Design of UWB LNA in 45nm CMOS technology: Planar bulk vs. FinFET

This paper describes the design of a single-stage differential low noise amplifier (LNA) for ultra wide band(UWB) applications, implemented in state of the art Planar and FinFET 45 nm CMOS technologies. A g_m-boosted topology has been chosen and the LNA has been designed to work over the whole UWB band (3.1 - 10.6 GHz), while driving a capacitive load. The simulations highlight that, at the present stage of the technology development, the Planar version of the LNA outperforms the FinFET one thanks to the superior cutoff frequency f_T of Planar devices in the inversion region, achieving comparable Noise Figure and voltage gain, but consuming less power.