On Sun, 16 Nov 2014 08:14:11 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

rickman wrote:
On 11/4/2014 6:29 PM, rickman wrote:
I am working on a project for receiving a very narrow bandwidth signal
at 60 kHz. One of the design goals is to keep the power consumption to
an absolute minimum. I'm trying to figure out how to run a
pre-amplifier on less than 100 uW. So far I have found nothing. Any
suggestions?

I had found one op amp that might get me in the ballpark of power
consumption and I did some spice simulation on it. The current ends up
being in the 50 uA range which is more than I would like and the gain is
only around 100 before the bandwidth limits are felt which is less than
I would like. At 50 uA there is not the power to add a second stage.

Instead I was looking at some JFETs and found one I like, BF862 made by
NXP. I can construct a stage that gives a gain of 40 dB at only a
handful of uA. But when I try to cascade a second stage I have trouble.

The input capacitance is stated in the data sheet to be in the range of
10 pF. If I add a 10 pF cap to the output of the first stage I get
close to 40 dB of gain at the frequency of interest, 60 kHz. But when a
second stage is added with capacitive coupling the gain of the first
stage drops to 19 dB at 60 kHz while maintaining 40 dB at 1 kHz.


You need a FET with an input capacitance an order of magnitude lower.
Got to run now and can't find it so quickly but ask John Larkin. He
suggested a FET a while ago that is IIRC under 1pF.

NE3509 maybe... a bit under 1 pF. Phemts have high 1/f noise corners,
so I don't know how well they might work at 60 KHz and low current.
Phil probably has lf noise data on a Skyworks part.

The key to low-noise, low-power gain in narrowband amps is proper
input network tuning. A tuned circuit makes voltage gain for zero
power consumption. Ditto interstage coupling. This problem may not
actually need a super-low-capacitance part.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing laser drivers and controllers

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com