A Wide Dynamic Range Variable Gain Amplifier with Enhanced IP1 dB and Temperature Compensation

Hisayasu SATO
Takaya MARUYAMA
Toshimasa MATSUOKA
Kenji TANIGUCHI

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E94-C    No.8    pp.1311-1319
Publication Date: 2011/08/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1587/transele.E94.C.1311
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Integrated Electronics
Keyword: 
VGA,  1 dB compression point,  noise figure,  wireless,  transceiver,  IIP3,  

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Summary: 
This paper presents the design consideration of a four-stage variable gain amplifier (VGA) with a wide dynamic range for receivers. The VGA uses parallel amplifiers for the first and second amplifiers in order to improve the input third-order intercept point (IIP3) in the low gain region. To investigate the behavior of the VGA, the gain and linearity analyses are newly derived for the parallel amplifiers, and are compared with the measured results. In addition, the principle of the temperature compensation is described. The gain control range of 110 dB, the IP1 dB of -11 dBm, and noise figure (NF) of 5.1 dB were measured using a 0.5 µm 26 GHz fT BiCMOS process.