Low-Power, High-Gain V-Band CMOS Low Noise Amplifier for Microwave Radiometer Applications

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters 2011-02, Vol.21 (2), p.104-106
• Main Authors: HUANG, Chun-Chieh, KUO, Hsin-Chih, HUANG, Tzuen-Hsi, CHUANG, Huey-Ru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amplifiers; Applied sciences; Cascode amplifier; Circuit design; Circuit properties; CMOS; CMOS integrated circuits; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric potential; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Gain; gain peaking; Integrated circuits; Logic gates; low noise amplifier (LNA); Microwave circuits; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; microwave radiometer; Microwave radiometers; Microwave radiometry; millimeter-wave (MMW); Noise; Noise levels; Noise measurement; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Vanadium
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 2771-957X; 1558-1764; 2771-9588
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2010.2091401

A low power and high gain V-band CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed in this letter with a three-stage cascode topology. Using the gate-inductive gain-peaking technique to boost the gain, the proposed LNA achieves a good figure of merit (FOM) with less power consumption. This proposed LNA is fabricated in a 0.13 μm RF CMOS process, which achieves a peak gain of 21 dB at 53 GHz, a noise figure (NF) of 7.6 dB at 53 GHz, a 3 dB frequency bandwidth ranging from 51.3 to 55.8 GHz, an input 1 dB compression point (P 1 dB ) of - 25 dBm at 53 GHz, and an input third-order intercept point (IIP3) of -16 dBm. Also, the LNA consumes only 15.1 mW at a supply voltage of 1.5 V. The calculated FOM is 0.81 in average. Such a V-band LNA design is applicable to the cost-efficiency integration of a microwave radiometer front-end circuit over the operation frequency band of 52 to 56 GHz.