Low‐Noise MEMS Microphone Readout Integrated Circuit Using Positive Feedback Signal Amplification

A low‐noise readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone is presented in this paper. A positive feedback signal amplification technique is applied at the front‐end of the ROIC to minimize the effect of the output buffer noise. A feedback scheme in the source follower prevents degradation of the noise performance caused by both the noise of the input reference current and the noise of the power supply. A voltage booster adopts noise filters to cut out the noise of the sensor bias voltage. The prototype ROIC achieves an input referred noise (A‐weighted) of −114.2 dBV over an audio bandwidth of 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a 136 μA current consumption. The chip is occupied with an active area of 0.35 mm