ESD-protected CMOS 3-5 GHz wideband LNA+PGA design for UWB

This work presents the design of a low noise amplifier (LNA) and programmable gain amplifier (PGA) set targeted for a fully integrated 3-5 GHz UWB transceiver in standard 0.13 μm CMOS. The circuit designs were optimized for best performance in terms of noise figure, linearity, gain, gain flatness, power consumption and ESD-hardness. For minimal crosstalk risk, differential designs with small areas were preferred. Measured LNA+PGA testchip shows a gain of 25.8 dB, with a gain flatness of 1 dB from 3-5 GHz, a NF of 3.6 dB at 3 GHz, an input compression point of -22.7dBm and an HBM ESD hardness of 1.5 kV at a total power consumption of 45 mW.