CMOS RF Low-Noise Amplifier Design for Variability and Reliability

An adaptive substrate (body) bias design for variability and reliability for a CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA) is analyzed. The proposed body biasing scheme provides a radio-frequency circuit that is resilient to process variations and device reliability. Small-signal models including substrate bias effect are developed for noise figure and small-signal power gain sensitivity. The cascode LNA operating at 24 GHz with the adaptive substrate bias scheme is compared with the LNA without body bias using the PTM 65-nm technology. The modeling and simulation results show that the adaptive substrate bias reduces the sensitivity of noise figure and minimum noise figure subject to process variations and device aging such as threshold voltage shift and electron mobility degradation.