Abstract:
Design and analysis of a RF front end low noise amplifier (LNA) is presented here. The RF front
end LNA is designed for 15-22GHz of K-band and Ku-band. The designed LNA can be used for
short distance communication like on-chip wireless communication as well as in data
communication. The proposed circuit of LNA uses CS-CG topology with a three sections
chebyshev filter at input, a coupling inductor in between diode connected MOS and main MOS
and an inductive load at output. The proposed architecture uses inductively source degenerated
topology and is designed in IBM 0.13μm CMOS process. The simulation is done both in Hspice
RF and Cadence Spectre. Response of the input network is observed from Hspice and parameters
values are selected. Coupling inductor is used to compensate the effect of the parasitic
capacitances (gate-drain capacitance of main MOS, gate-source capacitance of diode connected
MOS) and finally to increase the bandwidth. The proposed design shows a forward gain of
10.14dB at center frequency 17.56GHz with a -3dB bandwidth of 6.2GHz. The input and output
reflection co-efficient are below -10dB within the band of interest. The output matching
parameter is -25dB at center frequency. The circuit shows average noise figure of 3.74dB.
Linearity of the circuit is also simulated and IIP3 and 1-dB compression point found -5dBm and
-9.38dBm respectively. All the transistors are biased within the circuit and by the same supply
source. The overall power consumption including bias circuit is 10.91mW when powered up by a
1.2V source.
