A versatile programmable gain amplifier with wide dynamic range and low power consumption

Abstract

Abstract A tuneable gain analog amplifier is a primary building block in RF receivers specially to achieve high dynamic range. Here, we present a wide dB-linear gain range and low power programmable gain amplifier (PGA) fabricated in 40nm CMOS process, which exploits the exponential approximation of the MOS transistor in sub-threshold region. As a result, our PGA achieved one of the widest dB-linearity of 76 dB for 32 digital gain settings and a gain error of less than ± 0.5 dB and consumes only 167 µW of power from a 1.1 V supply. The proposed PGA has dual-mode gain tunability using analog voltage control and 5-bit digital control. At the maximum gain setting, the PGA exhibits a bandwidth of 1.1 MHz and output P1dB of -4.7 dBm. The PGA design is first of its kind attributing to its low-power consumption, wide dB-linear dynamic range, and dual-mode tunability. The novel design enables this PGA as a versatile and an effective block in RF integrated circuits.