UWB 3.1–10.6 GHz CMOS LNA

A novel ultra-wide-band low noise amplifier for 3.1-10.6 GHz operations is presented. The LNA consists of a common gate input stage and a subsequent common source gain stage. The common gate input stage allows the realization of a wideband input integrated matching to the source impedance of the antenna, whereas the common source stage provides a wideband gain by exploiting hybrid RLC tanks. By a properly RLC tank sizing, an ultra-wide-band pass frequency response is obtained. The LNA has been designed by using a standard CMOS 90 nm process by STMicroelectronics. The LNA provides a maximum transducer gain of 11.5 dB at 6.1 GHz, an input reflection coefficient lower than -14.2 dB over the whole frequency range, a mean noise figure equal to 5.5 dB, an input-referred 1-dB compression point of -16.3 dBm and an input-referred third order intercept point of -2.1 dBm.