Scaling for Optimum Dynamic Range and Noise-Power Tradeoff: A Review of Analog Circuit Design Techniques

Due to the many nonideal effects present in analog integrated circuits, the analog designer's task is more an art than straightforward engineering. In this article, two particular aspects of the design process are treated: the optimization of the DR and the power-SNR tradeoff. The DR is defined as the ratio of the maximum and minimum signal powers S
_max
/S
_min
. Here, S may be a voltage, current, or charge signal. In this article, we discuss only voltage signals and noises.