In-situ noise characterization of a 20–35 GHz 32 nm SOI CMOS reconfigurable LNA using a broadband on-chip noise source

A novel broadband current-mode noise source implemented in 32 nm SOI CMOS and appropriate for the in-situ testing of wide-band millimeter-wave low noise amplifiers is presented. The noise source was used to characterize a 20-35 GHz low noise amplifier and it was found that the noise source ENR is sufficiently repeatable to enable accurate noise measurements without the individual calibration of each integrated circuit. To the authors´ knowledge, this work represents the first time that a CMOS integrated noise source has been used to characterize the noise performance of a millimeter-wave amplifier.