Input Impedance Matching Research Articles

A New CMOS Fully Differential Low Noise Amplifier for Wideband Applications

In this paper, a multi-stage fully differential low noise amplifier (LNA) has been presented for wideband applications. A common-gate input stage is used to improve the input impedance matching and linearity. A common-source stage is also used as the second stage to enhance gain and reduce noise. A shunt-shunt feedback is employed to extend bandwidth and enhance linearity. The proposed low noise amplifier has been designed and simulated using RF-TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS process technology. In frequency band of 3.5-7.5 GHz, this amplifier has a flat power gain (S21) of 16.5 ± 1.5 dB, low noise figure (NF) of 3dB, input (S11) and output (S22) return losses less than -10 dB and high linearity with input thirdorder intercept point (IIP3) of -3dBm. It’s power consumption is also less than 10 mw with low power supply voltage of 0.8v.

A 0.18-V 382-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$ </tex-math> </inline-formula>W Bluetooth Low-Energy Receiver Front-End With 1.33-nW Sleep Power for Energy-Harvesting Applications in 28-nm CMOS

This paper describes an ultra-low-voltage Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) receiver (RX) front end with an on-chip micropower manager ( $\mu $ PM) to customize the internal voltage domains. It aims at direct powering by the sub-0.5-V energy-harvesting sources like the on-body thermoelectric, eliminating the loss and cost of the interim dc–dc converters. Specifically, the RX incorporates: 1) a two-stage power-gating low-noise amplifier with fully on-chip input-impedance matching and passive gain boosting reducing both the active and sleep power; 2) a class-D voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in parallel with a class-C starter to secure a fast startup; and 3) a $\mu $ PM using ring-VCO-locked charge pumps and bandgap references to withstand the supply-voltage variation (0.18–0.3 V). Fabricated in 28-nm CMOS, the RX operates down to a 0.18-V supply, while exhibiting 11.3-dB NF and −12.5-dBm out-of-band IIP3. The VCO shows $\mu \text{W}$ and 1.33 nW, respectively.

A common‐gate common‐source low noise amplifier based RF front end with selective input impedance matching for blocker‐resilient receivers

SummaryThis paper presents an integrated wideband radio frequency front end with improved blocker resilience achieved through selective voltage attenuation at both input and output nodes of the low noise amplifier (LNA). The architecture differs from traditional LNA architectures where blockers are only attenuated at LNA output node. The proposed dual attenuation is attained by designing a low intrinsic input impedance common‐gate common‐source LNA with capacitive feedback, together with an N‐path filtering load. The capacitive feedback across the LNA ensures that the selective N‐path filtering profile at the LNA output is transferred to the LNA input nodes creating a selective input impedance. Consequently, the achieved front‐end input impedance is low at blocker frequencies and matched to the source impedance at the desired frequencies, creating the desired voltage attenuation for blockers. Further, a detailed theoretical analysis of proposed architecture is presented, which leads to clear design guidelines. Evaluated in a 28‐nm fully depleted silicon‐on‐insulator complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, front end is designed for wideband operation from 0.7 to 2.7 GHz. It consumes 11‐mA current from a 1‐V supply (excluding local oscillator (LO) buffering) and possesses a maximum noise figure of 5.1 dB. The front end demonstrates an out‐of‐band blocker compression point of −1.5 dBm and out‐of‐band IIP3 of +14 dBm at a 100‐MHz offset from LO frequency. In comparison with a traditional common‐gate common‐source LNA‐based front end with wideband input impedance matching, the proposed front end achieves 3.5‐dB improvement in the blocker compression point at a 100‐MHz offset from LO.

Transformer-Based Input Integrated Matching in Cascode Amplifiers: Analytical Proofs

The transformer-based input integrated matching allows the realization of the simultaneous optimum noise and maximum power transfer input impedance matching in cascode amplifiers by exploiting the mutual coupling between the two spirals of an integrated transformer. This technique has been adopted to design LNAs operating in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency ranges; however, the analytical proofs are still missing. This paper addresses for the first time a complete and in-depth study of the circuit topology and design technique in order to provide the analytical proofs. In-depth analyses are also used to get useful circuit insights, derive effective design equations, and carry out a direct comparison with the most widespread cascode low-noise amplifier with inductive degeneration through circuit design under the same conditions.

An Ultrasonic Through-Metal-Wall Power Transfer System with Regulated DC Output

This paper presents a novel and efficient system capable of transmitting medium-power electric energy through a solid metal wall and generating a regulated direct current (DC) output. The electric power is transmitted using radio frequency (RF) ultrasound without physical penetration. An RF alternating current to direct current converter with input impedance matching is used to convert the transmitted RF signal to a DC output, which is directly suitable as a power supply for electronic devices. The system is constructed from commercial off-the-shelf components, and a computer-controlled measurement method is designed to test the effectiveness of the full system. The measurement results show that the system is able to transfer power through a 40-mm-thick stainless steel plate and generate 5-V, 15.7-W regulated DC output power with an overall power transfer efficiency of 27.7%. In addition, the effectiveness of the system is successfully demonstrated by powering ARM® evaluation boards with liquid-crystal display panels. A discussion of potential enhancements that could be made to improve the transfer capability and efficiency of the system is also presented. This system could be applied to improve safety and preserve structural integrity in many industrial and military applications, such as submarines, space crafts, planes, nuclear storage facilities, etc.

Design of Low Power UWB CMOS Low Noise Amplifier using Active Inductor for WLAN Receiver

This paper presents a low power Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) using 0.18µm CMOS technology for ultra wide band (UWB) applications. gm boosting common gate (CG) LNA is designed to improve the noise performance. For the reduction of on chip area, active inductor is employed at the input side of the designed LNA for input impedance matching. The proposed UWB LNA is designed using Advanced Design System (ADS) at UWB frequency of 3.1-10.6 GHz. Simulation results show that the gain of 10.74+ 0.01 dB, noise figure is 4.855 dB, input return loss <-13 dB and 12.5 mW power consumption.

High‐gain broadside dipole planar AMC antenna for 60 GHz applications

A novel 60 GHz high-gain planar artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) antenna is proposed. The prototype of the antenna is a dipole structure with a broadband input impedance match. Parasitic patches and a novel AMC plane are successively used to enhance its broadside gain. The antenna has a compact size of 7.5 mm × 8 mm, including the modified AMC plane. Simulated and measured results both show the antenna has good properties of return losses better than 10 dB, stable peak gains up to 10.9 dBi and favourable radiation patterns from 57 to 64 GHz, which all denote that it is fit for 60 GHz wireless portable communication systems.

Design and analysis of high gain and low noise figure CMOS low noise amplifier for Q-band nano-sensor application

A high gain, low power, low Noise figure (NF) and wide band of milli-meter Wave (mmW) circuits design at 50 GHz are used for Radio Frequency (RF) front end. The fundamental necessity of a receiver front-end includes perfect output and input impedance matching and port-to-port isolation with high gain and low noise over the entire band of interest. In this paper, a design of Cascade-Cascode CMOS LNA circuit at 50 GHz for Q-band application is proposed. The design of Low noise amplifier at 50 GHz using Agilent ADS tool with microstrip lines which provides simplicity in fabrication and less chip area. The low off-leakage current Ioff can be maintained with high K-dielectrics CMOS structure. Nano-scale electronics can be achieved with increased robustness. The design has overall gain of 11.091 dB and noise figure of 2.673 dB for the Q-band of 48.3 GHz to 51.3 GHz. Impedance matching is done by T matching network and the obtained input and output reflection coefficients are S11 = <−10 dB and S22 = <−10 dB. Compared to Silicon (Si) material, Wide Band Gap semiconductor materials used attains higher junction temperatures which is well matched to ceramics used in packaging technology, the protection and reliability also can be achieved with the electronic packaging. The reverse transmission coefficient S21 is less than −21 dB has shown that LNA has better isolation between input and output, Stability factor greater than 1 and Power is also optimized in this design. Layout is designed, power gain of 4.6 dB is achieved and area is optimized which is nearly equal to 502 740 μm2. The observed results show that the proposed Cascade-Cascode LNA design can find its suitability in future milli-meter Wave Radar application.

Dual-Band Skin-Adhesive Repeater Antenna for Continuous Body Signals Monitoring

We present a 35-mm diameter skin-adhesive antenna intended to operate as a gateway to relay the low power signals from a sensor implanted in the body to an external base station (BS). Such a device would be useful in the context of body area networks (BANs) for continuous body-signal monitoring. The proposed adhesive repeater is of very low profile, and it is designed for dual-band operation at the ISM band (2.4 GHz) and in the ultrawideband (UWB) spectrum (4–10.6 GHz) using a single excitation port. The ISM band is used for in-body communication with the implants and the UWB band for off-body burst communication with the BS. The antenna consists of three layers that grant it compactness and performance robustness. We assess the in-body link between the repeater and a custom-designed miniaturized implantable probe antenna. The study is performed in the frequency domain with results showing adequate input impedance matching ( s 11 ≤ −10 dB) and robustness to different body parts. We extend the analysis to time domain by transmitting a synthetized medical signal between the two antennas. In addition, we evaluate the feasibility of an off-body link for burst communication. Again, the results indicate very good performance by the repeater antenna both in terms of impedance matching ( s 11 ≤ −10 dB) and preservation of time signals (fidelity ≥ 75%), which is relevant in impulse radio systems. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first time this kind of dual-band adhesive antenna is being proposed for BANs, complete with performance tests using frequency- and time-domain figures-of-merit.

An Integrated Two-Mode Tunable Channelized Low-Noise Active Filter

In this paper, a new structure for an integrated channelized active filter is proposed. This filter can be used as a channelized bandpass filter and again as a channelized band-stop filter. This is fulfilled by using one biasing voltage. In designing a three-channel bandpass filter, a recursive differential structure is used. Moreover, by subtracting bandpass filter output from an all-pass output, the proposed three-channel band-stop filter is achieved. A wideband amplifier plays the role of an all-pass filter. In addition, to decrease the noise of this filter, a noise-canceling circuit is adopted. By using this circuit, input impedance matching is obtained simultaneously. The center frequencies of the two-mode channelized filter are 2, 4 and 6[Formula: see text]GHz. In each of them, the center frequency is controlled via two biasing voltages. The maximum center frequency shift is 450[Formula: see text]MHz. For designing the proposed circuit, GaAs 0.15[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m technology is applied. The occupied area is [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm2.

A New Fractal Multiband Antenna for Wireless Power Transmission Applications

The Microwave Power Transmission (MPT) is the possibility of feeding a system without contact by using microwave energy. The challenge of such system is to increase the efficiency of transmitted energy from the emitter to the load. This can be achieved by rectifying the microwave energy using a rectenna system composed of an antenna of a significant gain associated with a rectifier with a good input impedance matching. In this paper, a new multiband antenna using the microstrip technology and fractal geometry is developed. The fractal antenna is validated into simulation and measurement in the ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) band at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz and it presents a wide aperture angle with an acceptable gain for both bands. The final antenna is printed over an FR4 substrate with a dimension of 60 × 30 mm2. These characteristics make the antenna suitable for a multiband rectenna circuit use.

A Linear Array for Short Range Radio Location and Application Systems

Patch array antennas have primarily been good candidates for higher performance results in communication systems. This paper comprises of linear 1x4 patch antenna array study constructed on 1.575mm thick Roggers 5880 substrate with high gain of 12.8dB and focused directivity of 12.9dBi. The array network is fed using T Junction method showing well matched input impedance results. With higher performance parameters and reflection coefficient, voltage standing wave ratio, the proposed antenna array is suited for short range radiolocation and radio services application.

3–10 GHz noise‐cancelling CMOS LNA using g m ‐boosting technique

An ultra-wideband (UWB) low-noise amplifier (LNA) using a 0.11 μm CMOS technology is proposed. The common-gate (CG) input stage for wideband input impedance matching and the common-source (CS) stage for noise cancelling are applied. In the proposed LNA, the current of the CG input stage can be significantly reduced by applying the g m -boosting technique using the noise-cancelling CS stage without additional amplifier, and the noise performance can be improved at the same power consumption. For low-power operation, the LNA consumes 2.9 mW and achieves a noise figure (NF) of S 21 between 16.5 and 17.6 dB at S 11 , lower than -12.4 and 3.6-3.7 dB at frequencies of 3-10 GHz. In low-noise operation, the LNA consumes 8.3 mW, achieving S 11 of less than -10.7 dB, S 21 of 17.5-18.7 dB, and NF of 2.4-2.9 dB.

A novel miniaturized log-periodic dipole array antenna using dynamic scaling factor for RFID application

A novel radio frequency identification antenna based on log-periodic dipole array (LPDA) antenna at 5.8 GHz is presented. The antenna design approach consists of two major steps. Firstly, the conventional primitive method is used to design a traditional LPDA antenna. The antenna structure is then miniaturized and its overall performance significantly improved. Dynamic scaling factor along with uniformly separated elements are introduced in this class of antenna, resulting in a 51.5% length reduction. To improve front-to-back (F/B) ratio a symmetrical folding technique is employed, leading to 21.5 dB F/B ratio for the fabricated prototype. An excellent level of input impedance matching (S11 = −28 dB) is achieved using a well-designed feeding system through a proximity coupling technique. The measured gain of the fabricated prototype is 6.2 dBi, and the overall dimension of the antenna substrate is only 30 × 45 mm2 (0.58λ0 × 0.87λ0).

Design of UWB low noise amplifier using noise-canceling and current-reused techniques

In this paper, an ultra-wideband (UWB) low-noise amplifier (LNA) with low noise-figure (NF) and high power gain (S21) using 0.18-um CMOS technology is presented, which operates from 3GHz up to 12GHz. In the proposed amplifier, a combination of noise-canceling and current-reused technique is used to reduce noise and power consumption, while the gain and the linearity will be improved. The dominant noise source is canceled by the noise-canceling technique. In addition, good input impedance matching is achieved with using both the inductive source degeneration and resistive feedback techniques. The proposed LNA achieves high and flat S21 of 19.24–20.24dB and S11 less than −10dB for frequencies 3–12GHz. Additionally, flat NF of 1.72–1.99dB is achieved for the frequency range of 3–12GHz. Furthermore, the IIP3 is −5.5dBm, power consumptions at 1.8-V supply voltage is 23.23mW and the core layout size is 857.06µm×770.72µm.

New Miniature Planar Microstrip Antenna Using DGS for ISM Applications

The aim of this paper is to use defected ground structures (DGS) in order to miniaturize a microstrip patch antenna. The DGS structure is integrated in the ground plane to improve the performance of the planar antenna, and shifted the resonance frequency from 5.8 GHz to 2.5 GHz, with a miniaturization up to 83%. The antenna is designed, optimized, and miniaturized by using the CST MW-studio, mounted on an FR-4 substrate having a dielectric constant 4.4, a loss tangent tan (ɸ)=0.025, thickness of 1.6 mm with the whole area of 34X34 mm2.The proposed antenna is suitable for ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) applications at 2.5 GHz with S11 ≤(-10) dB. The antenna is fed by 50ohm input impedance and it has good performances in terms of matching input impedance and radiation pattern. The proposed antenna was fabricated and tested.Simulation and measurement results are in good agreement.

A V‐band high dynamic range planar integrated power detector: Design and characterization process

AbstractIn this paper, a high dynamic range V‐band power detector designed in thin film Miniature Hybrid Microwave Integrated Circuit (MHMIC) process is presented and characterized. The commercially available HSCH‐9161 millimeter‐wave zero bias GaAs Schottky diode is selected to manufacture the proposed power detector circuit, along with a broadband rectangular WR12 waveguide to microstrip transition, and an optimized microstrip impedance matching network. The design and characterization steps are described in detail to provide a consistent methodology to design high‐performance power detectors, while taking into account the accuracy, nonlinearity, and limitation of the measurement devices. The fabricated power detector prototype exhibits good input impedance matching (bandwidth of 3.8 GHz), high operational stability over 58.5–62 GHz frequency range, excellent sensitivity (−48 dBm), and high detection responsivity (peak of 8250 mV/mW at 61.2 GHz).

FDTD based Analysis of Input Impedance of a Wearable Patch Antenna with Milli Bends

Wearable antennas are prone to bending and crumpling. This work presents the analysis of input impedance of a wearable patch antenna with milli bends using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. FDTD method using stair case scheme is used to model milli bends at different places along the length of a wearable patch antenna and the effect of milli bends on input impedance of the wearable patch antenna is presented developing a FDTD code for it. It is shown that presence of milli bends in a wearable patch antenna significantly changed the input impedance of the antenna under consideration. It is observed that milli bends closer to the feeding strip line provided better input impedance matching. Results concluded that change in input impedance leads to change in resonant frequency and reflection coefficient of the antenna. General Terms: RF and microwave communication, Antenna design and analysis.

Concurrent Quad-band Low Noise Amplifier (QB-LNA) using Multisection Impedance Transformer

&lt;span&gt;A quad-band low noise amplifier (QB-LNA) based on multisection impedance transformer designed and evaluated in this research. As a novelty, a multisection impedance transformer was used to produce QB-LNA. A multisection impedance transformer is used as input and output impedance matching because it has higher stability, large Q factor, and low noise than lumpedcomponent.The QB-LNA was designed on FR4 microstrip substrate with &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;e&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;r= 4.4, thickness h=0.8 mm, and tan &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;d&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;= 0.026. The proposed QB-LNA was designed and analyzed by Advanced Design System (ADS).The simulation has shown that QB-LNA achieves gain (S&lt;sub&gt;21&lt;/sub&gt;) of 22.91 dB, 16.5 dB, 11.18 dB, and 7.25 dB at 0.92 GHz, 1.84 GHz, 2.61 GHz, and 3.54 GHz, respectively.The QB-LNA obtainreturn loss (S&lt;sub&gt;11&lt;/sub&gt;) of -21.28 dB, -31.87 dB, -28.08 dB, and -30.85 dB at 0.92 GHz, 1.84 GHz, 2.61 GHz, and 3.54 GHz, respectively. It also achieves a noise figure (nf) of 2.35 dB, 2.13 dB, 2.56 dB, and 3.55 dB at 0.92 GHz, 1.84 GHz, 2.61 GHz, and 3.54 GHz, respectively. This research also has shown that the figure of merit (FoM) of the proposed QB-LNA is higher than that of another multiband LNA.&lt;/span&gt;

Impedance Matching Antenna-Integrated High-Efficiency Energy Harvesting Circuit.

This paper describes the design of a high-efficiency energy harvesting circuit with an integrated antenna. The circuit is composed of series resonance and boost rectifier circuits for converting radio frequency power into boosted direct current (DC) voltage. The measured output DC voltage is 5.67 V for an input of 100 mV at 900 MHz. Antenna input impedance matching is optimized for greater efficiency and miniaturization. The measured efficiency of this antenna-integrated energy harvester is 60% for −4.85 dBm input power and a load resistance equal to 20 kΩ at 905 MHz.