An inductorless CMOS programmable-gain amplifier with a > 3 GHz bandwidth for 60 GHz wireless transceivers

An inductorless wideband programmable-gain amplifier (PGA) for 60 GHz wireless transceivers is presented. To attain wideband characteristics, a modified Cherry—Hooper amplifier with a negative capacitive neutralization technique is employed as the gain cell while a novel circuit technique for gain adjustment is adopted; this technique can be universally applicable in wideband PGA design and greatly simplifying the design of wideband PGA. By cascading two gain cells and an output buffer stage, the PGA achieves the highest gain of 30 dB with the bandwidth much wider than 3 GHz. The PGA has been integrated into one whole 60 GHz wireless transceiver and implemented in the TSMC 65 nm CMOS process. The measurements on the receiver front-end show that the receiver front-end achieves an 18 dB variable gain range with a > 3 GHz bandwidth, which proves the proposed PGA achieves an 18 dB variable gain range with a bandwidth much wider than 3 GHz. The PGA consumes 10.7 mW of power from a 1.2-V supply voltage with a core area of only 0.025 mm². (semiconductor integrated circuits)