Low-power CMOS Variable Gain Amplifier design in 0.18µm process

This paper presents a low-power Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA) design in TSMC 0.18µm process. The proposed circuit is composed of tow transimpedance amplifiers and a transconductance amplifier. The VGA control is ensured by using the source degeneration RS with the feedback resistor Rf. The proposed circuit is designed for low power, low noise and high bandwidth. The studied circuit provides a minimum and a maximum gain of respectively −33 dB and 25.6 dB over more than 133MHz bandwidth. The simulation structure provides less than 20 dB of noise figure (NF). The VGA consumes approximately 40µW under 1V power supply.