A high sensitive 66 dB linear dynamic range receiver for 3-D laser radar

This study presents a CMOS receiver chip realized in 0.18 μm standard CMOS technology and intended for high precision 3-D laser radar. The chip includes an adjustable gain transimpedance pre-amplifier, a post-amplifier and two timing comparators. An additional feedback is employed in the regulated cascode transimpedance amplifier to decrease the input impedance, and a variable gain transimpedance amplifier controlled by digital switches and analog multiplexer is utilized to realize four gain modes, extending the input dynamic range. The measurement shows that the highest transimpedance of the channel is 50 k $\Omega$, the uncompensated walk error is 1.44 ns in a wide linear dynamic range of 66 dB (1:2000), and the input referred noise current is 2.3 pA/$\sqrt{Hz}$ (rms), resulting in a very low detectable input current of 1 μA with SNR = 5. (paper)