A 300-GHz Low-Noise Amplifier in 130-nm SiGe SG13G3 Technology

Abstract

This work presents a 300-GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA) in a SiGe:C 130-nm BiCMOS technology, featuring <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{t}/f_{\text {max}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 470/700 GHz. The designed amplifier uses three cascaded stages in a pseudo-differential cascode topology with input and output baluns facilitating single-ended measurements. The first stage is matched trading off noise and gain performance, while a T-type output matching network is used for broadband matching. The interstage matching is performed using center tap transformers. On-wafer measurements show that the designed LNA has a peak small-signal gain of 10.8 dB at 325 GHz, along with a 3-dB bandwidth of 68 GHz and an input 1-dB compression point of −15.6 dBm at 287.5 GHz. The simulated noise figure is better than 12.7 dB over the required band. The circuit occupies 0.26-mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> silicon area and consumes 119 mW from a 3.3-V supply.