Comparison of LNA Topologies for WiMAX Applications in a Standard 90-nm CMOS Process

Abstract

This paper presents the design of low-noise amplifiers intended for WiMAX applications. Three low-noise amplifier topologies are implemented namely: (1) cascoded common-source amplifier, (2) folded cascode amplifier, and (3) shunt feedback amplifier. The amplifiers were implemented in a standard 90-nm CMOS process and were operated with a 1-V supply voltage. Low-noise amplifier measurements were taken for parameters such as power gain, noise figure, input matching, output matching, reverse isolation, stability, and linearity. Based on the employed figure-of-merit, the cascoded common-source low-noise amplifier achieved the best performance among the three with a simulated gain of 13.8 dB and noise figure of 1.7 dB, which makes it comparable to previously published works.