Proceedings of the 36th European Microwave Conference

Wideband VGAs Using a CMOS Transconductor in Triode region

Hui Dong Lee, Kyung Ai Lee, and Songcheol Hong
Dept. EECS, KAIST 373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea

Abstract Wideband variable gain amplifiers (VGAs)

fabricated using 0.18 gm CMOS process are presented. A
scheme with a CMOS triode transconductor is proposed to
achieve linear-in-dB characteristics of VGAs for ultra
wideband (UWB) systems. The implemented transmitter
(TX) VGA shows a highly linear gain range of 28.4 dB (7 dB
to -21.4 dB) and a bandwidth of 1200 MHz, while drawing
only 2.7 mA from a 1.8 V power supply. The receiver (RX)
VGA achieves a linear gain range of 73 dB and a bandwidth
of 950 MHz while drawing 12.8 mA. The output P1dB varies
from -8.5 dBm to -6 dBm. The TX and the RX VGA chips
occupy areas of 0.2 x 0.2 mm and 0.6 x 0.2 mm , respectively.
Index Terms CMOS, variable gain amplifier (VGA),
ultra wideband (UWB), triode transconductor.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the advent of home network systems, the direct
sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA)
UWB system has drawn a lot of attentions because it can
provide a high data rate with relatively low-power
consumption in short-range wireless communications. The
DS-CDMA UWB system divides the UWB band into two
sub-bands: a low-frequency band (3.1-5 GHz) and a high
frequency band (6-10.6 GHz). The low band is selected
as a mandatory mode in this system, which can provide a
more than 1 Gbps data rate in a 3 m range [1].
In order to transmit and receive digital information
exceeding 1 Gbps in this frequency range, analog blocks
should have wideband characteristics. Especially, an
analog wideband variable gain amplifier (VGA) is one of
the key components in the wideband systems. This is
because the VGA is also used to maximize the dynamic
range of the overall system [2]. Despite numerous efforts
to improve VGA circuits, several factors still remain as
obstacles to VGA performance. First, a VGA should have
linear characteristics in a dB scale with respect to a
control voltage [3]. Second, a VGA must have a constant
bandwidth regardless of the control voltage. In this paper,
we present two techniques to improve the VGA
performance. One is a scheme with a CMOS triode
transconductance, in which exponential gain features are
used to achieve linear-in-dB characteristics. The other is a
constant bias current scheme to maintain the bandwidth
regardless of the control voltage. We also demonstrate
that a peaking inductor can greatly improve the bandwidth
of a CMOS wideband VGA [4].
_K3J-
MODEM
Fig. 1. Transceiver architecture for DS-CDMA UWB systems
II. DESIGN OBJECTIVES
Fig. 1 shows the transceiver architecture for DS-CDMA
UWB systems. Variable gain amplifiers are located in
both transmitter chain and receiver chain. The power level
of the transmitted or received signal can be controlled by
the VGAs directly to meet the required output power level.
We aim to design a low-power wide bandwidth VGA
for DS-CDMA UWB systems operated up to 880MHz.
The TX VGA requires a dynamic range above 25 dB to
cover the entire range of the output power level. However,
in the receiver part, according to the environment between
the mobile and base stations, the received signal power
can be varied from -76.5 dBm to -30 dBm at the antenna,
so the RX VGA requires a dynamic range above 47 dB. In
order to achieve consistent power control, the power gain
must be monotonically changed with the control signal.
Also, the VGAs that exhibit exponential gain
characteristics and have no additional circuits for an
exponential gain control are preferable. The design must
assure good input/output VSWR and the lowest possible
intermodulation distortion in order not to degrade the
power linearity of the system.
III. VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFIER (VGA) DESIGN
Before designing a whole VGA, we should carefully
design the VGA unit cell at first. A differential cascode
type as a VGA unit cell is utilized to meet the requirement
of wide bandwidth, large gain, good linearity, and so on.

2-9600551-6-0 (D 2006 EuMA 1449 September 2006, Manchester UK

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 Fig.

A.

adopted

and
2. A cascode

Operations

The cascode

advantages
gain
Miller

achieved

where,
ro3
respectively.
as

smaller than that of

that

current
we

configuration
source

of the cascode

where, gm],
can

are

0<
Id
a

transistor

source

gm2
easily

As

=
configuration

shown

output
configuration

MI,

in

wide bandwidth because

with a

<(Vg5- VT) and =0C0xwL.

Vd5l

Id
a

obtain

L
in
a

Fig.

load transistor M3. From the

resistances

equation (2),

gmi by controlling the gate voltage of M2, VGG2

gml

Po -Cox
change
(
1

model, the output resistance (R0) and the voltage gain (A,)
amplifier

and
R

[(ro2 (1 +

g,3 are
are

[ro2 (1 +

In order to understand the operation of the circuit, it is

necessary
bandwidth.
triode region,
to

transconductance, gm,
study equations
When the

the drain current of Ml,

are given by

( (Vgl

When the input transistor MI operates in the saturation,

Ids] and g,m are represented by the following equations:
W(
M3

wideband VGA. This is because it has two

over a

is greater due to the

capacitance
basic

that
common

simple
large output
appears
shown in

common

high frequency
2

given by [5]

g.2

D2ro

that
source

input transistor Mi operates in

and

Vdsl
at

consists

common-gate transistor M2, and

rol)]I

of

are

VT)
MI,
various

_
Fig.

source

rol,(1

ro3]Ir03,
transconductances and

)2V
of

M2

we
gains

related to

VdSj
Ids
2 is

amplifier: (1)
resistance and

the input

can
is

amplifier
response. The
a

and

gain
widely

(2)

common-
much

small-signal

can
M3,
its

its

so

rAl, ro2,
be

and

the

the

(3)

(4)

(5)

1450
where, A=

-nrZ1iRXVeGAa
g.1 =A (Vgsl
where, Vd,1 > (Vgl- VT-) -
We can decide input and output DC levels in the
consideration of the maximum input/output signal range
and voltage gain. If the input transistor MI operates in a
triode region, transistor M2 in the saturation, and a certain
bias voltage VGG2 is applied, then the currents of MI and
M2 are given by equation (3) and (5), respectively.
The transconductance of the cascode amplifier is
dependent on the drain-source voltage Vd5] in equation (4).
We can calculate the voltage Vd5] from equation (3) and
(5).

2Id, and V

Right side of equation (7) is the form of inverse hyper-

tangent function. Its taylor's series can be expressed as

Vx + XVj+1 1+
For VA] < 1, equation (7) provides 20 dB of amplitude
=VVX

variation, and a linearity error of less than ±0.5 dB. So,

transconductance g,m has an exponential characteristic.
Through the simulation using the Cadence Spectre tool,
the g,m is calculated. Fig. 3 shows the calculated
transconductances, g,m of MI as a function of the gate
voltage VGG2. The dotted line indicates g,m of the TX VGA
when the input transistor MI is in triode region. The solid
line indicates g,m of the RX VGA when input transistor
MI operates in the triode range (VGG2= 0.7 1.4V) and in
the saturation region (VGG2= 1.4 1.8V). We can verify
that g,m has exponential characteristics when MI is in the
triode region. Therefore, the overall gain A, in equation
(2) also has exponential characteristics.

0)
V

co

cn
r_
E
10
10 -

1- f

/
p

0.8
*
sr

X
1
T.1=

'-

1.0
Control voltage,

Fig. 3. Calculated transconductances

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/

;'
'

?
+

=--
VT) =213 IdA,

VGG2 -Vth2 -(Vin Vthl )

,.

1.2
1
l+V

*?

r .+
X

_.
-

H_-

t -* TX VGA
1.4
\2A

,.
X

/S ;,==
,.

Vctr,
-'
=

1.6

IV]
-

,4

1.811
-F2.
(6)

(7)

(8)
 B. Proposed VGA cell characteristic of active load is referenced from [4]. The
impedance of a single active load is given by

z C
M(s + 3g_M4 . (9)
m.M3 'g. M4 C,

C3 From equation (9), it shows that this active load

R3
operates as an inductive load near the -3 dB frequency of
the gain; therefore, the bandwidth of the proposed VGA
can be increased. Finally, one can get the overall gain of
the circuit given by
A -2 * gm,Z 2g;2gm, CM M S+ gm-M4 (10)
gm _M3 'gm _M4 C1
I VGA core
Fig. 4. Proposed topology of the VGA unit cell C. Block Diagrams of TX and RX VGAs
Fig. 4 shows the topology of the proposed VGA We designed the TX and the RX VGAs using the
topology. The VGA core utilizes a differential pair of the proposed VGA unit cell. Fig. 5 shows block diagram of
cascode amplifiers, as shown in Fig. 2. This suppresses RX VGA. The required dynamic range and maximum
even harmonics, rejects common-mode noises and gain of TX VGA are 25dB and 4dB, respectively. So, TX
doubles the signal swing for a given supply voltage. It has VGA consists of one VGA cell and an output buffer (not
the following additional features. First, the differential shown). However, RX VGA should have the dynamic
cascode configuration can extend the bandwidth and range of 50dB and maximum gain of 52dB. Therefore,
suppress the signal distortion. Second, an active inductive RX VGA consists of three VGA cells and output stage
load is exploited instead of a resistive load for wideband shown in Fig. 5. To remove the DC offset voltage, a DC
and low voltage applications [4]. Third, a common-mode offset canceller is inserted between the output of the 3rd
feedback (CMFB) is achieved in a relatively simple way VGA cell and the input of the 2nd VGA cell. The DC
for the constant output DC level. Fourth, the current offset canceller is composed of an operational
bleeding architecture in a load network increases the transconductance amplifier (OTA), a low pass filter (LPF)
voltage gain [6]. Fifth, a constant current bias is used for a and a V-I converter.
good linearity and wideband performance regardless of
DC offset
control voltages.
The input transistors MI and M7 are made to operate in
a triode region in order to use the exponential
characteristic of g,m, as shown in Fig. 3. A variable gain
can be achieved by controlling the gate voltage of
transistors M2 and M8, Vctrl. A load network consists of
active loads ((M3-M4, 'S1, Cl), (M9 M1O, IS2, C2)), CIRL 1 st 2nd 3rd Output
bleeding current sources (M6, M12) and DC level sensing VGA core VGA core VGA core Stage

transistors (M5, Ml 1). The DC level sensing transistors
monitor the DC level of output signals (V0,t+, V0,,) and
then a common-mode feedback network (CMFB,
M13 M16) compares this DC level with a reference
voltage (Vcm) and sets this DC level to Vcm by adjusting
bias currents of the bleeding current sources (M6, M12)
automatically. With this bleeding technique, the current
through active load transistors (M3, M9) can be reduced
so that the output load resistance can be increased, leading
to a higher gain [6]. Output impedance is dominantly
determined by active loads because the impedances of
bleeding current sources and DC level sensing transistors
are relatively large compared to those of active loads. The
Fig. 5. Block diagram of the RX VGA
IV. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
The proposed VGAs were fabricated using 0.18 ptm
CMOS technology. Photomicrographs of the chip are
shown in Fig. 6. The TX VGA occupies an area of 0.2 x
0.2 mm2 and consumes 2.7 mA from a 1.8 V supply. And
the RX VGA occupies an area of 0.6 x 0.2 mm2 and
consumes 12.8 mA from a 1.8 V supply. The fabricated
VGA integrated chips (ICs) were measured with a vector
network analyzer (Agilent 8753ES), a signal source
generator (Agilent E4433B), and spectrum analyzer (HP

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 8564E). The input and output of the VGA were connected
with a signal source and a spectrum analyzer, respectively,
through commercial balun devices to convert the single
signal into the differential signals.
results confirm the validity of the proposed ideas for
obtaining an accurate linear-in-dB variable-gain feature.
As shown in Fig. 8(b), the linear gain range of RX VGA
is 73 dB (-24.9 48.6 dB) when Vctrl is varied from 0.8V
-

to 1.4V. In this control range, the input transistor operated

in the triode region. As the results of the 1-tone
measurement, the proposed VGAs have an output P1dB of
-6 -8.5 dBm. Due to the constant current bias and the
-

triode transconductance, the output P1dB remains

constant regardless of the control voltage.
Fig. 6. Photographs of the VGAs TABLE I. SUMMARY OF THE FABRICATED VGAs
TX VGA RX VGA
-3dB bandwidth 1200 MHz 950 MHz
Linear gain range -21.4 7 dB -24.9 48.6 dB
- -

Maximum gain 7 dB 53.8 dB

Output P1dB -8.5 6 dBm -
-8.5 6 dBm -

Power consumption 4.86 mW 23.04 mW

Chip size 0.2 x 0.2 mm2 0.6 x 0.2 mm2
The measurement results are summarized in Table I.
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
V. CONCLUSION
Fig. 7. Frequency responses
Wideband variable gain amplifiers are presented. The
lo- TX VGA 4 60 RX VGA 12 proposed VGAs utilize the exponential transconductance
40 A 8
characteristics of an input MOSFET transistor in a triode
.m 7}
region to achieve highly linear-in-dB characteristics. In
addition, the wideband operation can be achieved by using
15 2 4
a cascode configuration and a gain boosting technique.
The current bleeding technique of the load network is also
.co

IL
-25
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.
-3
1.8
40 -8
0.8 1.0 12 1.4 1.6
used to improve both the linearity and the gain.
Control voltage, Vctrl [VJ iControl Voltage, Vctrl [V]
(a) (b) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Fig. 8. Gain characteristics; (a) TX VGA (b) RX VGA
This research was supported by University IT Research
Fig. 7 shows the frequency responses of the proposed Center Project and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co.
VGAs at different control voltages. The measured
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