This paper presents a CMOS W-band amplifier adopting a novel neutralization technique for high gain and stability. The W-band amplifier consists of four common-source differential gain cells that are neutralized by a cross-coupled MOS–varactor pair. Contrary to conventional neutralizations, the proposed technique enables tunable neutralization, so that the gate-to-drain capacitance of transistors is accurately tracked and neutralized as the varactor voltage is adjusted. This makes the neutralization tolerant of capacitance change caused by process–voltage–temperature (PVT) variation or transistor model inaccuracy, which commonly occurs at mm-wave frequencies. The proposed tunable neutralization is experimentally confirmed by measuring gain and stability of the W-band amplifier fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process. The amplifier achieves a measured gain of 17.5 dB at 79 GHz and a 3-dB bandwidth from 77.5 to 84 GHz without any stability issue. The DC power consumption is 56.7 mW and the chip area is 0.85 mm2.
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