Design of E- and W-Band Low-Noise Amplifiers in 22-nm CMOS FD-SOI

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 2020-01, Vol.68 (1), p.132-143
• Main Authors: Gao, Li, Wagner, Eric, Rebeiz, Gabriel M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 22-nm CMOS FD-SOI; Amplification; Amplifiers; Automotive radar; Bandwidths; Broadband; Capacitors; CMOS; E- and W-bands; Gain; Inductors; low-noise amplifier (LNA); Metals; millimeter-wave integrated circuits; Narrowband; Noise; Noise levels; Noise measurement; Phased arrays; Power consumption; Power demand; Silicon; SOI (semiconductors); Transistors
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2019.2944820

This article presents E- and W-band low-noise amplifiers (LNA) in GlobalFoundries 22-nm CMOS fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI). Both amplifiers employ a three-stage cascode design with gain-boosting transformer loads. Design procedures are presented for E- and W-band LNAs for narrowband and wideband applications. The E-band LNA focuses on a high-gain, low-power implementation, and results in a gain and noise figure (NF) of 20 and 4.6 dB at 77 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 12 GHz, and an input P1dB of -27.4 dBm, for a power consumption of 9 mW. The W-band LNA focuses on wideband applications and results in a peak gain of 18.2 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 31 GHz, for a power consumption of 16 mW. The LNAs have a high figure-of-merit (FoM) and show very low-power operation in the 70-100 GHz range. Application areas are in phased arrays for 5G with hundreds or thousands of elements, automotive radars at 77 GHz, and sensors at 94 GHz.