中国邮电高校学报(英文) ›› 2019, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (1): 59-64.doi: 10.19682/j.cnki.1005-8885.2019.0006

• Integrated Circuit Design • 上一篇    下一篇

Wideband CMOS variable gain amplifier with decibel-linear gain control characteristic

敦书波,李斌,石国超,杨格亮   

  1. 中国电子科技集团公司第五十四研究所
  • 收稿日期:2018-05-31 修回日期:2018-12-17 出版日期:2019-02-26 发布日期:2019-02-27
  • 通讯作者: 李斌 E-mail:libin@cti.ac.cn
  • 基金资助:
    河北省自然科学基金和重点基础研究专项

Wideband CMOS variable gain amplifier with decibel-linear gain control characteristic

  • Received:2018-05-31 Revised:2018-12-17 Online:2019-02-26 Published:2019-02-27
  • Contact: Bin Li E-mail:libin@cti.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Natural Science Foundation and Special Major Basic Research Program of Hebei Province

摘要: This paper presents a wideband variable gain amplifier (VGA) featuring a decibel-linear gain control characteristic. The decibel-linear gain control function is realized using two VGA cells and a control signal converter. The bandwidth is extended using cascode architecture together with active inductive load. To achieve small parasitic and low area, direct current (DC) coupling is adopted in the circuit while a DC offset cancellation circuit (DCOC) is introduced to cancel the DC offset. Fabricated in a 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, the chip occupies an area of 0.53 mm × 0.48 mm (including pads) and draws a total current of 9 mA from a 1.8 V supply. The measurement results show that the gain of the VGA varies from -40 dB to 18 dB while the control voltage varies from 0 to 1.8 V, resulting in a total gain control range of 58 dB. The 3 dB bandwidth of the VGA is larger than 260 MHz at maximum gain.

关键词: variable gain amplifier, exponential gain control, DC offset cancellation, wideband

Abstract: This paper presents a wideband variable gain amplifier (VGA) featuring a decibel-linear gain control characteristic. The decibel-linear gain control function is realized using two VGA cells and a control signal converter. The bandwidth is extended using cascode architecture together with active inductive load. To achieve small parasitic and low area, direct current (DC) coupling is adopted in the circuit while a DC offset cancellation circuit (DCOC) is introduced to cancel the DC offset. Fabricated in a 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, the chip occupies an area of 0.53 mm × 0.48 mm (including pads) and draws a total current of 9 mA from a 1.8 V supply. The measurement results show that the gain of the VGA varies from -40 dB to 18 dB while the control voltage varies from 0 to 1.8 V, resulting in a total gain control range of 58 dB. The 3 dB bandwidth of the VGA is larger than 260 MHz at maximum gain.

Key words: variable gain amplifier, exponential gain control, DC offset cancellation, wideband