A Low-Voltage Low-Power K-Band CMOS LNA Using DC-Current-Path Split Technology

A low-voltage low-power K-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) using 0.18 μm CMOS technology is presented in this letter. By splitting the dc current paths, the supply voltage of the LNA is effectively reduced. Moreover, the forward-biased body is adopted for the LNA to boost the gain. Furthermore, the high-value resistors are utilized between nMOS bodies and forward-body biases (V
_B
) to prevent the signal leakage and noise coupling. The proposed LNA achieved a 13.2 dB gain and 4.1 dB noise figure at 20.5 GHz. The supply voltage and total dc power consumption are 0.6 V and 7.1 mW, respectively. To the author's knowledge, this LNA demonstrates the lowest supply voltage among previously published K-band 0.18 μm CMOS LNA.