Low Noise Amplifier Parameters Research Articles

Comparison of single event effect on cascoded low noise amplifier performance metrics for two different frequencies

This manuscript examines the impact of single event effects (SEEs) on the well-known cascoded low noise amplifier (LNA) topology connected with an inter-stage inductor sandwiched between the common source (CS) and common gate transistors for boosting the LNA parameters (i.e., gain, etc). In this article, we have considered that the LNA operates at two different frequencies, such as 10 and 30 GHz, in a radiation-prone environment. The effect of SEEs is analyzed in two ways: (i) non-applying a RF input with dc voltage only, and (ii) applying a RF input with dc bias voltage. The first analysis uses basic integration to evaluate the collected charge (QCollected) for a drain terminal momentary current spike with a suitable time period, and the second analysis estimates the LNA output discontinuity (distortion) using a spectrogram (short-time FFT) to determine the radiation strikes on the cascoded LNA. The collected charge is calculated in the temporal analysis, and the discontinuity of LNA’s RF output is analysed using the spectrogram in the frequency domain analysis. From the temporal and frequency analysis, the LNA that operates at a lower frequency (10 GHz) provides more discontinuity in LNA output (causing more disturbance) than the LNA that operates at a higher frequency (30 GHz).

Optimized Design of Low Power Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Low Noise Amplifier for Zigbee Application

An optimized high gain low power low noise amplifier (LNA) is presented using 90 nm CMOS process at 2.4 GHz frequency for Zigbee applications. For achieving desired design specifications, the LNA is optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO). The PSO is successfully implemented for optimizing noise figure (NF) when satisfying all the design specifications such as gain, power dissipation, linearity and stability. PSO algorithm is developed in MATLAB to optimize the LNA parameters. The LNA with optimized parameters is simulated using Advanced Design System (ADS) Simulator. The LNA with optimized parameters produces 21.470 dB of voltage gain, 1.031 dB of noise figure at 1.02 mW power consumption with 1.2 V supply voltage. The comparison of designed LNA with and without PSO proves that the optimization improves the LNA results while satisfying all the design constraints.

Systematic experimental analysis of an optical sensing microwave low‐noise amplifier

This study presents a systematic experimental analysis of the noise figure and the gain of an optical sensing low-noise amplifier (LNA) in the X-band region (8.5–10.5 GHz). The study has been carried out with the purpose of analysing the effects of a 635 nm optical radiation on the gain and noise figure of the LNA, by modifying the bias operating points. Upon varying the bias conditions from those suggested into the component datasheet towards the device pinch-off, the role of the light exposure changes from causing degradation of the gain and noise figure into a clear performance enhancement. In the middle, a bias condition is found where the above LNA parameters become unresponsive to light exposure. Whilst the detrimental role played by the strong gate current increase under light exposure on the noise figure degradation is already clear, the experimental results show that close to pinch-off this effect is completely overcome by the drain current and transconductance increases.

Design of Low Noise Amplifier for 1.5 GHz

Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is a front-end device of a radio frequency (RF) receiver used to increase the amplitude of an RF signal without much additional noise, thereby increasing the noise figure of the system. This paper presents design, simulation, and prototype of an LNA operating at 1.5 GHz for the bandwidth of 100 MHz. The circuit was simulated using Advanced Design System (ADS). The components used are Surface Mount Devices (SMDs); with transistor "Infineon BFP420" as a major component. Other components are resistors, capacitors, and inductors; inductors being superseded by microstrip lines. The circuit was fabricated on FR4 board. The measurements of several parameters of LNA were made using Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), Noise Figure Meter; and Spectrum Analyzer. The LNA has minimum gain of 15.4 dB and maximum noise figure of 1.33 dB. It is unconditionally stable from 50 MHz to 10 GHz. DC supply is 5V and the current consumption is 10 mA. This LNA offers Output-Third­Order-Intercept-Point (OJP3) of about 1 4 dBm.

Parameter optimization of 5.5 GHz low noise amplifier using multi-objective Firefly Algorithm

This work presents an optimal design of low noise amplifier (LNA) using Firefly Algorithm (FA). In this work we have implemented FA in optimizing various parameters of LNA like linearity, Gain, Noise Figure (NF), input and output matching simultaneously satisfying all the constraint. Since there are five objectives to optimize, they can treated as multiobjective optimization. Weighted sum approach is used to convert these objectives into single objective function. Weights are given according to the priority of objective function. The designed LNA has a cascode structure with inductive source degeneration topology and is implemented and simulated in UMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology using CADENCE tool. The designed LNA has a simulated values: IIP3 of − 2.60 dBm, a gain of 22.15 dB and NF of 1.168 dB at 5.5 GHz frequency. The optimized value of LNA parameter using FA when simulated on MATLAB environment is found to be 0.356 dBm, 23.01, 1.24, − 26.56 and − 18.18 dB for IIP3, Gain, Noise Figure, input and output reflection coefficient, respectively. Results obtained from FA are also compared with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA). Results depicts the better performance of FA over PSO and CSA.

PVT compensated high selectivity low‐power balun LNA for MedRadio communication

A single-to-differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) is proposed for low-power medical devices in the frequency band of 401-406 MHz. The proposed LNA avoids the use of surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter and additional balun in RF receiver front-end. The LNA comprises inductive degeneration common source (IDCS) technique (stage I) and a cascaded common source circuit (stage II). The stage-II is stacked on top of stage-I. The proposed balun LNA incorporates single to differential (SD) conversion for minimum gain and phase error. A compensation bias circuit is proposed to minimise variations in parameters of LNA against process corners, supply voltage and temperature (PVT). An upsurge balun LNA is designed in UMC 0.18-μm CMOS technology, the DC power consumption is 290 μW under a supply voltage of 1 V and the minimum noise figure is 3 dB. The die area of LNA including buffers and bias circuit is 850 μm × 978 μm. The worst-case post layout simulation results show a gain and phase error of 0.8 dB and 10°. The percentage variation of gain and NF against PVT is reduced by 55 and 48%. Furthermore, the balun LNA has out of band rejection at the roll-off rate better than 70 dB/dec.

Optimization of 5.5-GHz CMOS LNA parameters using firefly algorithm

This paper presents an optimal design of low noise amplifier (LNA) using an efficient swarm-based optimizer called firefly algorithm (FA). Many researchers have used firefly algorithm to solve various nonlinear engineering problems and reported outstanding results. In view of this, FA is implemented for the first time in this paper to optimize the parameters of LNA like gain and noise figure (NF). Two case studies have been performed which includes the minimization of NF and maximization of gain. Optimization of these two parameters has been carried out by considering each parameter as a single objective function. Penalty factor method is considered for handling the constraints. Other parameters of LNA like power consumption, linearity, and stability are also discussed for both the cases. The designed LNA has a cascode structure with inductive source degeneration topology and is implemented in UMC 0.18-μm CMOS technology using CADENCE software. LNA is designed for 5.5-GHz frequency. The performance of FA in optimizing the parameters of LNA is also compared with the performance of other similar contemporary algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO), human behavior PSO (HB-PSO), backtracking search algorithm, and cuckoo search algorithm (CSA). The optimized value of LNA parameter using FA and other algorithms when simulated in MATLAB environment is compared with the simulated result of CADENCE. Statistical analysis is also performed for each case study, and the results are compared with the above-mentioned optimization algorithms. Simulation results, comparative study, and statistical analysis confirm the superiority of FA over other methods in terms of its computational efficiency, consistency, and robustness.

Optimal distribution of RF receiver multistandard specification based on multiobjective optimization

ABSTRACTThis article presents a refinement methodology for the global specification of RF receivers producing a detailed optimal specification of architectural components based on a genetic algorithm (GA) optimization. To demonstrate the reliability of our methodology, our approach has been applied to both the IEEE 802.15.4 and DVB‐SH standards for optimizing system constraints such as noise figure (NF) and total third order distortion. This article presents the generation of optimal and feasible solutions as a positive feature of the applied nonlinear multiobjective optimization procedure. Moreover, an algorithm is also proposed to obtain, from one NF of the possible solutions, the feasible design parameters of an inductive source degenerated cascode low noise amplifier (LNA) loaded with a tunable LC tank. By using the values generated by the proposed algorithm, this tunable LNA meets the requirements of both aforementioned standards. An LNA demonstrator was prototyped on a 150‐nm CMOS technology. The actual LNA parameters (NF, gain, and IIP3) can then be back‐annotated onto the top hierarchical instance to produce a last refinement to its remaining components, demonstrating how existing components can be reused using this design approach. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:2262–2269, 2015

Highly linear low voltage low power CMOS LNA

A highly linear, low voltage, low power, low noise amplifier (LNA) using a novel nonlinearity cancellation technique is presented in this paper. Parallel Inductor (PI) matching is used to increase LNA gain by 3dB at the desired frequency. The linear LNA was designed and simulated in a TSMC 0.18μm CMOS process at 5GHz frequency. By employing the proposed technique, the IIP3 is improved by 12dB in contrast to the conventional folded cascode LNA, reaching −1dBm without having any significant effect on the other LNA parameters such as gain, NF and also power consumption. The proposed LNA also delivers a voltage gain (S21) of 12.25dB with a noise figure of 3.5dB, while consuming only 1.28mW of DC power with a low supply voltage of 0.6V.

SIS junction as a microwave noise source

Cooled low noise amplifier (LNA) is used as the first or second component of receiver system in radio astronomy. It is developed all over the world to improve its noise.Noise temperature is one of the most important parameters of LNA because it governs the observation time. It is usually measured by inputting two reference signal which have different power each other and measuring the responses. For accuracy, the power of these reference signals is required to be close to the noise of the LNA. In the conventional method output of a Avalanche diode is attenuated to 1/100 by a cold attenuator and used as a reference signal. In this method the error caused by the attenuator and the cable between the Avalanche diode and LNA is too large (a few 10 %) and another accurate noise measurement method is required.In this research we propose a new method using Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor junction (SIS) as a reference signal. When biased, SIS generates small shot noise that is proportional to the bias voltage so it can be used as a reference signal that make an accurate noise measurement possible (a few % error). First, SIS and SIS housing is designed and fabricated for the shot noise to transmit without any loss and reflection. Then, noise temperature of the LNA is measured by using the conventional method and SIS shot noise method and compared. As a result, there was difference and it was shown that the capacitance of SIS is one of the candidate cause.

Influence of current reuse LNA circuit parameters on its noise figure

A 2.4 GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) with a bias current reuse technique is proposed in this work. To obtain the optimum noise figure (NF) value, dependence of NF on its most influential LNA parameters has been analyzed. Taking into account the LNA design requirements for other figures of merit, values of the circuit parameters are given for the optimum noise figure.