An Excellent Phase-Linearity 3.1-10.6 GHz CMOS UWB LNA Using Standard 0.18 μm CMOS Technology

A 3.1-10.6 GHz ultra-wideband low-noise amplifier (UWB LNA) with excellent phase linearity property (group-delay-variation is only +/- 17.4 ps across the whole band) using standard 0.18 mu m CMOS technology is reported. To achieve high and flat gain and small group-delay-variation at the same time, the inductive peaking technique is adopted in the output stage for bandwidth enhancement. The UWB LNA dissipates 22.7 mW power and achieves input return loss (S-11) of -9.7 similar to -19.9 dB, output return loss (S-22) of -8.4 similar to -22.5 dB, flat forward gain (S-21) of 11.4 +/- 0.4 dB, reverse isolation (S-12) of -40 similar to -48 dB, and noise figure (NF) of 4.12 similar to 5.16 dB over the 3.1-10.6 GHz band of interest Good 1-dB compression point (P,dB) of -7.86 dBm and input third-order inter-modulation point (IIP3) of 0.72 dBm are achieved at 6.4 GHz. The chip area is only 681 mu m x 657 mu m excluding the test pads.