Millimeter-wave Frequency Reconfigurable Low Noise Amplifiers for 5G

Abstract

In this brief, designs of two millimeter wave (mmWave) reconfigurable multi band low noise amplifiers (LNA) are presented targeted for fifth generation (5G) communications. A reconfigurable tunable load based on electrical and magnetic tuning is proposed to cover three mmWave frequency bands for 5G, i.e. 24 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz. Two LNA structures are designed and fabricated using 45nm CMOS SOI technology. The first toplogy (LNA1) is composed of a single input wideband matching circuit to cover frequency operations from 24 GHz to 40 GHz. On the other hand, second topology (LNA2) uses three separate narrowband match inputs, one for each frequency band, with combined output. Design methodology of passive and active devices is presented towards compact integration of LNAs for systems such as, phased arrays. Ground plane and its impact on the performance parameters is also discussed in this work. Measurement results show a wideband noise figure (NF) ranging from 3.8 dB to 4.9 dB and gain of 8.5 dB to 12.5 dB for LNA1 at different bands. Similarly, LNA2 exhibits NF of 4.5 dB to 5.5 dB and gain of 9.5 dB to 15.5 dB across all bands. Total area (including pads) of LNA1 and LNA2 are 0.316 mm 2 and 0.695 mm 2 , respectively.

Design and analysis of 28 GHz CMOS low power LNA with 6.4 dB gain variability for 5G applications

“…Reduction of power consumption in LNA is a required and complex process, because the LNA requires sufficient power to amplify the signal and to reduce the noise. 6 The LNA should be capable of amplifying a weak signal with minimum noise and maximum gain. There is a trade-off between the power consumption and gain of the LNA.…”

“…Thus, the remaining blocks of the receiver operates at lower frequency than the frequency of LNA and mixer. Reduction of power consumption in LNA is a required and complex process, because the LNA requires sufficient power to amplify the signal and to reduce the noise 6 . The LNA should be capable of amplifying a weak signal with minimum noise and maximum gain.…”

A K/Ka-Band Switchless Reconfigurable 65 nm CMOS LNA Based on Suspended Substrate Coupled Line

“…The main issue with wideband LNAs is that they amplify the unwanted signal with the desired signal, degrading the receiver's sensitivity. Reconfigurable LNAs are another approach to develop wideband receivers with good interference rejection, and many multiband LNAs are reported in [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. A reconfigurable multimode LNA realized by incorporating a switched multitap transformer into the input matching network and tunable load based on electrical and magnetic tuning operating at 3 single bands (24/28/39 GHz) is proposed in [8], but they have less gain around 12 dB and high NF up to 5 dB.…”

Ultra-wideband Reconfigurable Low-noise Amplifier Based on 5G Communication

“…The application of the millimeter wave band has greatly enriched the available bandwidth resources for 5G communication, but due to the short wavelength of the high frequency band, there are serious path propagation loss and blocking loss problems in communication, and the cost of achieving continuous coverage is high, which makes millimeter wave communication has not been able to completely replace low frequency communication, and communication within the sub-6G bandwidth is easy to achieve effective coverage, and it is still the core frequency in 5G communication [1]. Both low-frequency and highfrequency communications have their own advantages and disadvantages, so it makes sense to design transceiver systems that can be used in both high and low frequency bands [2]. According to the hexagonal rule of radio frequency chip design, the design of the transceiver chip requires a compromise between the following six aspects: noise figure (NF) power consumption, operation frequency, gain, supply voltage, and linearity.…”