70 dB Dynamic Range CMOS Wideband Digital Variable Gain Amplifier for AGC in DVB-T/H Receivers

Abstract

This paper presents a novel variable gain amplifier (VGA) design which is applied in the automatic gain control loop of digital video broadcasting (DVB) receivers designed for standards DVB-T/H. The VGA is composed of three cascaded tunable gain stages to provide a 70 dB dynamic range with 2 dB gain steps. Each gain stage is based on a digital variable gain amplifier (DVGA) which is composed of a plurality of gain blocks (GBs) and a fully differential degeneration amplifier (FDDA). The GBs of the DVGA are digitally controlled current mirrors. A common-mode feedback circuitry is used to stabilize the FDDA by providing a stable common-mode voltage. Physical measurements on silicon show that the gain error is merely 0.55 dB given a 70 dB tuning range.