Micro-watt inductorless gm-boost LNA for biomedical implants

In this paper a low power, inductor-less g_m-boosted LNA architecture suitable for biomedical implants in the MICS band (402-405 MHz) together with an overview of some traditional architectures for designing LNAs are presented. These architectures are compared in terms of suitability for biomedical implants based on a conventional figure of merit (FOM) and two new modified FOMs more suitable for biomedical implants considering the emphasis for low power and small size requirements for such devices. Based on the post layout simulation results in 130 nm IBM technology, the proposed LNA achieves 26 dB gain with a 4dB noise figure (NF) while dissipating 20μW from a 1.2 supply and taking up 530μm² of chip area. Also the detailed performances outlined in this paper, guide a designer to make better choices when designing LNA for biomedical implants and embedded systems.