60GHz high-gain low-noise amplifiers with a common-gate inductive feedback in 65nm CMOS

Abstract

In this paper, a novel design technique of common-gate inductive feedback is presented for millimeter-wave low-noise amplifiers (LNAs). For this technique, by adopting a gate inductor at the common-gate transistor of the cascode stage, the gain of the LNA can be enhanced even under a wideband operation. Using a 65nm CMOS process, transmission-line-based and spiral-inductor-based LNAs are fabricated for demonstration. With a dc power consumption of 33.6 mW from a 1.2-V supply voltage, the transmission-line-based LNA exhibits a gain of 20.6 dB and a noise figure of 5.4 dB at 60 GHz while the 3dB bandwidth is 14.1 GHz. As for the spiral-inductor-based LNA, consuming a dc power of 28.8 mW from a 1.2-V supply voltage, the circuit shows a gain of 18.0 dB and a noise figure of 4.5 dB at 60 GHz while the 3dB bandwidth is 12.2 GHz.