In this paper, a large gain variable range, high linearity, low noise, low DC offset VGAs with a simple gain-dB variable circuit are introduced. In the VGAs chain, the last and the first VGAs employ Bipolar transistors, to improve the linearity and noise characteristics. And the middle three stages VGAs employ MOS transistors. The whole circuitry is designed in 0.35um BiCMOS process, including variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) , fixed gain amplifiers , gain control and DC offset cancellation parts. The automatic gain control loop (AGC) provides a process independent gain variable range of 60dB (including 50dB gain-dB-linearity variable range), with a 200us loop lock time, the VGAs provide a 73dB largest gain, the THD is less than 1% at a 1V(P-P) output level; the equivalent output integral noise is 0.011v/√hz@20MHz bandwidth. The whole area is 1173um*494 um, and the power is 7.1mA at 3.3V signal supply voltage.
A large gain variable range, high linearity, lownoise, low DC offset VGAs used in BD system