A CMOS 2.0–11.2 GHz UWB LNA using active inductor circuit

Abstract

A fully-active low-noise amplifier (LNA) for ultra-wideband application is presented. Passive on-chip inductor of conventional LNA design is replaced by low-noise active inductor, significantly reducing the total chip area of the proposed CMOS LNA. The core LNA circuit is a cascoded common-source amplifier loaded with an active inductor. Two buffer stages are used to provide the required input and output impedance matching. The amplifier is designed and simulated in 0.13-mum RF CMOS process. It exhibits a forward gain (S21) of 11.2 dB, a noise figure (NF) of 2.2-4.0 dB, and return losses (S11 and S22) of less than -10 dB over the frequency range of 2.0 to 11.2 GHz while consuming only 13.5 mW from a power supply of 1.5 V. The proposed amplifier occupies 0.09 mm of chip area.