A 1.4 mA & 3 mW, SiGe90, BiFET low noise amplifier for wireless portable applications

A 3 mW silicon-based LNA has been built using a novel cascoded Bipolar/mosFET (BiFET) configuration in SiGe90, a SiGe BiCMOS process optimized for next-generation wireless applications. Ultra-low current (1.4 mA) and power consumption (3 mW) is achieved with a 16 dB power gain, a 1.6 dB minimum noise figure and -6.5 dBm IIP3 operating in the PCS band. By using this cascoded configuration, the BiFET LNA can operate up to 5 V and reach a high power gain of over 20 dB. This LNA has been packaged and measured through an input & output 50 ohm PC board match. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest current silicon-based LNA reported to date which maintains good PCS band performance.