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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
94 Downloads (Pure)

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)260-263
Number of pages4
JournalIEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters
Volume5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 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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