A high-gain wideband balun-LNA with multiple noise-optimized technique

Abstract

This article reports a high-gain wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) with single ended input and differential output for multi-standard wireless receiver operating in 0.2 to 7 GHz. The proposed balun-LNA is cascode structure with common-gate–common-source (CG–CS) balun load to achieve single to differential conversion. Focusing on improving the voltage gain, bandwidth and noise performance at the same time, several techniques are implemented in this balun-LNA. A current source is added shunting CG stage to relieve voltage headroom and improve gain and linearity. Wideband input matching is achieved by active shunt-shunt resistive feedback, together with the input series inductor. Moreover, feedforward and current-reuse technique are introduced to further optimize the noise performance. The proposed LNA has a measured voltage gain of 26 dB which is nearly 6 dB higher than other balun-LNA with same supply and process. Moreover, the minimum noise figure (NF) is 2.0 dB owing to multiple noise-optimized technique. The achieved input power at 1 dB gain compression point (IP1 dB) is −14 dB m at 1 GHz and input return loss (S11) is better than −10 dB across entire operating frequency range. IIP3 and IIP2 achieve −7 dBm and 25 dBm respectively, measured at 1 GHz. The power consumption is 15.5 mW at 1.2 V supply. The LNA is fabricated in 130 nm CMOS process and the active area is 0.097 mm2. The LNA achieves high voltage gain and wide operating frequency range with low NF, which can be reflected from the figure of merit (FOM) of 23.1.