A Glimpse of the History of Analog ICs: A Tale of Amplifiers, Data Converters, and Sensor Interfaces

Abstract

Probably the most distinct divide in electronic circuits is that between digital and linear (analog) circuits. Using vacuum tubes; later, transistors; and then ICs, circuits based on switching (binary and digital signals) and amplification (analog signals) have always been at the heart of electronic systems. Even though electronics are making our world more digital, the real world remains stubbornly analog. Circuits for interfacing sensors and driving actuators, amplifying (weak) analog signals, manipulating these signals through analog signal processing, and, finally, converting them into the digital domain and vice versa were, are, and will remain fundamental research and development fields in circuit design. Due to the wide scope of the field, ranging from RF circuits, power management, reference generation, filter design, and oscillators to comparators and other nonlinear circuits, just to name a few, it is clear that a short review article cannot possibly mention all topics, let alone cover them all. So, choices were made. We begin this article with amplifiers, which are one of the critical analog building blocks that often determine system performance. We briefly review the early days of IC-based amplifiers and some outstanding circuit innovations for amplifier design. Thereafter, we highlight the history and state of the art of ADCs, their architectures, and efficiency improvements over four decades. Finally, we review sensor interfaces, first with a general focus on their history and the state of the art of various sensor modalities and, second, with a special focus on biomedical interface circuits for biopotential recording in the context of neural amplifiers. With this variety of topics, we intend to highlight the importance of the transistor and analog ICs to the world as we know it today.