• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.673-684
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• 2003

A degenerated differential pair has been widely used as a standard topology for digitally programmable CMOS VGAs. A variable degeneration resistor has been implemented using a resistor string or R-2R ladder with MOSFET switches. However, in the VGAs using these conventional methods, low-voltage and high-speed operation is very hard to achieve due to the dc voltage drop over the degeneration resistor. To overcome this problem a new variable degeneration resistor is proposed where the dc voltage drop is almost removed. Using the proposed gain control scheme, a low-voltage and high-speed CMOS VGA is designed. HSPICE simulation results using a 0.25${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ CMOS process parameters show that the designed VGA provides a 3dB bandwidth of 360MHz and a 80dB gain control range in 2dB step. Gain errors are less than 0.4dB at 200MHz and less than l.4dB at 300MHz. The designed circuit consumes 10.8mA from a 2.5V supply and its die area is 1190${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$${\times}$360${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.7 no.1 s.12
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• pp.43-55
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• 2003

A degenerated differential pair has been widely used as a standard topology for digitally programmable CMOS VGAs. A variable degeneration resistor has been implemented using a resistor string or R-2R ladder with MOSFET switches. However, in the VGAs using these conventional methods, low-voltage and high-speed operation is very hard to achieve due to the dc voltage drop over the degeneration resistor. To overcome the problem a new variable degeneration resistor is proposed where the dc voltage drop is almost removed. The proposed gain control scheme makes it easy to implement a low-voltage and high-speed VGA. This paper describes the problems existed in conventional methods, the principle and advantages of the proposed scheme, and their performance comparison in detail. A CMOS VGA cell is designed using the proposed degeneration resistor. The 3dB bandwidths are greater than 650㎒ and the gain errors are less than 0.3dB in a gain control range from -12dB to +12dB in 6dB steps. It consumes 3.1㎃ from a 2.5V supply voltage.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.12 s.91
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• pp.1184-1189
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• 2004

A new schematic of quadrature voltage controlled oscillator(QVCO) is designed and fabricated. To obtain quadrature characteristic and low phase noise simultaneously, two differential VCOs are forced to un in quadrature mode by using coupling amplifier with a source degeneration resistor, which is optimized to obtain quadrature accuracy with minimum phase noise degradation. The designed QVCO was fabricated in standard CMOS technology. The measured performance showed the phase noise of below -120 dBc/Hz at 1 MHEz frequency offset, tuning bandwidth of 210 MHz from 2.34 GHz to 2.55 GHz with a tuning voltage varying form 0 to 1.8 V Quadrature error of 0.5 degree and amplitude error of 0.2 dB was measured with conjunction with low-lF mixer. The fabricated QVCO requires 19 mA including 5 mA in the VCO core part fiom a 1.8 V supply.