A 0.96-mW dB-Linear Variable Gain Amplifier With 0.4-dB Linearity Error Over a 62.4-dB Gain Tuning Range

Liying Cai; Zhenghao Lu; Zhong Tang; Xiaopeng Yu

doi:10.1109/LSSC.2022.3213055

A 0.96-mW dB-Linear Variable Gain Amplifier With 0.4-dB Linearity Error Over a 62.4-dB Gain Tuning Range

Liying Cai, Zhenghao Lu^*, Zhong Tang, Xiaopeng Yu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Electronic Instrumentation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

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Abstract

This letter presents a low-power dB-linear variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a small linear-in-dB error over a wide gain tuning range. An exponential current ratio is realized in the linear-in-dB control circuit based on the subthreshold I-V characteristic. The VGA is built with subthreshold common-gate transistors as current steering, accurately replicating the exponential current ratio and forming a tunable gain. Implemented in 55-nm CMOS technology, the proposed VGA occupies a compact active area of 0.011 mm2 excluding the buffer. It achieves a linear-in-dB error of 0.4 dB over a gain tuning range of 62.4 dB, corresponding to the state-of-the-art relative error of 0.6%. The proposed design shows constant 80-MHz bandwidth with a power consumption of 0.96 mW.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	260-263
Number of pages	4
Journal	IEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters
Volume	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LSSC.2022.3213055
Publication status	Published - 2022

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

Gain tuning range
linear-in-dB
low error
low power
variable gain amplifier (VGA)

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10.1109/LSSC.2022.3213055

A_0.96-mW_dB-Linear_Variable_Gain_Amplifier_With_0.4-dB_Linearity_Error_Over_a_62.4-dB_Gain_Tuning_RangeFinal published version, 2.63 MB

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title = "A 0.96-mW dB-Linear Variable Gain Amplifier With 0.4-dB Linearity Error Over a 62.4-dB Gain Tuning Range",

abstract = "This letter presents a low-power dB-linear variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a small linear-in-dB error over a wide gain tuning range. An exponential current ratio is realized in the linear-in-dB control circuit based on the subthreshold I-V characteristic. The VGA is built with subthreshold common-gate transistors as current steering, accurately replicating the exponential current ratio and forming a tunable gain. Implemented in 55-nm CMOS technology, the proposed VGA occupies a compact active area of 0.011 mm2 excluding the buffer. It achieves a linear-in-dB error of 0.4 dB over a gain tuning range of 62.4 dB, corresponding to the state-of-the-art relative error of 0.6%. The proposed design shows constant 80-MHz bandwidth with a power consumption of 0.96 mW. ",

keywords = "Gain tuning range, linear-in-dB, low error, low power, variable gain amplifier (VGA)",

author = "Liying Cai and Zhenghao Lu and Zhong Tang and Xiaopeng Yu",

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year = "2022",

doi = "10.1109/LSSC.2022.3213055",

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AU - Lu, Zhenghao

AU - Tang, Zhong

AU - Yu, Xiaopeng

N1 - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

PY - 2022

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N2 - This letter presents a low-power dB-linear variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a small linear-in-dB error over a wide gain tuning range. An exponential current ratio is realized in the linear-in-dB control circuit based on the subthreshold I-V characteristic. The VGA is built with subthreshold common-gate transistors as current steering, accurately replicating the exponential current ratio and forming a tunable gain. Implemented in 55-nm CMOS technology, the proposed VGA occupies a compact active area of 0.011 mm2 excluding the buffer. It achieves a linear-in-dB error of 0.4 dB over a gain tuning range of 62.4 dB, corresponding to the state-of-the-art relative error of 0.6%. The proposed design shows constant 80-MHz bandwidth with a power consumption of 0.96 mW.

AB - This letter presents a low-power dB-linear variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a small linear-in-dB error over a wide gain tuning range. An exponential current ratio is realized in the linear-in-dB control circuit based on the subthreshold I-V characteristic. The VGA is built with subthreshold common-gate transistors as current steering, accurately replicating the exponential current ratio and forming a tunable gain. Implemented in 55-nm CMOS technology, the proposed VGA occupies a compact active area of 0.011 mm2 excluding the buffer. It achieves a linear-in-dB error of 0.4 dB over a gain tuning range of 62.4 dB, corresponding to the state-of-the-art relative error of 0.6%. The proposed design shows constant 80-MHz bandwidth with a power consumption of 0.96 mW.

KW - Gain tuning range

KW - linear-in-dB

KW - low error

KW - low power

KW - variable gain amplifier (VGA)

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ER -

A 0.96-mW dB-Linear Variable Gain Amplifier With 0.4-dB Linearity Error Over a 62.4-dB Gain Tuning Range

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Keywords

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