Fundamentals of Analog VLSI Design
Exercise 8 - Problem

Design of the Simple OTA

Author

Christian Enz (christian.enz@epfl.ch)

Published

12.11.2025

Figure 1: Schematic of the simple differential OTA.

In this exercise we want to design the simple OTA of Figure 1 for the specifications given in Table 1 for a 180nm generic bulk CMOS process. The physical parameters are given in Table 2, the global process parameters in Table 3 and finally the MOSFET parameters in Table 4.

Reuse the analysis given in the lecture notes and use the equations for the design. The difference with the example given in the lecture notes, is the value of the gain-bandwidth product \(GBW\) which is ten times higher than the value in the example. This makes the design a bit more tricky because more sensitive to parasitic capacitances.

Follow the design flow proposed below:

Table 1: OTA specifications.
Specification Symbol Value Unit
Minimum DC gain \(A_{{dc}}\) 60 \(dB\)
Minimum gain-bandwidth product \(GBW\) 10 \(MHz\)
Load capacitance \(C_L\) 0.1 \(pF\)
Maximum input-referred offset voltage \(V_{{os,max}}\) 4 \(mV\)
Table 2: Physical parameters
Parameter Value Unit
\(T\) 300 \(K\)
\(U_T\) 25.875 \(mV\)
Table 3: Global process parameters
Parameter Value Unit
\(V_{DD}\) 1.8 \(V\)
\(C_{ox}\) 8.443 \(\frac{fF}{\mu m^2}\)
\(W_{min}\) 200 \(nm\)
\(L_{min}\) 180 \(nm\)
Table 4: Transistor process parameters
Parameter NMOS PMOS Unit
sEKV parameters
\(n\) 1.27 1.31 -
\(I_{{spec\Box}}\) 715 173 \(nA\)
\(V_{{T0}}\) 0.455 0.445 \(V\)
\(L_{{sat}}\) 26 36 \(nm\)
\(\lambda\) 20 20 \(\frac{{V}}{{\mu m}}\)
Overlap capacitances parameters
\(C_{{GDo}}\) 0.366 0.329 \(\frac{{fF}}{{\mu m}}\)
\(C_{{GSo}}\) 0.366 0.329 \(\frac{{fF}}{{\mu m}}\)
\(C_{{GBo}}\) 0 0 \(\frac{{fF}}{{\mu m}}\)
Junction capacitances parameters
\(C_J\) 1 1.121 \(\frac{{fF}}{{\mu m^2}}\)
\(C_{{JSW}}\) 0.2 0.248 \(\frac{{fF}}{{\mu m}}\)
Flicker noise parameters
\(K_F\) 8.1e-24 6.8e-23 \(J\)
\(AF\) 1 1 -
\(\rho\) 0.05794 0.4828 \(\frac{{V \cdot m^2}}{{A \cdot s}}\)
Matching parameters
\(A_{{VT}}\) 5 5 \(mV \cdot \mu m\)
\(A_{{\beta}}\) 1 1 \(\% \cdot \mu m\)
Source and drain sheet resistance parameter
\(R_{{sh}}\) 600 2386 \(\frac{{\Omega}}{{\mu m}}\)
Width and length parameters
\(\Delta W\) 39 54 \(\,nm\)
\(\Delta L\) -76 -72 \(\,nm\)