Tanh cascode cell amplifier - an arbitrary transfer characteristics amplifier

An arbitrary transfer characteristic (TC) amplifier, called the tanh cascode cell (TCC) amplifier, is reported. This novel amplifier is capable of synthesising an arbitrary TC including the ideal rectifier transfer characteristic, which is highly desirable for analogue circuits such as power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, mixers, op-amps, instrumentation amplifiers etc. The flexible transfer characteristic, wide dynamic range and high linearity capability of the TCC amplifier are demonstrated with a 16-cell MOSFET prototype.