CMOS LNA Covers 53.5 To 62 GHz

Thanks to the rapid development of CMOS/BiCMOS processes, such processes can be used to implement a 60-GHz wireless-personal-area-networking (WPAN) system and even a 77-GHz radar system. The low-noise amplifier (LNA) is crucial to such systems, as it is the first block in the receiver front end. Using standard 0.13-m CMOS technology, a wideband LNA spanning 53.5 to 62 GHz with superior phase linearity was recently reported by Chi-Chen Chen and Yo-Sheng Lin from Taiwan's National Chi Nan University with Pen-Li Huang and Shey-Shi Lu from National Taiwan University.

The LNA comprises six cascade commonsource stages and uses a current-sharing technique. It exhibits input return loss of -10.3 to -19.5 dB and output return loss of -13.8 to -27.8 dB while consuming 29.1 mW. From 53.5 to 62 GHz, it provides forward gain of 8.1 to 11.1 dB with reverse isolation of -49.9 to -60.2 dB. At 62 GHz, the LNA has a minimum noise figure of 5.4 dB. See "A 4.9-dB NF 53.5- to 62-GHz Micromachined CMOS Wideband LNA with Small Group-Delay Variation," Microwave And Optical Technology Letters, November 2010, p. 2427.