Highly Linear Wideband LNA Design Using Inductive Shunt Feedback

Low noise amplifier (LNA) is an integral component of RF receiver and frequently required to operate at wide frequency bands for various wireless system applications. For wideband operation, important performance metrics such as voltage gain, return loss, noise figure and linearity have been carefully investigated and characterized for the proposed LNA. An inductive shunt feedback configuration is successfully employed in the input stage of the proposed LNA which incorporates cascaded networks with a peaking inductor in the buffer stage. Design equations for obtaining low and high impedance-matching frequencies are easily derived, leading to a relatively simple method for circuit implementation. Careful theoretical analysis explains that input impedance can be described in the form of second-order frequency response, where poles and zeros are characterized and utilized for realizing the wideband response. Linearity is significantly improved because the inductor located between the gate and the drain decreases the third-order harmonics at the output. Fabricated in 0.18 mu m CMOS process, the chip area of this wideband LNA is 0.202 mm(2), including pads. Measurement results illustrate that the input return loss shows less than -7 dB, voltage gain greater than 8 dB, and a little high noise figure around 6-8 dB over 1.5 - 13 GHz. In addition, good linearity (IIP3) of 2.5 dBm is achieved at 8 GHz and 14 mA of current is consumed from a 1.8 V supply.