A Sub-mW, Ultra-Low-Voltage, Wideband Low-Noise Amplifier Design Technique

• Published in: IEEE transactions on very large scale integration (VLSI) systems Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 1111 - 1122
• Main Authors: Parvizi, Mahdi, Allidina, Karim, El-Gamal, Mourad N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2015
• Subjects: CMOS integrated circuits; Current reuse; inductive series peaking; low-noise amplifier (LNA); MOSFET; Noise; Noise measurement; resistive shunt feedback; ultra-low power (ULP); ultra-low voltage (ULV); ultra-wideband (UWB); Current reuse; low-noise amplifier (LNA); resistive shunt feedback; ultra-low power (ULP); ultra-wideband (UWB); inductive series peaking; ultra-low voltage (ULV)
• ISSN: 1063-8210; 1557-9999
• DOI: 10.1109/TVLSI.2014.2334642

This paper presents a design methodology for an ultra-low-power (ULP) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) ultra-wideband (UWB) resistive-shunt feedback low-noise amplifier (LNA). The ULV circuit design challenges are discussed and a new biasing metric for ULV and ULP designs in deep-submicrometer CMOS technologies is introduced. Series inductive peaking in the feedback loop is analyzed and employed to enhance the bandwidth and noise performance of the LNA. Exploiting the new biasing metric, the design methodology, and series inductive peaking in the feedback loop, a 0.5 V, 0.75-mW broadband LNA with a current reuse scheme is implemented in a 90-nm CMOS technology. Measurement results show 12.6-dB voltage gain, 0.1-7-GHz bandwidth, 5.5-dB NF, -9-dBm IIP 3 , and -18-dB P1dB while occupying 0.23 mm 2 .