A wideband GaN low noise amplifier for a frequency sensing system

A broadband low noise amplifier (LNA), which is introduced for a frequency sensing system to detect the white space bands, is proposed. It has a distributed amplifier configuration with an active gate terminator and is fabricated using a 0.25-µm gallium nitride (GaN) foundry. The LNA achieves broad frequency range, low noise performance, and high 1 dB gain compression point (P1dB) simultaneously. Its gain is more than 10 dB, noise figure is below 4 dB, and input P1dB is more than 10 dBm at 600 MHz up to 6GHz. The chip size is 3.0 mm × 3.4 mm.