A Full-Band Mobile-TV LNA with Mixed-Voltage ESD Protection in 90-nm CMOS

Abstract

This chapter presents a number of circuit techniques enforced in the design of an electrostatic discharge (ESD)-protected ultra-wideband (UWB) low-noise amplifier (LNA) for mobile-TV applications. Unlike the design of narrowband LNAs, concurrent reception over a wide range of spectrum necessitates the LNA to feature high linearity, preventing desensitization by the high-power blockers. This requirement, in conjunction with the obvious design goals of ESD protected input, low noise figure (NF), low power, impedance match and high gain, constitute hard tradeoffs to obtain a sensible balance and good compromise among all. The proposed LNA is to cover the full band of mobile-TV services from 170 to 1,700 MHz such that only one LNA is necessary to support multiple standards. It features a PMOS-based open-source input structure to optimize the I/O swings under a mixed-voltage ESD protection while offering an inductorless broadband input impedance match. The amplification core exploiting double current reuse and single-stage thermal-noise cancellation enhances the gain and noise performances with high power efficiency. Optimized in a 90-nm 1.2/2.5-V CMOS process with practical issues taken into account, the LNA using a constant-g m bias circuit achieves competitive and robust performances over process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variation. The simulated voltage gain is 20.6 dB, noise figure is 2.4–2.7 dB and IIP3 is +10.8 dBm. The power consumption is 9.6 mW at 1.2 V. |S11| < –10 dB is achieved up to 1.9 GHz without needing any external resonant network. Human Body Model ESD zapping tests of ±4 kV at the input pins cause no failure of any device.