Product category: Analogue and Mixed Signal ICs
News Release from: National Semiconductor
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 05 October 2005
BiCMOS technology improves operational
amplifiers
A proprietary BiCMOS analogue process technology from National Semiconductor improves the performance of the company's next-generation precision and low-power, low-voltage operational amplifiers.
A proprietary BiCMOS analogue process technology from National Semiconductor dramatically improves the performance of the company's next-generation precision and low-power, low-voltage operational amplifiers This process sets new amplifier industry standards for lower power consumption and noise levels in portable handheld devices and medical, industrial and automotive applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 5 Jan 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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National developed the VIP50 vertically integrated PNP (VIP) process technology specifically for operational amplifier applications that span a supply voltage range of 0.9 to 12V.
The first six products manufactured on the VIP50 process offer better power efficiency, lower noise levels and increased precision than National's previous-generation integrated circuits and competitive products.
These improvements allow design engineers to develop higher-performance fuel-injection and transmission systems, as well as medical instrumentation and diagnostic tools.
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For example, the 12MHz, unity-gain bandwidth LMV651 amplifier provides 90% power savings over major competitive offerings in SOT and SC70 packages.
"Through decreased power consumption, size and more accurate performance, National's innovative process technology enables a new generation of amplifier products that allow our customers to create better precision and portable products", said Suneil Parulekar, Senior Vice President of National's Signal-Path Division.
"National has established a track record of building amplifiers that incorporate the benefits of these new processes".
"We offer more than 50 products in our high-speed VIP10 portfolio and will continue that tradition with the VIP50 products".
National introduced six products in a related announcement.
They are two precision operational amplifiers, the LMP7711 and the LMP7701; one low-noise amplifier, the LMV791; one low-power, high-bandwidth operational amplifier, the LMV651; and two sub-1uA ICs, the LPV511 operational amplifier and the LPV7215 comparator.
The VIP50 process technology is a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) BiCMOS process with trimmable, highly accurate thin-film resistors which offers a number of advantages over more conventional bipolar or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes.
All the VIP50 transistor elements are implemented on an SOI wafer with trench isolation, minimising parasitic capacitances and greatly improving bandwidth-to-power ratios.
The advanced isolation process allows transistors to condition signal voltages beyond the supply rails.
SOI also eliminates the effects of leakage currents that limit performance at the extremely high temperatures used in a number of industrial and automotive applications.
Through the incorporation of high-speed vertical NPN and PNP transistors, the bipolar and CMOS analogue-specific transistors of the VIP50 process reduce noise levels necessary for precision analogue signal conditioning and power consumption.
The addition of vertical PNPs enables the implementation of well-balanced amplifier output stages with a superior bandwidth-to-power ratio.
The VIP50 bipolar transistors are complemented by analogue-grade, 0.5um, minimum gate-length, MOS transistors that are optimised for matching accuracy, as well as low flicker noise characteristics.
Both features are critical in applications where MOS transistors are an integral part of the signal path.
The MOS module also enables the integration of considerable amounts of mixed-signal or digital electronics.
The VIP50 process' highly stable, low-temperature coefficient thin-film resistors have matching accuracy, surpassing the precision specifications of many commercially available resistor pairs.
The performance levels of circuits designed with products based on VIP50 technology can be further enhanced by using wafer-level trim.
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