A CMOS linear-in-dB high-linearity variable-gain amplifier for UWB receivers

This paper presents a CMOS linear-in-dB variable gain amplifier (VGA) that provides a variable gain range over 90dB with 3dB bandwidth greater than 400MHz at 54dB gain. The maximum output 1dB compression point is 9dBm. Maximum gain error is +/−2dB. It consumes total 22mW with 1.8V supply, including control circuit. This VGA is fabricated in TSMC 0.18um CMOS process and demonstrate the performance of the proposed dB-linear VGA.