A 22.9–38.2-GHz Dual-Path Noise-Canceling LNA With 2.65–4.62-dB NF in 28-nm CMOS

Zhixian Deng,Xun Luo,Jie Zhou,Huizhen Jenny Qian

doi:10.1109/jssc.2021.3102602

Abstract

In this article, a 22.9–38.2-GHz dual-path noise-canceling low noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed, which can achieve a low noise figure (NF) by reducing the noise of both paths. Such LNA consists of one common gate (CG) amplifier with one three-stage transformer, one resistive feedback common-source (CS) amplifier, and two amplitude-adjusting amplifiers. The three-stage transformer is used in the CG amplifier to provide gain-boosting, noise-reducing, and wideband inter-stage matching operation, simultaneously. Meanwhile, amplitude-adjusting amplifiers with reconfigurable phase-tuning lines are utilized in both paths to optimize the noise-canceling performance. To verify the aforementioned principle, a dual-path noise-canceling LNA is implemented and fabricated using a conventional 28-nm CMOS technology. The proposed LNA consumed 18.9 mW under a 0.9-V supply. The measured NF is 2.65–4.62 dB within the operating frequency range of 22.9–38.2 GHz, while the peak gain is 14.5 dB. The in-band input 1-dB compression point (IP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1 dB</sub> ) and input third-order intercept point (IIP3) are −13.2 to −6.6 and −3.6 to 3.2 dBm, respectively.

Highlights

T HE ever-increasing demands of high-data-rate and multi-standard wireless application already push the operation band of practical wideband sub-systems to mm-wave frequency
Compared to the previously reported wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) with dual-path noise-canceling scheme operate at 1–20 GHz [25], inductors, transformers, and gm boosting technique are used in the proposed LNA to achieve better gain and noise figure (NF) at higher frequency
A dual-path noise-canceling LNA operated at 22.9–38.2 GHz is presented in this article

Summary

INTRODUCTION

T HE ever-increasing demands of high-data-rate and multi-standard wireless application already push the operation band of practical wideband sub-systems (such as receiver) to mm-wave frequency. For mm-wave application, Li et al [20] presented an antennaLNA co-design principle to implement a CG noise-canceling LNA, where the antenna can be used as a transformer to adjust the noise-canceling performance. By combining the noise-canceling principles in Fig. 1(a) and (b), narrow [24] and wideband [25] dual-path noise-canceling LNAs with reduced noise of both main and auxiliary paths are reported with enhanced NF performance. The dual-path noise-canceling topology is proposed with the ability to reduce the noise in both paths Such LNA consists of a CG amplifier, a resistive feedback CS amplifier, and two amplitude-adjusting amplifiers. The prototype with principle and theoretical analysis of the dual-path noise-canceling LNA is provided, while Section III presents the LNA circuit implementation.

PRINCIPLE AND OPERATION

Dual-Path Noise-Canceling Scheme

Transformer-Based gm Boosting and Amplitude-Adjusting Amplifiers

IMPLEMENTATION

Findings

CONCLUSION