A novel design optimization framework for regulated cascode transimpedance amplifiers

This work exploits the well-known g_m over I_D methodology to develop a novel approach to optimize the design of regulated cascode amplifiers (RgC). The proposed design framework starts extracting a set of lookup tables describing the circuit's figures of merit as a function of the g_m over I_D ratio. Due to the feedback topology of the circuit, the performances, in terms of bandwidth, gain, and DC power consumption, exhibit a behavior that is counter-intuitive with respect to the typical tradeoffs suggested by the g_m/I_D theory. The proposed method is validated designing a RGC with the 0.13 μm IHP SiGe process. The performance of the proposed solution are obtained through post-layout simulations.