A 2.5-GHz 8.9-dBm IIP3 current-reused LNA in 0.18-μm CMOS technology

Abstract

A 2.5-GHz low power high gain and high linearity CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) is presented. The modified derivative superposition (MDS) technique is employed to improve the linearity performance. The bulkbias control of auxiliary transistor (AT) in MDS technique is used to extend the AT's bias control range. The currentreused topology is utilized to full-fill the low power consumption and high gain simultaneously. The proposed LNA is fabricated in a 0.18-um 1P3M RF CMOS process and consumes a 4.36-mA quiescent current from a 1V voltage supply. The measurement results show that the proposed LNA achieves 20.1dB power gain, 1.44dB NF, -17.5-dB input P1dB, 8.9-dBm IIP3, 26.4-dB and 20.9-dB input and output return loss, respectively. Key words: Current-reused; Bulk-bias control; Modified derivative superposition technique; LNA; INTRODUCTIONWith the advance of wireless communication system and technology in recent years, many wireless electronic products such as smart-phone become more portable, power-saving, and also provide a greater variety of services. Low noise figure, low power consumption, high gain and high linearity [i.e., the third-order intercept (IIP3)] of RF amplifiers such as LNA are demanded by and extremely important to wires communication system. However, it's almost impossible to achieve a strategy which can face the all desired performance. To date, two mode design strategy are adopt to achieve desired goals, one is high gain, low noise but low linearity for small desired signal with small interference and another is low gain, high linearity but high noise for large desired signal with large interference [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].Among the variety of conventional LNA input topologies, such as resistive match common source (CS), common gate (CG), and resistive feedback CS topologies, the source inductive degeneration CS input topology shows the most promising solution. In the circuit level, the current-reused structure is adopted to full-fill the low power consumption and high gain, simultaneously [1] [2].In order to achieve high linearity, several approaches such as the current amplification technique, feed-forward distortion cancellation technique, and the derivative superposition (DS) technique have been proposed to enhance the linearity of CMOS amplifiers [3][4][5] [9]. The derivative superposition technique, a non-linearity compensation method of trans-conductance, is one of the most effective ways to improve linearity in practical applications. The derivative superposition technique, also known as multiple gated transistors (MGTRs), uses an auxiliary transistor(AT), which is properly sized and biased to compensate for the third-order nonlinearity ( the second derivative of transconductance) of trans-conductance of the main transistor(MT), resulting in the total third-order nonlinearity trans-conductance will be closed to zero [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].In this paper, the design and implementation of a 2.5GHz current reused topology (which utilizing a capacitance as RF signal coupler) low noi...

Design of a high performance narrowband low noise amplifier using an on-chip orthogonal series stacked differential fractal inductor for 5G applications

“…The resistive terminated LNA [16] and common gate LNA [17] have good input matching but the noise figure (NF) is exceptionally high. Furthermore, shunt-resistive feedback [18,19] and current reuse [20,21] techniques have good performance in terms of NF but they are not stable and have a large input/output impedance issue. The cascode LNA circuit topology with inductive source degeneration has better input matching, high gain, good stability, and low NF [22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

A duplex current‐reused CMOS LNA with complementary derivative superposition technique

“…Recently with the development of the Internet of things (IoT), wearable devices and medical electronic, the market demand growth of low‐power radio frequency (RF) front‐end ICs is rapid . Feature performance of low noise and power consumption, high gain and linearity in RF amplifiers design such as LNA is extremely important to wireless communication system.…”

“…Feature performance of low noise and power consumption, high gain and linearity in RF amplifiers design such as LNA is extremely important to wireless communication system. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find a strategy to achieve the all desired performance .…”

“…Compared with the traditional low‐noise amplifier (LNA)design techniques and methods, the C‐R technique is proposed for low‐power application while preserving high gain. In the circuit level, though a new low‐power topology of base coupled differential LNA is proposed in , the C‐R structure still shows the most promising solution to fulfil the low‐power consumption and high gain, simultaneously . Some work and techniques about C‐R CMOS LNA are reported , but they seem not to achieve a good trade‐off between high linearity and high‐enough gain performance.…”

“…In order to improve the linearity, several techniques such as the differential multiple gated transistor linearization method , the feed‐forward distortion cancellation technique and the derivative superposition (DS) technique have been proposed . And in , the effect of the matching network on the linearity is analyzed.…”