10MHz/77dB dynamic range CMOS linear-in-dB variable gain amplifiers

CMOS variable gain amplifier (VGA) IC designs for the structure monitoring systems of the telemetries were developed. A three stage cascaded VGA using a differential amplifier and a linear-in-dB controller is presented. A proposed VGA is a modified version of a conventional VGA such that the gain is controlled in a linear-in-dB fashion through the current ratio. The proposed VGA circuit introduced in this paper has a dynamic range of 77 dB with 1.5 dB gain steps. It also achieved a gain error of less than 1.5 dB over 77 dB gain range. The VGA can operate up to 10MHz dissipating 13.8 mW from a single 1.8 V supply. The core area of the VGA fabricated in a Magnachip standard CMOS process was about . According to measurement results, we can verify that the proposed method is reasonable with regard to the enhancement of dynamic range and the better linear-in-dB characteristics.