A high-performance low-power CMOS AGC for GPS application

In this paper, a wide tuning range, low power CMOS automatic gain control (AGC) with a simple architecture is proposed. The proposed AGC is composed of variable gain amplifier (VGA), comparator and charge pump, and the dB-linear gain is controlled by charge pump. The AGC was implemented in a 0.18um CMOS technology. The dynamic range of the VGA is more than 55dB, the bandwidth is 30MHz and the gain error lower than ±1.5dB over the full temperature and gain ranges. It is designed for GPS application and is fed from a single 1.8V power supply. The AGC power consumption is less than 5mW and area of the AGC is 700*450um2.     

一种集成二进制权精确对数线性可编程增益放大器的卫星导航接收机数字自动增益控制环路

A novel digitally controlled automatic gain control(AGC) loop circuitry for the global navigation satellite system(GNSS) receiver chip is presented. The entire AGC loop contains a programmable gain amplifier(PGA),an AGC circuit and an analog-to-digital converter(ADC), which is implemented in a 0.18 m complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor(CMOS) process and measured. A binary-weighted approach is proposed in the PGA to achieve wide d B-linear gain control with small gain error. With binary-weighted cascaded amplifiers for coarse gain control, and parallel binary-weighted trans-conductance amplifier array for fine gain control, the PGA can provide a 64 dB dynamic range from4 to 60 dB in 1.14 dB gain steps with a less than 0.15 dB gain error. Based on the Gaussian noise statistic characteristic of the GNSS signal, a digital AGC circuit is also proposed with low area and fast settling. The feed-backward AGC loop occupies an area of 0.27 mm2 and settles within less than165 s while consuming an average current of 1.92 mA at 1.8 V.     

一种带宽为3.8GHz，增益步长为0.1dB的可编程增益放大器

A broadband programmable gain amplifier（PGA） with a small gain step and low gain error has been designed in 0.13 m CMOS technology. The PGA was implemented with open-loop architecture to provide wide bandwidth. A two-stage gain control method, which consists of a resistor ladder attenuator and an active fine gain control stage, provides the small gain step. A look-up table based gain control method is introduced in the fine gain control stage to lower the gain error.The proposedPGAshows a decibel-linear variable gainfrom4 to20 dB with a gain step of 0.1 dB and a gain error less than˙0.05 dB. The 3-dB bandwidth and maximum IIP3 are 3.8 GHz and 17 dBm, respectively.     

一种应用两级VGA具有-10~50dB线性调节范围全差分自动增益控制电路

A differential automatic gain control(AGC) circuit is presented.The AGC architecture contains twostage variable gain amplifiers(VGAs) which are implemented with a Gilbert cell,a peak detector(PD),a low pass filter,an operational amplifier,and two voltage to current(V-I) convenors.One stage VGA achieves 30 dB gain due to the use of active load.The AGC circuit is implemented in UMC 0.18-μm single-poly six-metal CMOS process technology.Measurement results show that the final differential output swing of the 2nd stage VGA is about 0.9-Vpp;the total gain of the two VGAs can be varied linearly from -10 to 50 dB when the control voltage varies from 0.3 to 0.9 V.The final circuit(containing output buffers and a band-gap reference) consumes 37 mA from single 1.8 V voltage supply.For a 50 mV amplitude 60%modulation depth input AM signal it needs 100μs to stabilize the output.The frequency response of the circuit has almost a constant -3 dB bandwidth of 2.2 MHz. Its OIP3 result is at 19 dBm.     

A CMOS low power, process/temperature variation tolerant RSSI with an integrated AGC loop

A low voltage low power CMOS limiter and received signal strength indicator(RSSI) with an integrated automatic gain control(AGC) loop for a short-distance receiver are implemented in SMIC 0.13μm CMOS technology.The RSSI has a dynamic range of more than 60 dB and the RSSI linearity error is within i0.5 dB for an input power from -65 to -8 dBm.The RSSI output voltage is from 0.15 to 1 V and the slope of the curve is 14.17 mV/dB while consuming 1.5 mA(I and Q paths) from a 1.2 V supply.Auto LNA gain mode selection with a combined RSSI function is also presented.Furthermore,with the compensation circuit,the proposed RSSI shows good temperature-independent and good robustness against process variation characteristics.     

一款用于数字电视调谐器的高线性度多频带增益可调信道选择滤波器

This paper presents a channel-select filter that employs an active-RC bi-quad structure for TV-tuner application. A design method to optimize the IIP3 of the bi-quad is developed. Multi-band selection and gain adjustment are implemented using switching resistors in the resistor array and capacitors in the capacitor array. Q-factor degradation is compensated by a tuning segmented resistor. A feed-forward OTA with high gain and low third-order distortion is applied in the bi-quad to maximize linearity performance and minimize area by avoiding extra compensation capacitor use. An RC tuning circuit and DC offset cancellation circuit are designed to overcome the process variation and DC offset, respectively. The experimental results yield an in-band IIP3 of more than 31 dBm at 0 dB gain, a 54 dB gain range with 6 dB gain step, and a continuous frequency tuning range from 0.25 to 4 MHz. The in-band ripple is less than 1.4 dB at high gain mode, while the gain error and frequency tuning error are no more than 3.4% and 5%, respectively. The design, which is fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process, consumes 12.6 mW power at a 1.8 V supply and occupies 1.28 mm2.     

A 0.18μm CMOS gain-switched LNA and mixer with large dynamic range

A 2.4GHz 0.18μm CMOS gain-switched single-end Low Noise Amplifier （LNA） and a passive mixer with no external balun for near-zero-IF （Intermediate Frequency）/RF （Radio Frequency） applications are described. The LNA, fabricated in the 0.18μm 1P6M CMOS technology, adopts a gain-switched technique to increase the linearity and enlarge the dynamic range. The mixer is an IQ-based passive topology. Measurements of the CMOS chip are performed on the FR-4 PCB and the input is matched to 50Ω. Combining LNA and mixer, the front-end measured performances in high gain state are： -15dB of Sll, 18.5dB of voltage gain, 4.6dB of noise figure, 15dBm of IIP3, 85dBm to -10dBm dynamic range. The full circuit drains 6mA from a 1.8V supply.     

一种光接收机中的高增益宽动态范围跨阻放大器

As the front-end preamplifiers in optical receivers, transimpedance amplifiers （TIAs） are commonly required to have a high gain and low input noise to amplify the weak and susceptible input signal. At the same time, the TIAs should possess a wide dynamic range （DR） to prevent the circuit from becoming saturated by high input currents. Based on the above, this paper presents a CMOS transimpedance amplifier with high gain and a wide DR for 2.5 Gbit/s communications. The TIA proposed consists of a three-stage cascade pull push inverter, an automatic gain control circuit, and a shunt transistor controlled by the resistive divider. The inductive-series peaking technique is used to further extend the bandwidth. The TIA proposed displays a maximum transimpedance gain of 88.3 dBΩ with the -3 dB bandwidth of 1.8 GHz, exhibits an input current dynamic range from 100 nA to 10 mA. The output voltage noise is less than 48.23 nV/√Hz within the -3 dB bandwidth. The circuit is fabricated using an SMIC 0.18 μm 1P6M RFCMOS process and dissipates a dc power of 9.4 mW with 1.8 V supply voltage.     

A novel analog/digital reconfigurable automatic gain control with a novel DC offset cancellation circuit

An analog/digital reconfigurable automatic gain control(AGC) circuit with a novel DC offset cancellation circuit for a direct-conversion receiver is presented.The AGC is analog/digital reconfigurable in order to be compatible with different baseband chips.What’s more,a novel DC offset cancellation(DCOC) circuit with an HPCF(high pass cutoff frequency) less than 10 kHz is proposed.The AGC is fabricated by a 0.18μm CMOS process.Under analog control mode,the AGC achieves a 70 dB dynamic range with a 3 dB-bandwidth larger than 60 MHz.Under digital control mode,through a 5-bit digital control word,the AGC shows a 64 dB gain control range by 2 dB each step with a gain error of less than 0.3 dB.The DC offset cancellation circuits can suppress the output DC offset voltage to be less than 1.5 mV,while the offset voltage of 40 mV is introduced into the input.The overall power consumption is less than 3.5 mA,and the die area is 800×300μm~2.     

一种用于接收机的低功耗自动增益控制环路

This paper proposes a new structure to lower the power consumption of a variable gain amplifier (VGA) and keep the linearity of the VGA unchanged. The structure is used in a high rate amplitude-shift keying (ASK) based IF-stage. It includes an automatic gain control (AGC) loop and ASK demodulator. The AGC mainly consists of six-stage VGAs. The IF-stage is realized in 0.18 μ m CMOS technology. The measurement results show that the power consumption of the whole system is very low. The system consumes 730 μ A while operating at 1.8 V. The minimum ASK signal the system could detect is 0.7 mV (peak to peak amplitude).     

A controllable resistor and its applications in pole-zero tracking frequency compensation methods for LDOs

This paper presents a controllable resistor, which is formed by a MOS-resistor working in the deep triangle region and an auxiliary circuit. The auxiliary circuit can generate the gate-source voltage which is proportional to the output current of an low dropout regulator for the MOS-resistor. Thus, the equivalent output resistance of the MOS-resistor is inversely proportional to the output current, which is a suitable feature for pole-zero tracking frequency compensation methods. By switching the type of the MOS-resistor and current direction through the auxiliary circuit, the controllable resistor can be suitable for different applications. Three pole-zero tracking frequency compensation methods based on a single Miller capacitor with hulling resistor, unit-gain compensation cell and pseudo-ESR （equivalent serial resistor of load capacitor） power stage have been realized by this controllable resistor. Their advantages and limitations are discussed and verified by simulation results.     

X 波段氮化镓合成固态放大器

Based on a self-developed A1GaN/GaN HEMT with 2.5 mm gate width technology on a SiC substrate, an X-band GaN combined solid-state power amplifier module is fabricated. The module consists of an AIGaN/GaN HEMT, Wilkinson power couplers, DC-bias circuit and microstrip line. For each amplifier, we use a bipolar DC power source. Special RC networks at the input and output and a resistor between the DC power source and the gate of the transistor at the input are used for cancellation of self-oscillation and crosstalk of low-frequency of each amplifier. At the same time, branches of length 3λ/4 for Wilkinson power couplers are designed for the elimination of self-oscillation of the two amplifiers. Microstrip stub lines are used for input matching and output matching. Under Vds = 27 V, Vgs = -4.0 V, CW operating conditions at 8 GHz, the amplifier module exhibits a line gain of 5.6 dB with power added efficiency of 23.4%, and output power of 41.46 dBm （14 W）, and the power gain compression is 3 dB. Between 8 and 8.5 GHz, the variation of output power is less than 1.5 dB.     

采用后台数字校准的12位100MHz流水线模数转换器

This paper presents a 12-bit 100 MS/s CMOS pipelined analog-to-digital converter （ADC） with digital background calibration. A large magnitude calibration signal is injected into the multiplying digital-to-analog converter （MDAC） while the architecture of the MDAC remains unchanged. When sampled at 100 MS/s, it takes only 2.8 s to calibrate the 12-bit prototype ADC and achieves a peak spurious-free dynamic range of 85 dB and a peak signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio of 66 dB with 2 MHz input. Integral nonlinearity is improved from 1.9 to 0.6 least significant bits after calibration. The chip is fabricated in a 0.18μm CMOS process, occupies an active area of 2.3 × 1.6 mm^2, and consumes 205 mW at 1.8 V.     

A 4.2-5 GHz,low phase noise LC-VCO with constant bandwidth and small tuning gain

As the tuning frequency of an integrated LC-voltage controlled oscillator （LC-VCO） increases, it is difficult to co-design the active negative resistance core and the varactor to achieve wideband frequency range, low phase noise, constant bandwidth and small tuning gain together. The presented VCO solves the problem by designing a set of changeable varactor units. The whole VCO was implemented in a 0.18μm CMOS process. The measured result shows -120 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset. The measured tuning range is from 4.2 to 5 GHz and the tuning gain is 8-10 MHz/V. The VCO draws 4 mA from a 1.5 V supply voltage.     

Software Radio——Software Radio： A Review of Design Considerations and Digital Hardware Choices

This paper reviews the requirements for Software Defined Radio （SDR） systems for high-speed wireless applications and compares how well the different technology choices available- from ASICs, FPGAs to digital signal processors （DSPs） and general purpose processors （GPPs） - meet them.     

EEFA： Energy Efficiency Frame Aggregation Scheduling Algorithm for IEEE 802.11n Wireless Network

Packet size is restricted due to the error-prone wireless channel which drops the network energy utilization. Furthermore, the frequent packet retransmissions also lead to energy waste. In order to improve the energy efficiency of wireless networks and save the energy of wireless devices, EEFA （Energy Efficiency Frame Aggregation）, a frame aggregation based energy-efficient scheduling algorithm for IEEE 802.11n wireless network, is proposed. EEFA changes the size of aggregated frame dynamically according to the frame error rate, so as to ensure the data transmission and retransmissions completed during the TXOP and reduce energy consumption of channel contention. NS2 simulation results show that EEFA algorithm achieves better performance than the original frame-aggregation algorithm.     

SDN-Based Data Offioading for 5G Mobile Networks

The rapid growth of 3G/4G enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets in large numbers has created increased demand formobile data services.Wi-Fi offloading helps satisfy the requirements of data-rich applications and terminals with improved multi-media.Wi-Fi is an essential approach to alleviating mobile data traffic load on a cellular network because it provides extra capaci-ty and improves overall performance.In this paper,we propose an integrated LTE/Wi-Fi architecture with software-defined net-working(SDN)abstraction in mobile backhaul and enhanced components that facilitate the move towards next-generation 5G mo-bile networks.Our proposed architecture enables programmable offloading policies that take into account real-time network condi-tions as well as the status of devices and applications.This mechanism improves overall network performance by deriving real-time policies and steering traffic between cellular and Wi-Fi networks more efficiently.     

用于U波段移动数字电视的宽带大动态范围高线性度射频前端

A wideband large dynamic range and high linearity U-band RF front-end for mobile DTV is introduced,and includes a noise-cancelling low-noise amplifier(LNA),an RF programmable gain amplifier(RFPGA) and a current communicating passive mixer.The noise/distortion cancelling structure and RC post-distortion compensation are employed to improve the linearity of the LNA.An RFPGA with five stages provides large dynamic range and fine gain resolution.A simple resistor voltage network in the passive mixer decreases the gate bias voltage of the mixing transistor,and optimum linearity and symmetrical mixing is obtained at the same time.The RF front-end is implemented in a 0.25 μm CMOS process.Tests show that it achieves an ⅡP3(third-order intercept point) of –17 dBm,a conversion gain of 39 dB,and a noise figure of 5.8 dB.The RFPGA achieves a dynamic range of –36.2 to 23.5 dB with a resolution of 0.32 dB.     

一个全差分可编程的多通道神经信号记录芯片

A multi-channel,fully differential programmable chip for neural recording application is presented.The integrated circuit incorporates eight neural recording amplifiers with tunable bandwidth and gain,eight 4thorder Bessel switch capacitor filters,an 8-to-1 analog time-division multiplexer,a fully differential successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter(SAR ADC),and a serial peripheral interface for communication.The neural recording amplifier presents a programmable gain from 53 dB to 68 dB,a tunable low cut-off frequency from 0.1 Hz to 300 Hz,and 3.77 μVrms input-referred noise over a 5 kHz bandwidth.The SAR ADC digitizes signals at maximum sampling rate of 20 kS/s per channel and achieves an ENOB of 7.4.The integrated circuit is designed and fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS mix-signal process.We successfully performed a multi-channel in-vivo recording experiment from a rat cortex using the neural recording chip.     

Distributed Power Control for Energy Conservation in Hybrid Cellular Network with Device-to-Device Communication

Device-to-Device （D2D） com- munication has been proposed as a promising implementation of green communication to benefit the existed cellular network. In order to limit cross-tier interference while explore the gain of short-range communication, we devise a series of distributed power control （DPC） schemes for energy conservation （EC） and enhancement of radio resource utilization in the hybrid system. Firstly, a constrained opportunistic power control model is built up to take advantage of the interference avoidance methodology in the presence of service requirement and power constraint. Then, biasing scheme and admission control are added to evade ineffective power consumption and maintain the feasibility of the system. Upon feasibility, a non-cooperative game is further formulated to exploit the profit in EC with minor influence on spectral efficiency （SE）. The convergence of the DPC schemes is validated and their performance is confirmed via simulation results.