SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA

Gang Jin, Yiqi Zhuang, Yue Yin and Miao Cui

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 Corresponding author: Gang Jin, E-mail: gjin@xidian.edu.cn

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Abstract: 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 μm complementary metal—oxide—semiconductor (CMOS) process and measured. A binary-weighted approach is proposed in the PGA to achieve wide dB-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 from -4 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 than 165 μs while consuming an average current of 1.92 mA at 1.8 V.

Key words: PGAbinary-weightedAGC loopGNSSGaussian noise



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Fig. 1.  GNSS receiver incorporating proposed AGC loop.

Fig. 2.  Architecture of the proposed digitally controlled AGC loop. (a) Coarse gain control block. (b) Digital automatic gain control logic. (c) Single fixed-gain amplifier.

Fig. 3.  PDF curve of PGA input signal with boundary condition.

Fig. 4.  Schematic of fine gain control block.

Fig. 5.  Schematic of trans-conductance amplifier.

Fig. 6.  Schematic of the AGC circuit.

Fig. 7.  Die micro-photograph of the GNSS receiver chip.

Fig. 8.  The measured gain dynamic range and gain step.

Fig. 9.  The measured output 1-dB compression point.

Fig. 10.  Measured input/output transient response of AGC loop.

Table 1.   Binary-weighted gain control of CGC.

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Table 2.   Ideal gain against control bits of FGC.

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Table 3.   Comparison of similar AGC loops.

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    Received: 26 October 2014 Revised: Online: Published: 01 March 2015

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      Gang Jin, Yiqi Zhuang, Yue Yin, Miao Cui. A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2015, 36(3): 035004. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/035004 G Jin, Y Q Zhuang, Y Yin, M Cui. A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA[J]. J. Semicond., 2015, 36(3): 035004. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/035004.Export: BibTex EndNote
      Citation:
      Gang Jin, Yiqi Zhuang, Yue Yin, Miao Cui. A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2015, 36(3): 035004. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/035004

      G Jin, Y Q Zhuang, Y Yin, M Cui. A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA[J]. J. Semicond., 2015, 36(3): 035004. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/035004.
      Export: BibTex EndNote

      A digitally controlled AGC loop circuitry for GNSS receiver chip with a binary weighted accurate dB-linear PGA

      doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/035004
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      • Corresponding author: E-mail: gjin@xidian.edu.cn
      • Received Date: 2014-10-26
      • Accepted Date: 2014-12-14
      • Published Date: 2015-01-25

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