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98 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009
Fig. 2. Two popular op-amp noise models with (a) four and (b) three equivalent input noise sources. Generally, noise generators are correlated one to the other.
and ground and between the inverting input and ground and parameters. The system has four outputs , which corre-
is the voltage noise source in series with one or the other input spond to the outputs of voltage amplifiers . The op-amp
terminal. By assuming that and of the previous model under test (OA4) works in a transimpedance amplifier config-
are in series through the differential op-amp input impedance, uration with gain . Voltage amplifiers and are
we have . Moreover, under the hypothesis that connected to the output of while and are connected
and are uncorrelated, the power spectral density (PSD) to its noninverting input. Voltage amplifier gains must be equal
of is . Note that, in the particular case in one to the other. Moreover, the particular implementation of am-
which the noninverting input terminal is connected to ground, plifiers , , and is not important. They are modeled with
the op-amp is reduced to a single input port device, and the the classical two-port noise model. Differently from
simple model of Fig. 1 applies. In the noise model of the previous voltage amplifiers, is specifically an op-amp
Fig. 2(b), we have three noise generators, and hence, we can (OA3)-based voltage amplifier. Outputs are the inputs
compute three different cross-correlation coefficients of a spectrum analyzer which performs cross correlations among
the four channels. We will refer the output values with respect to
the input of the voltage amplifiers in order to render the discus-
sion independent on the particular choice of their gains. The
proposed method consists of three measurement steps.
In the first measurement step, we use the circuit configuration
shown in Fig. 3. The input-referred outputs are
(1)
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GIUSI et al.: FULL MODEL AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NOISE IN OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER 99
(8)
(9)
(10)
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100 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009
Fig. 6. OP27 current noise extracted with the proposed method. It is apparent
p
that current noise generators of the two inputs are equal. The flat value is 0.6
pA= Hz and the corner frequency is about 63 Hz (Table I). These values well
agree with data reported on the OP27 data sheet.
p
Fig. 5. OP27 voltage noise extracted with the proposed method. The flat value
is 3 nV= Hz and the corner frequency is about 2.25 Hz (Table I). These values
well agree with data reported on the OP27 data sheet.
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GIUSI et al.: FULL MODEL AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NOISE IN OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER 101
TABLE I
EXTRACTED NOISE PARAMETERS BY FITTING THE SPECTRA OF FIGS. 5–8
WITH THE LAW A=f +
N . VOLTAGE NOISE AND CURRENT NOISE
IN THE FLAT PART OF THE SPECTRUM AGREE WELL WITH DATA
REPORTED ON THE OP27 DATASHEET
Fig. 10. Measured and expected PSDs at the output of the test circuit as shown
in Fig. 9. Expected PSD well agree with the measured data. In addition, it is
shown the PSD neglecting the cross-correlation coefficients. An error of about
40% is calculated in the whole frequency range.
Fig. 9. Test circuit used for the validation of the proposed method. (13)
From (13), it is evident that cross-correlation contribution de-
pends on the and values. In this example, k ,
The effect of this capacitance is that of reducing the measure-
M , and is equal to their parallel. Notice that this
ment bandwidth to a few kilohertz. For this reason, the sampling
is just the case of a differential amplifier configuration. In par-
frequency has been chosen equal to 2 kHz, and the spectra are
ticular, increases the overall noise while lowers it. In this
shown only until 1 kHz. Large variance in correlation coeffi-
example, the contribution is very low due the very low
cients (Figs. 7 and 8) is due to the cross-correlation operation
value. In addition, the voltage-noise contribution is negligible,
which is intrinsically very slow in obtaining convergence. Mea-
so that (13) can be written as
surement time depends on the desired variance in the spectra.
Useful information can be obtained after some hours of mea-
surement for each step. (14)
Fig. 10 shows the measured output PSD and the expected
V. VALIDATION OF THE METHOD
PSD according to (13). Noise parameters in (13) are the same
In order to validate the proposed method, we compared noise as calculated in the measurements reported in the previous sec-
measurements obtained in the test circuit shown in Fig. 9 with tions. Measured and extracted PSD perfectly coincide. In addi-
the results expected by using the noise parameters extracted in tion, shown in Fig. 10 is the PSD when one neglects the
the previous section on the same physical op-amp. To highlight contribution. It can be easily shown from (14) that the max-
the usefulness of the proposed procedure, we considered a case imum error in neglecting corresponds to the case in which
in which the always neglected parameter remarkably im- which was just our particular choice. The measured
pacts the noise behavior of the circuit. The test circuit consists of error in the whole frequency range is about 40%. This experi-
the general topology for op-amp-based amplifiers. Indeed, it can mental result clearly indicates that it is not always licit to discard
be reduced to a transimpedance amplifier , in noise analysis of op-amp-based circuits.
to a voltage amplifier , or to a differential amplifier in
which case is the parallel between and . The output VI. CONCLUSION
voltage referred at the op-amp input is We proposed a novel approach to fully characterize noise in
op-amp. The method allows the extraction not only of the spectra
(11) of the EICN and EIVN generators but also of their cross-corre-
lation coefficients, which are routinely neglected in noise anal-
where is the parallel between and and and ysis of op-amps. As an example of the application of the method,
are the thermal noise coming from and , respectively.
we extracted all noise parameters of the low-noise bipolar-input
The PSD is
op-amp OP27. We showed how the knowledge of the cross-cor-
relation coefficients is necessary to perfectly predict the noise be-
havior of op-amp-based circuits. In particular, we reported a case
in which neglecting the cross-correlation coefficient between
(12) the two EICN generators leads to an error of about 40%.
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102 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009
Authorized licensed use limited to: Amal Jyothi College of Engineering. Downloaded on July 07,2010 at 13:56:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.