Wideband high dynamic range CMOS sharing the bias currents and adjusting V,, simultaneously.

In this new
VGA cell, a constant current bias scheme with a PMOS differential pair
variable gain amplifier for low voltage and
(M9 and M10) provides and shares bias currents to the core of the VGA
low power wireless applications cell through the current mirrors depending on the control voltage. In
this arrangement, the transistors M3 and M4 maintain constant bias
J.K. Kwon, K.D. Kim, W.C. Song and G.H. Cho currents irrespective of the control voltage Vc-,,, because the bias
currents of the two transistors remain constant equal to the
A high frequency CMOS variable gain amplifier (VGA) employing a
new gain stage cell is proposed. A design technique based on the source current (Zs3) of the PMOS pair. Such a biasing is effective to
proposed VGA enables enhancement of its operating frequency up to obtain optimal performance in relation to the load and subsequent
about 350MHz with a gain control range of 84dB. The power stages. However, for the input transistors MI and M2, the bias currents
consumption of the VGA implemented using 0.18 pm CMOS stan- as well as V,, are changed simultaneously according to the control
dard process is about 3 mA at 1.8 V supply voltage. voltage, i.e. the VDsof the input transistors M1 and M2 are varied in the
triode region according to the control voltage while sharing the drain
Introduction: With rapid progress in such fields as wireless commu- currents with those through the transistors M7 and M8 to obtain wide
nication systems, the variable gain amplifier (VGA) is considered to variable gain. When the level of control voltage VC-,,,, is higher than
be an indispensable key function for controlling the signal power that of a reference voltage VB, high gain is obtained with relatively
level. The trend towards fully integrated wireless transceivers [ 11 for small IIP3 but vice versa when Vc-,,, is lower than VB. With current
low power consumption makes it desirable to realise low voltage sharing, this triode mode operation is suitable for low supply voltage
VGAs in CMOS technology. A wideband/high dynamic range VGA design by avoiding DC voltage stack.
as IF amplifier is required in 3G mobile standards such as
CDMA2000 or WCDMA, which may be based on super-heterodyne v,,
architecture with its advantages of high selectivity and high sensitiv-
ity. Most conventional CMOS VGAs employ multistage architecture
and combine several gain stages with a gain control circuit to satisfy
the specifications of radio communications [I-31. These VGAs
compromise between bandwidth and gain control range; however,
they do not focus on low voltage operation. It is difficult for a VGA
cell with resistor load [2] to operate with comparable performance at
U , -uu
low voltage since there is no more headroom for output voltage swing.
In this Letter, a high frequency CMOS VGA employing a new gain
stage cell is presented. It is designed with a current sharing bias
scheme for high dynamic range and active load for wideband opera-
tion workable at low supply voltage such as under 1.8 V.

Proposed VGA circuit: Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the proposed vc-int.
VGA. It comprises an exponential function generator, a dB-linear gain U
controller and a gain stage block with output buffer. To obtain wide
dynamic range, three stages with identical structure are cascaded and
controlled externally.

Fig. 2 Proposed VGA cell

I , I VC int

60 30

40- - 20
I 6XPVGe". I ----U,,
__--___----
_---/---
20- - 10
% E
m
._
c-
m
m
0- - 0 z-
n
-
-20 - -10

gain controller 40 - -20

Fig. 1 Block diagram of proposed VGA - s d , , , , , , , , , , 1-30
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
A new VGA cell is proposed as shown in Fig. 2. It has several control voltage(Vc), V
features: (i) cascode structure for low distortion and wideband, (ii) Fig. 3 Gain variations and UP3 against gain control voltage (Vc)
constant current bias scheme for good linearity and high dynamic
range, (iii) active load for wideband and low supply voltage operation.
To achieve wide dynamic range, ITP3 is made to be large enough near Active load in this new VGA cell is obtained by combining two
the low gain range. To achieve this, input transistors MI and M2 are transistors, one current source and one capacitor. The nMOS transistor
made to operate in the triode region when the control voltage Vc-i,t.is MI5 with current source I,, plays a role in providing low VDs on M13
low, which is similar to the case of Song's VGA [2]. However in this to realise low voltage operation in a wideband. The capacitor C, works I

case, wide dynamic range is obtained at low supply voltage by both on boosting upper high frequency in relation to the transconductance of

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 75th May 2003 \'d. 39 No. 70 759

Authorized licensed use limited to: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WARANGAL. Downloaded on November 2, 2008 at 07:26 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
M15. In the high frequency region near the -3 dB frequency of the References
gain, the output impedance of VGA cell can be approximated as 1 GUO, C., et al.: ‘A fully integrated 900-MHz CMOS wireless receiver with
on-chip RF and IF filters and 79-dB image rejection’, I E E E l Solid-Slate
z,2 CI
(1) Circuits, 2002, 37, pp. 1084-1089
gm-MI3 ’ gm-MlS 2 SONG, w.C., OH, C.J., CHO, G.H., and JUNG, H.B.: ‘High frequency/high
dynamic range CMOS VGA’, Electron. Lett., 2000, 36, (13),
It shows that this active load effectively acts like an inductive load in the
pp. 1096-1098
high frequency region. The effective inductance (Le,) of the active load 3 YAMAJI, T.,et al.: ‘A temperature-stable CMOS variable-gain amplifier
forms a parallel resonance circuit associated with parasitic capacitance with 80-dB linearity controlled gain range’, IEEE 1 Solid-state Circuits,
(C,) at the output node. Thus by adjusting the size of capacitor CI, it is 2002,37, pp. 553-558
possible to extend -3 dB frequency to a somewhat higher region by
boosting the gain at high frequency.

44 .

........ ........ Comment

3a
Simple circuit model of small loop antenna
i. 3d€ including observable environmental effects
i B.A. Austin
30
frequency, MHz Moment method simulations show that the radiation efficiency of an
.,., electrically small loop antenna is in excellent agreement with long
established analytical formulations. In addition, there is very good
agreement with experimental data obtained by means of the Wheeler
40- -- . I
cap method. These results are in contrast to recently published claims
regarding the performance of such antennas.
20 -
m Introduction: The approach adopted in [I] appears to be entirely
U
._
i 0-
empirical and is not helped by unfortunate typographical errors. As a
ma result, the conclusions reached regarding the characteristics of elec-
trically small loop antennas appear to be flawed. The subject has been
-20 - examined over many years but no reference is made to the extensive
literature, of which just some is listed here [2-51. This previous work
4 0- is of particular importance since these antennas are constrained in
their performance by fundamental limitations and thus they constitute
a special class of radiating structure characterised, generally, by low
-- . radiation efficiency and narrow bandwidth [6, 71. The former is of
10 100 1000
special significance, particularly when electrically small loops are to
frequency, MHz be used for transmission. Radiation efficiency is a function of the
electrical dimensions of the loop, the material of which ii is
Fig. 4 Frequency characteristics of whole VGA
constructed, the impedance matching network to which it is connected
and the environment in which it operates. All are frequency-depen-
VGA implementation and measurement: The VGA is fabricated using dent. Since the intrinsic conductor loss of such an antenna is usually
0.18 pm CMOS technology. Its core area is 410 x 450 pm. It larger than its radiation resistance the intrinsic efficiency of the
consumes 3 mA at 1.8 V supply voltage. Experimental results are antenna is already compromised. Any additional losses as a result
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The gain in dB has a linear function of of coupling to its environment will only serve to reduce the radiaiion
external control voltage (Vc) with a range of 84 dB (-42 to +42 dB). efficiency still further. To compound the problem its accurate
It meets the requirement of the CDMA receiver [3]. IIP3 varies from measurement is by no means straightforward [8]. Therefore, the
-22 dBm at +42 dB (Vc= 1.8 V) to +20 dBm at -42 dB(V,= opening paragraph of [I] that ‘over the HF 1.7-30 MHz frequency
0.0 V). This result is greater than those of others reported previously range loops with diameters of 0.8-1.2 m can have radiation efficiency
[2, 31, while having better linearity with smaller bias current. Fig. 4 of no worse than 90%’ is contested. No evidence is provided to justify
shows the bandwidth up to 350MHz. There is an improvement of this claim for an antenna, not constructed of superconducting mate-
-3 dB bandwidth over 3 1% owing to the gain boosting technique. rial, the major dimension of which is less than 1% of the wavelength
at that lower frequency limit.
Conclusion: A new CMOS VGA cell is proposed to achieve both
high dynamic range and wideband at low supply voltage. A current Loop current modes: In [l], and in previous work, the authors refer to
sharing bias scheme with constant current improves the dynamic fact that a second, or folded dipole, current mode also exists along
range and linearity. Wideband operation is also achieved using active with the conventional, uniform in-phase current around the loop.
load with gain boosting. The suggested VGA is considered to be Hence one would expect to find the antenna producing two modes of
suitable for an IF amplifier in highly integrated radio transceivers. radiation, each with its own characteristics. This is indeed true and
has long been known, e.g. King [4] citing both [3] and [9]. Thus,
0 IEE 2003 24 March 2003 when a single-turn perfectly conducting loop of radius b and of
Electronics Letters Online No: 20030516 conductor radius a is in free space, and its perimeter is less than about
DOI: 1O.I049/el:200305I6 &/3, we find, following King, that the radiation resistance due to the
uniform current component is given by:
J.K. Kwon, K.D. Kim, W.C. Song and G.H. Cho (Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Korea Advanced nCoko4b4
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 371-1, Kusong-dong, Ro = ~

6
Yusong-ku, Taejon 305-701, Korea)
where CO = J ( ~ , / E , ) E 12077 51 and ko = 277/&. If we write A = nb2 this
E-mail: jkkwon@etri.re.kr
is more readily recognised as Ro = 3 1 171A2/& a well-known result
K.D. Kim: Also at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and that is referred to as the ‘traditional book formula’ in [I]. King’s
Technology (KAIST), Republic of Korea ETRI, Republic of Korea analysis [4, 51 showed, in addition, that the dipole-mode current yields a
W.C. Song: Also with Analog Chips Inc., Republic of Korea radiation resistance equal to:

760 ELECTRONICS LE77ERS 15th May2003 Vol. 39 No. IO