An LC-VCO with an enhanced quality factor(Q) varactor for use in a high-sensitivity GNSS receiver is presented.An enhanced A-MOS varactor is composed of two accumulation-mode MOS(A-MOS) varactors and two bias voltages,which show the improved Q and linearization capacitance-voltage(C-V) curve.The VCO gain(K_(vco)) is compensated by a digital switched varactors array(DSVA) over entire sub-bands.Based on the characteristics of an A-MOS,the varactor in a DSVA is a high Q fixed capacitor as it is switched off,and a moderate Q tuning varactor when it is switched on,which keeps the maximal Q for the LC-tank.The proposed circuit is fabricated in a 0.18μm 1P6M CMOS process.The measured phase noise is better than -122 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset while the measured tuning range is 58.2%and the variation of K_(VCO) is close to±21%over the whole of the sub-bands and the effective range of the control voltage.The proposed VCO dissipates less than 5.4 mW over the whole operating range from a 1.8 V supply.
An output amplitude configurable wideband automatic gain control(AGC) with high gain step accuracy for the GNSS receiver is presented.The amplitude of an AGC is configurable in order to cooperate with baseband chips to achieve interference suppression and be compatible with different full range ADCs.And what’s more,the gain-boosting technology is introduced and the circuit is improved to increase the step accuracy.A zero,which is composed by the source feedback resistance and the source capacity,is introduced to compensate for the pole.The AGC is fabricated in a 0.18μm CMOS process.The AGC shows a 62 dB gain control range by 1 dB each step with a gain error of less than 0.2 dB.The AGC provides 3 dB bandwidth larger than 80 MHz and the overall power consumption is less than 1.8 mA,and the die area is 800 x 300μm^2.
