cellent noise performance is given by + D ,BO 3% operating with .d current about , mA and with noise density below nV!s"rt#$. +otal gain of the AC amplifier is given by resistors E, and E2 and is appro5imately %%% for E2 G /&hm> apro5. 7%%% for E2G0/3. +he noise and offset performance of the chopped amplifier is also affected by the input modulator. 9A;0817 'U A( is used here because it has very low Eon ,% &hm and very low charge inPection , pC. U 4 acts as an output demodulator and demodulated signal is then integrated by U,. +otal DC gain ' %%%( is set by E->E1 ratio. Foise of the E1 directly affect total noise so very low value &hm is used here. As a cloc/ source CD0%8% is used with a "uart$ 7,.38- /#$ which produces accurate and stable fre"uency %,0 #$. +his fre"uency is harmonically unrelated to 2% #$. .t will be better to use different fre"uency for 8% #$ suppression. +otal bandwidth is given by the gain of the AC amplifier and time constant of the integrator 'E3>C8(. ?ith values in )ig. and AC gain %%% 'E2G /( the bandwidth is apro5. %., #$ and
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)igure 2. A - nVpp noise chopper amplifier

is the same as original @7A>@0A. .ncreasing value of E2 to 0/3 gives wider bandwidth %.8 #$ and also lower offset voltage. .f wider or narrowed bandwidth is re"uired> C8 can be changed accordingly. )ig. 8 shows measured noise on the output of the amplifier with AC gain %%% 'E2G /( during 8% s time window. A DAI card AD 06C. with additional amplifier and software Adcontrol was used. +otal noise refereed to input is - nVpp or .0 nVef> it is apro5. 2 times improvement against original @7A>@0A. Bampling period of the DB6 integrating AD converter is 0% ms> so measured bandwidth is about % #$> but noise bandwidth is limited by the chopper amplifier to .23 5 %., #$ G %.7 #$ and voltage noise density en is ,.8 nV!s"rt #$. As with every chopped amplifier there is no !f noise component so total noise for different bandwidth can be simply e5pressed as

where fs is noise bandwidth D for . order low pass fs G .23 J f-7d4 en - voltage noise density - ,.8 nV!s"rt#$

)igure 8. &utput noise in 8% s sample period

3. Instrumentation amplifiers .nstrumentation amplifiers are used for amplification of differential signals typically from bridge sensors li/e strain gauges. &ffer of ultra low noise monolithic instrumentation amplifiers isnQt wide> it is only .FA %7 and less e5pensive .FA 87 from +.> both have en nV!s"rt#$. +#A+ offers similar +#A+ 2 % with wider bandwidth. AD-0,1 from AD offers full DC specification and lower input currents at e5pense of higher input current noise. 4. Practical recommendations for design of low noise amplifiers :very resistor is a noise source so it is necessary to /eep all resistors in a signal path 'and also signal source resistance( on very low level otherwise low noise performance of any amplifier will be wasted. 6roper supply decoupling 'omitted for clarity( is necessary. 6arallel combination of large electrolytic cap 03%u) with ,,u) tantalum and several %%n) ceramic in every supply with serial resistor 03- %% &hm is recommended. .f switching regulators are used> additional EC!*C filter is essential. A 6C4 with at least , layers and solid ground plane is strongly advised. :lectrostatic and magnetic shielding is also useful especially in noisy environment. )or DC amplifiers> a circuit must be also well shielded from air currents to eliminate the possibility of thermoelectric effects. :very connection of two different metals creates thermocouple with sensitivity - % uV!O> so temperature change only %.% deg.C gives %- %% nV> up to % times more then the noise of the described chopper amplifierR 5. eferences @ A DostSl MiTU> &peraVnU $esilovaVe> BF+* 6raha 1@,A Fational Bemiconductors> AF-,,, - Buper 9atched 4ipolar +ransistor 6air Bets Few Btandards for Drift and noise> http<!!www.national.com!an!AF!AF-,,,.pdfWpageG % @7A ?illiams Mim> *inear +echnology Application Fote 17 http<!!www.linear.com!pc!downloadDocument.doXnav.dG#%>C >C % %>D0 -, @0A ?illiams Mim> *inear +echnology 9aga$ine 9arch ,%%8 p.71> http<!!www.linear.com!ltmaga$ine!*+9agYV 8F Y9ar%8.pdf @2A http<!!www.linearsystems.com!datasheets!*BO 3%.pdf