Differential Low Noise Amplifier Research Articles

RF low power subsampling architecture for wireless communication applications

With the increasing demands of wireless communication, flexible, complex, and diversified wireless communication applications are required. However, the difficulty of enabling new wireless communication applications is the lack of low power radio frequency (RF) transmission devices, especially the RF receiver. In order to alleviate this problem, an RF low power subsampling architecture for wireless communication applications is proposed in this paper. This subsampling architecture adopts a single-ended to differential configured balun low noise amplifier (balun-LNA), a subsampling mixer with high sampling ratio and a finite input response (FIR) filter and infinite impulse response (IIR) filter achieving frequency down-conversion, avoiding using high power-hungry blocks. Based on a subsampling theory, an optimum sampling frequency for the subsampling architecture is necessary to relax the complexity of the system. For the application of internet of things (IoT) wireless communication, the paper provides the implementation of the subsampling receiver solutions to get a tradeoff between power consumption, gain, noise, and sensitivity. It can achieve −85 dBm sensitivity for an amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation at the data rate of 1 Mbps with the clock sampling frequency of 40 MHz. Finally, the theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the performance of the subsampling architecture has several advantages over others.

A 102–129-GHz 39-dB Gain 8.4-dB Noise Figure I/Q Receiver Frontend in 28-nm CMOS

An F-band in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) receiver front-end in 28-nm CMOS for chip-to-chip communication is presented. The receiver consists of a capacitively neutralized differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) chain, a passive ring mixer, zero-IF drivers, and a novel tunable transformer-based quadrature splitter. This paper discusses the effect of capacitive neutralization on common-mode stability, matching losses, and the noise performance of a differential pair. A technique for gain and noise-figure optimization by core sizing and partial neutralization is presented. The receiver exhibits a gain of 39 dB, a 3-dB RF bandwidth of 27 GHz, a noise figure between 8.4 and 10.4 dB, and a P1 dB of 3.2 dBm. The receiver front-end consumes 18 mW from a 1.0-V supply and the baseband I and Q buffers consume a total of 33 mW from a 1.5-V supply. A breakout of the LNA shows a measured gain of 21 dB, a noise figure of 8.0–9.4 dB, with a gain power efficiency of 1.2 dB/mW around 125 GHz.

A low power low noise amplifier employing negative feedback and current reuse techniques

This paper presents a low power wideband differential Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) suited for multimode receivers and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in a 0.18μm CMOS technology. By using negative feedback, the stringent trade-off between the input matching and the transconductance (gm) is broken and the required transconductance of input transistor in Common-Gate (CG) LNA is decreased. As a result of this and also using the current reuse implementation scheme, power consumption (PDC) is significantly reduced. The circuit provides high gain and decreased Noise Figure (NF) in spite of low PDC. The LNA structure is fully inductorless, and the core circuit consumes only 1.3mW from a 1.8-V supply occupying an area of 0.032mm2. A maximum voltage gain of 20.1dB is provided with 3dB bandwidth up to 3.3GHz. The input matching is better than −16dB from 20MHz to 3.3GHz. The minimum NF is 3.2dB with third order Input Intercept Point (IIP3) of −2.4dBm.

A Highly Linear Low Noise Amplifier With Wide Range Derivative Superposition Method

This letter presents an L-band highly linear differential low noise amplifier (LNA) in a standard 90-nm CMOS process. A wide range derivative superposition technique is proposed to maximize the third-order intercept point (IP3), and at the same time, minimize the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) over a wide input power range. The LNA chip achieves a measured OIP3 of $+33.7~{\rm dBm}$ and IMD3 of $-65~{\rm dBc}$ with $-15~{\rm dBm}$ input power. The measured peak gain and minimum noise figure are 15.4 dB and 1.36 dB at 1.27 GHz, respectively. The LNA chip consumes 40 mA from a 3.3-V supply.

SKALA, a log-periodic array antenna for the SKA-low instrument: design, simulations, tests and system considerations

The very demanding requirements of the SKA-low instrument call for a challenging antenna design capable of delivering excellence performance in radiation patterns, impedance matching, polarization purity, cost, longevity, etc. This paper is devoted to the development (design and test of first prototypes) of an active ultra-wideband antenna element for the low-frequency instrument of the SKA radio telescope. The antenna element and differential low noise amplifier described here were originally designed to cover the former SKA-low band (70-450MHz) but it is now aimed to cover the re-defined SKA-low band (50-350MHz) and furthermore the antenna is capable of performing up to 650MHz with the current design. The design is focused on maximum sensitivity in a wide field of view (+/- 45deg from zenith) and low cross-polarization ratios. Furthermore, the size and cost of the element has to be kept to a minimum as millions of these antennas will need to be deployed for the full SKA in very compact configurations. The primary focus of this paper is therefore to discuss various design implications for the SKA-low telescope.

A broadband CMOS RF receiver for digital broadcasting systems

Nowadays digital radio systems are replacing analog radio systems. In this paper, a CMOS RF receiver with frequency synthesizer and analog baseband is introduced, which was fabricated with a 0.18-µm CMOS process for DRM/DAB wideband applications. In the system, a fully differential low noise amplifier with a noise cancelling technology is adopted It has achieved a gain of 11.69 dB. A harmonic rejection mixer was implemented to realize the rejections of 3rd- and 5th-order harmonics. As the local oscillator, a wide-band frequency synthesizer provides a phase noise of ?125 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. The designed RF receiver has achieved a conversion gain of 90 dB. The IIP3 of the receiver is in the range of ?25 to ?12 dBm, and the noise figure of 5.44---14.72 dB. The core circuits draw a current of 78.35 mA from a 1.8-V power supply and the chip occupies 6.46-mm2 die area.

Automatic synthesis of RF front-end blocks using multi-objective evolutionary techniques

Typically the design of a Radio-Frequency (RF) circuit is difficult, time-consuming and often based around an iterative process. In this manuscript, an automatic synthesis of three typical blocks of nowadays RF front-end receivers, a narrowband differential low-noise amplifier, a mixer and a local oscillator, is presented. The synthesis of the three circuits was made at sizing level and was carried out by Analog IC Design Automation (AIDA). AIDA is a multi-objective multi-constraint simulator based automatic IC design tool, which optimizes analog circuits through the usage of evolutionary computation. The performance potential of the circuits and tool is evaluated through electrical simulation results, which are finally compared with recently published state-of-the-art works, with overall better results and little time-consumption, proving the surplus value of using an automatic IC design tool in RF circuitry synthesis.

Nuclear-magnetic mini-relaxometer for liquid and viscous media control

The paper deals with a new method for registration of nuclear magnetic resonance signal of small volume liquid and viscous media being studied (0.5 ml) in a weak magnetic field (0.06 –0.08 T), and measuring of longitudinal T1 and transverse T2 relaxation constants. A new construction of NMR mini-relaxometer magnetic system is developed for registration of NMR signal. The nonuniformity of a magnetic field in a pole where registration coil is located is 0,410–3 sm–1 (the induction is В0 = 0.079 T). An electrical circuit of autodyne receiver (weak fluctuations generator) has been developed with usage of low noise differential amplifier and NMR signal operating and control scheme (based on microcontroller STM32) for measuring of relaxation constants of liquid and viscous media in automatic operating mode. New technical decisions made it possible to improve relaxometer response time and dynamic range of measurements for relaxation constants T1 and T2 in comparison with small sized nuclear-magnetic spectrometer developed by the authors earlier (with accuracy characteristics conservation). The developed schemes for self-tuning of registration frequency, generating amplitude of magnetic field H1 in registration coil, and amplitude and frequency of modulating field provide measuring of T1 and T2 with error less than 0.5 % and signal to noise ratio about 1.2 in temperature range from 3 to 400 C. A new construction of mini-relaxometer reduced the weight of the device to 4 kg (with independent supply unit) and increased transportability and operating convenience.

245 GHz SiGe sensor system for gas spectroscopy

A 245 GHz sensor system for gas spectroscopy is presented, which includes a SiGe receiver (RX), a SiGe transmitter (TX), and a 0.6 m long gas absorption cell between the TX and RX. The integrated local oscillators of the RX and the TX are controlled by two external phase locked loops (PLLs), whose reference frequencies are swept with constant frequency offset for a low IF of the RX. The RX consists of a differential low noise amplifier (LNA), an integrated 122 GHz local oscillator (LO) with 1/64 divider, a 90° differential hybrid, and active subharmonic mixer. The TX consists of an integrated 122 GHz LO with 1/64 divider, and a frequency doubler. The RX and TX are fabricated in 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS with ft/fmax of 300/500 GHz. Using external dielectric lenses for the TX and RX, the absorption spectrum of gaseous methanol has been measured. The reference frequency of the TX-PLL is modulated for frequency-modulation spectroscopy. The performance of the sensor system is demonstrated by measuring the 2f absorption spectrum (second harmonic detection) of gaseous methanol.

A Differential Cascode Low Noise Amplifier Based on a Positive Feedback Gain Enhancement Technique

This paper presents a differential low noise amplifier (LNA) based on a new configuration suitable for low-power and low noise applications. By inserting additional positive feedback capacitor connected to drain and source terminal of the cascode transistor, this proposed configuration increases voltage gain because of decreasing the total transconductance by a factor generated a negative conductance. In addition, the differential structure and power-constrained simultaneous noise and input matching (PCSNIM) technique are chosen simultaneously to perform the input matching and to improve the noise figure at the desired band. Using TSMC 0.18μmRF CMOS process, the proposed LNA exhibit a state of the art performance consuming only 7.58 mW from a 1.8 V power supply. Input and output return loss of the LNA are below than −13dB while achieves a power gain of 18.66 dB and a noise figure of 2.03 dB at the band of interest.

Design of ESD Protection Diodes With Embedded SCR for Differential LNA in a 65-nm CMOS Process

The pin-to-pin electrostatic discharge (ESD) issue for a differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) was studied in this work. A new design of ESD protection diodes with an embedded silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) was proposed to protect the gigahertz differential LNA. The proposed ESD protection design was modified from the conventional ESD protection design without adding any extra device. The SCR path was established directly from one differential input pad to the other differential input pad so the pin-to-pin ESD robustness can be improved. This design had been verified in a 65-nm CMOS process. Besides, this design had been further applied to a 24-GHz LNA in the same 65-nm CMOS process. Experimental results had shown that the proposed ESD protection design for the differential LNA can achieve excellent ESD robustness and good RF performances.

A low-noise transimpedance amplifier for the detection of "Violin-Mode" resonances in Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory suspensions.

This paper describes the design and performance of an extremely low-noise differential transimpedance amplifier, which takes its two inputs from separate photodiodes. The amplifier was planned to serve as the front-end electronics for a highly sensitive shadow-displacement sensing system, aimed at detecting very low-level "Violin-Mode" (VM) oscillations in 0.4 mm diameter by 600 mm long fused-silica suspension fibres. Four such highly tensioned fibres support the 40 kg test-masses/mirrors of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory interferometers. This novel design of amplifier incorporates features which prevent "noise-gain peaking" arising from large area photodiode (and cable) capacitances, and which also usefully separate the DC and AC photocurrents coming from the photodiodes. In consequence, the differential amplifier was able to generate straightforwardly two DC outputs, one per photodiode, as well as a single high-gain output for monitoring the VM oscillations-this output being derived from the difference of the photodiodes' two, naturally anti-phase, AC photocurrents. Following a displacement calibration, the amplifier's final VM signal output was found to have an AC displacement responsivity at 500 Hz of (9.43 ± 1.20) MV(rms) m(-1)(rms), and, therefore, a shot-noise limited sensitivity to such AC shadow- (i.e., fibre-) displacements of (69 ± 13) picometres/√Hz at this frequency, over a measuring span of ±0.1 mm.

A CMOS LNA Using a Harmonic Rejection Technique to Enhance Its Linearity

In this study, we design a differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) using a 0.18- μm RF CMOS process. To improve its linearity, we propose a harmonic rejection technique using RC feedback at the gain stage. The third harmonic component of the drain node of the common-gate transistor is fed back to the source node of the common-gate transistor to restrict the generation of the third harmonic component at the output of the LNA. To verify the feasibility of the proposed technique for a linear amplifier, we designed a typical LNA and the proposed LNA in an identical process and with the same design parameters apart from the feedback loop of the proposed LNA. The measured improvement of the input-referred P1 dB of the proposed LNA is approximately 3 dB compared to that of the typical LNA. From these measured results, we successfully prove the feasibility of the proposed linearization technique.

Tunable 245 GHz transmitter and receiver in SiGe technology for gas spectroscopy

A 245 GHz sensor system for gas spectroscopy is presented, which includes an integrated SiGe transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX), and a 0.6 m-long gas absorption cell between the TX and RX modules. The integrated local oscillators (LOs) of TX and RX chips are controlled by two external phase-locked loops (PLLs), whose reference frequencies are swept with constant frequency offset for a low intermediate frequency of the RX. The RX consists of a differential low-noise amplifier, an integrated 122 GHz LO with a 1/64 divider, a 90° differential hybrid and an active subharmonic mixer. The TX consists of an integrated 122 GHz LO with a 1/64 divider, and a frequency doubler. The TX and RX chips are fabricated in 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology with f T/f max of 300 GHz/500 GHz. Using external dielectric lenses for the TX and RX modules, the gas absorption spectra were measured for acetonitrile and methanol.

A miniaturized 2.4-GHz CMOS low-noise amplifier using a gate-source coupling technique

In this study, we proposed a miniaturization technique for a differential RF CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA). The inductors of the input matching network and for the source degeneration are magnetically coupled to minimize the area for the inductors. By adapting this technique in a CMOS LNA, the parasitic resistance induced by both the input and the source degeneration inductors is reduced, improving the noise figure and gain of the amplifier. To verify the feasibility of the proposed technique, we designed the 2.4-GHz differential LNA using 0.13-µm RF CMOS technology. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1836–1838, 2014

A 0.5–2.5 GHz 910 uW complementary LNA employing positive–negative feedback

A 0.5---2.5 GHz ultra low power differential resistive feedback common gate low noise amplifier (RFCGLNA) without the use of inductor is presented. The proposed RFCGLNA adopts the NMOS and PMOS complementary topology to reduce the power consumption by half. Based on common-gate topology, the proposed RFCGLNA employs capacitive cross-coupling (CCC) and resistive feedback techniques. The CCC technique can further reduce the power consumption by half. The resistive feedback technique can constrain the common mode voltages of the proposed RFCGLNA and meanwhile, improve the third-order input intercept point (IIP3). The DC path is supplied by the current source transistor which forms a positive feedback loop to improve the gain at low frequency. Implemented with 65 nm standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the measured performance achieves 15 dB gain with S11 < ?10 dB in the 0.5---2.5 GHz band. The noise figure (NF) is 3.9---5.0 dB and the IIP3 is 3.1---3.6 dBm. The power consumption is only 910 uW.

Broadband active differential array for the mid-frequency SKA band

This paper presents the design and characterization process of an active array demonstrator for the mid-frequency range (i.e., 300 MHz?1000 MHz) of the future Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. This demonstrator, called FIDA3 (FG-IGN: Fundacion General Instituto Geografico Nacional ? Differential Active Antenna Array), is part of the Spanish contribution for the SKA project. The main advantages provided by this design include the use of a dielectric-free structure, and the use of a fully-differential receiver in which differential low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) are directly connected to the balanced tapered-slot antennas (TSAs). First, the radiating structure and the differential low-noise amplifiers were separately designed and measured, obtaining good results (antenna elements with low voltage standing-wave ratios, array scanning capabilities up to 45°, and noise temperatures better than 52 K with low-noise amplifiers at room temperature). The potential problems due to the differential nature of the proposed solution are discussed, so some effective methods to overcome such limitations are proposed. Second, the complete active antenna array receiving system was assembled, and a 1 m2 active antenna array tile was characterized.

A MULTI-BAND LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER WITH GAIN FLATNESS AND BANDWIDTH ENHANCEMENT

In this paper, a differential multi-band CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed that is operated within a range of 1500–2700 MHz with input matching capacitor switching and gain flatness performance enhancement technique. Traditional multi-band LNAs have poor performances on gain flatness performance. Therefore, we propose a new multi-band LNA which obtain good gain flatness performance by integrating the characteristics of the transistor trans-conductance and LC resonant load. The new LNA can also achieve a tunable frequency at different matching capacitance conditions. The post-layout simulation results shows that the voltage gain is between 19.3 dB and 22.4 dB, the NF is less than 2.5 dB, and the 1-dB compression point is about -5.1 dBm. The LNA consumes 17.79 mW under 1.8 V supply voltage in TSMC 0.18-um RF CMOS process.

A FULLY INTEGRATED NEURAL SIGNAL ACQUISITION AMPLIFIER FOR EPILEPTIC SEIZURE PREDICTION

This paper deals with the design of low power low noise neural signal amplifier for Epileptic Seizure Prediction. The advent of Micro-electro Arrays has driven the need for implantable electronic circuitry to detect those Extracellular neural signals (ENG). We proposed a preamplifier of fully differential Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) with gm boosting in order to enhance the gain as well as reduce the power consumption. Low frequency high pass function has been realized with anti-parallel Diode connected PMOS. Simulation results shows that the input referred noise is 1.24μVrms from 100Hz to 5 KHz, mid-band voltage gain of 44.6dB, and the power consumption is 18.74μw. A new signal processing circuit has been designed extract the seizure onset. The results are validated using Cadence spectre simulator with 180nm technology. Simulation results show that this implantable amplifier is suitable for Epileptic seizure prediction.

A CMOS Wideband Highly Linear Low-Noise Amplifier for Digital TV Applications

<?Pub Dtl=""?> This paper presents a highly linear wideband differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) for digital TV applications. The proposed LNA is a modified version of the wideband LNA reported by Bruccoleri <etal xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> in 2004. In order to increase the linearity of Bruccoleri <etal xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> 's LNA, the Volterra series is adopted to identify the nonlinear components and the noise-cancelling circuit is modified to eliminate the whole nonlinear components. Implemented in 0.13- <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$\mu{\hbox {m}}$</tex> </formula> CMOS technology, the proposed wideband LNA has a gain of 12.4 dB and a noise figure of 1.6 dB, as determined from measurements, while drawing 18.45 mA from a 1.2-V supply. The proposed LNA has an <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex Notation="TeX">${\rm IIP}_{3}$</tex></formula> of 16.6 dBm with 6-MHz frequency offset at 100 MHz, far exceeding the values of existing wideband LNAs.