An <i>E</i>-Band High-Performance Variable Gain Low Noise Amplifier for Wireless Communications in 90-nm CMOS Process

Abstract

In this letter, a fully integrated variable gain low noise amplifier (VG-LNA) implemented in 90-nm CMOS process for <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band millimeter-wave (MMW) backhaul communications is presented. The amplifier consists of two current-reused stages followed by a cascode stage and a current-steering cascode stage with <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g_{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -boosting and body-floating for higher gain. This work achieves a small-signal gain higher than 20 dB at 71.6–89.5 GHz and a 26.1-dB peak gain at 83 GHz, and 23-mW dc power dissipation. The gain control range is 8.9–25.7 dB at the center frequency. The measured noise figure (NF) is lower than 5.5 dB at 76–86 GHz with a minimum NF of 4.8 dB at 78 GHz. This VG-LNA shows competitive gain, NF, and low dc power consumption at <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band among the low noise amplifiers (LNAs) in 90-nm CMOS technology, and comparable figure of merit to those MMW LNAs in better IC processes.