An autozeroing floating-gate amplifier

Abstract

We have developed a bandpass floating-gate amplifier that uses tunneling and pFET hot-electron injection to set its dc operating point adaptively. Because the hot-electron injection is an inherent part of the pFET's behavior, we obtain this adaptation with no additional circuitry. Because the gate currents are small, the circuit exhibits a high-pass characteristic with a cutoff frequency less than 1 Hz. The high-frequency cutoff is controlled electronically, as is done in continuous-time filters. We have derived analytical models that completely characterize the amplifier and that are in good agreement with experimental data for a wide range of operating conditions and input waveforms. This autozeroing floating-gate amplifier demonstrates how to use continuous-time floating-gate adaptation in amplifier design.