A Compact, Low-Power, Low-NF, Millimeter-Wave Cascode LNA With Magnetic Coupling Feedback in 22-nm FD-SOI CMOS for 5G Applications

Abstract

This brief presents a 2-stage, low-power, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) LNA that aims at first to reduce its passive area through a transformer formed with inductors between the gate and source sides of the input transistor in a source-degenerated cascode. While reducing the passive area, the introduced transformer creates a magnetic feedback that further reduces the LNA’s noise figure (NF). We provide a theoretical analysis of this feedback-based noise reduction method and validate it with simulations and experimental results. The LNA has been fabricated in 22-nm FD-SOI CMOS and has a core area of only 0.09 mm2. The measurement results show that this design achieves a minimum 2.1 dB NF and a maximum 23.1 dB gain between 23.7–28.5 GHz at a power dissipation of only 5.6 mW from a 0.6V supply. Furthermore, despite using only a 0.6V supply voltage, IIP3 can still reach −16.5 dBm at 28 GHz. Targeting mm-wave 5G applications, the presented LNA is among the best-in-class with a sub-1V supply voltage.