A 1.5-V TRANSFORMER-BASED ULTRA-WIDEBAND LNA CHIP DESIGN

In this article, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for ultra-wide-band (UWB) systems operating at 3-5 GHz frequency range is presented. The proposed LNA uses an on-chip transformer to achieve the realization of a wideband input-integrated matching to the antenna impedance, as well as the cascode amplifier with shunt peaking call provide a high power gain. The transformer-based LNA fabricated in a TSMC 0.18-mu m CMOS process with 1.5 V supply voltage achieves a maximum power gain of 19.2 dB in addition to the minimum noise figure (NF) of 3.5 dB, all input return loss (S-11)smaller than -9.3 dB over the whole frequency range. This circuit also present all input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) of - 11 dBm at 5 GHz and all input-referted 1 dB compression point of -21 dBm at 5 GHz. The chill area including pads is only 0.8 mm(2) and power dissipation is 13.5 mW. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 2649-2652, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24705