Optimal Design of Ultra-Low-Power 2.4 GHz LNA for IEEE 802.15.4/Bluetooth Applications

Abstract

In this paper, an evolutionary computation-based optimal design of low power, high gain inductive source degenerated CMOS cascode low noise amplifier (LNA) circuit is presented for 2.4[Formula: see text]GHz frequency. The main challenge for the design of radio frequency (RF) LNAs at nanometer range is the thermal noise generated in the short-channel MOSFETs. The short-channel effects (SCEs), such as velocity saturation and channel-length modulation, are considered for the design of CMOS LNA. The evolutionary algorithm taken for this work is Moth-Flame Optimization (MFO) algorithm. MFO is utilized for the optimization of noise figure (NF) while satisfying all the other design performance parameters like gain, matching parameters at input/output, power dissipation, linearity, stability. Optimal values of the sizes of the transistors and other design parameters in designing the LNA circuit are also obtained from the MFO algorithm. The CMOS LNA circuit is designed by using MFO-based optimal design parameters in CADENCE software with a standard 0.18[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m CMOS process. The designed LNA shows a gain of 15.28[Formula: see text]dB, NF of 0.376[Formula: see text]dB, the power dissipation of 936[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]W and IIP3 of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]dBm at 2.4[Formula: see text]GHz. The designed LNA achieves better trade-off which results in an FOM of 42.3[Formula: see text]mW[Formula: see text] and may be useful in the receiver module of IEEE 802.15.4 for WLAN applications.