This paper presents the design of a variable gain amplifier for the front-end circuitry of 5-GHz high-speed digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO). The design challenge includes wide bandwidth and low distortion over the frequency range from DC to 5GHz. The Cherry-Hooper amplifier configuration is used to tackle the issues. The designed variable gain covers the range from -2 to 37dB. The gain flatness carries out ripples less than 1dB. The circuits are implemented in TSMC 0.35μm SiGe technology.