Harnessing the VO2 Phase Transition for Automatic Gain Control in Transimpedance Amplifiers
- 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Haifa Israel
- 2Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Haifa Israel
Abstract
Transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) convert input currents into output voltages in sensor electronics. Conventional TIAs utilize fixed‐gain resistors, which saturate under high input currents, resulting in undesirable recovery times. To overcome this, volatile resistive switching devices emerge as a promising alternative, offering intrinsic automatic gain control (AGC). Among these, vanadium dioxide (VO2) devices stand out for their reversible insulator–metal transition (IMT), producing abrupt, energy‐efficient resistance changes near the transition temperature (TC ≈ 67°C). In this work, switching devices were fabricated by sputtering a VO2 thin film and patterning ∼200 nm electrode gaps. Before TIA integration, the switching dynamics were characterized under electrical pulse excitation. Slightly exceeding the temperature‐dependent IMT threshold voltage yields fast, reproducible switching. Pump–probe measurements show that operating well below TC suppresses short‐term memory effects linked to the stochastic first‐order transition. Leveraging this, a VO2‐based TIA was developed, demonstrating variable gain and AGC functionality. Furthermore, applying a constant DC current bias during switching induced self‐sustained oscillations (∼1.5 pJ per oscillation) of up to ∼60 MHz, consistent with the VO2 thermal timescale. Overall, these results provide a detailed understanding of VO2 switching dynamics and demonstrate their potential for enabling compact, energy‐efficient AGC in high‐speed TIAs for advanced sensing.
Related
- Harnessing Latent Leaving Groups to Control the Divergent Synthesis of Unsymmetric and Symmetric Dienes
- Harnessing Electrostructural Bistability to Control Defects in Polarizable Materials
- Gain-Enhancement Strategy for C-Band Polymer Waveguide Amplifiers via Dual-Wavelength Pumping
- Stabilizing in-transition phases of superlattices through shape control of silver nanocrystals
- Designing Cure Kinetics in Polyester Networks: Tuning Initiator Content to Control Gelation and Glass-Transition Development
BibTeX
@article{gildor2026harnessing,
title = {{Harnessing the VO2 Phase Transition for Automatic Gain Control in Transimpedance Amplifiers}},
author = {Amir Gildor and Sariel Hodisan and Shahar Kvatinsky and Yoav Kalcheim},
journal = {Advanced Electronic Materials},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/aelm.70604},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.70604},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Harnessing the VO2 Phase Transition for Automatic Gain Control in Transimpedance Amplifiers
AU - Amir Gildor
AU - Sariel Hodisan
AU - Shahar Kvatinsky
AU - Yoav Kalcheim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Advanced Electronic Materials
DO - 10.1002/aelm.70604
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.70604
AB - Transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) convert input currents into output voltages in sensor electronics. Conventional TIAs utilize fixed‐gain resistors, which saturate under high input currents, resulting in undesirable recovery times. To overcome this, volatile resistive switching devices emerge as a promising alternative, offering intrinsic automatic gain control (AGC). Among these, vanadium dioxide (VO2) devices stand out for their reversible insulator–metal transition (IMT), producing abrupt, energy‐efficient resistance changes near the transition temperature (TC ≈ 67°C). In this work, switching devices were fabricated by sputtering a VO2 thin film and patterning ∼200 nm electrode gaps. Before TIA integration, the switching dynamics were characterized under electrical pulse excitation. Slightly exceeding the temperature‐dependent IMT threshold voltage yields fast, reproducible switching. Pump–probe measurements show that operating well below TC suppresses short‐term memory effects linked to the stochastic first‐order transition. Leveraging this, a VO2‐based TIA was developed, demonstrating variable gain and AGC functionality. Furthermore, applying a constant DC current bias during switching induced self‐sustained oscillations (∼1.5 pJ per oscillation) of up to ∼60 MHz, consistent with the VO2 thermal timescale. Overall, these results provide a detailed understanding of VO2 switching dynamics and demonstrate their potential for enabling compact, energy‐efficient AGC in high‐speed TIAs for advanced sensing.
SN - 2199-160X
ER -