An Excellent Phase-Linearity 3.1-10.6 GHz CMOS UWB LNA Using Standard 0.18 μm CMOS Technology

A 3.1-10.6 GHz ultra-wideband low-noise amplifier (UWB LNA) with excellent phase linearity property (group-delay-variation is only plusmn17.4 ps across the whole band) using standard 0.18 mum CMOS technology is reported. To achieve high and flat gain and small group-delay-variation at the same time, the inductive peaking technique is adopted in the output stage for bandwidth enhancement. The UWB LNA dissipates 22.7 mW power and achieves input return loss (S
₂₂
) of -9.7 ~ -19.9 dB, output return loss (S
₂₂
) of -8.4 ~ -22.5 dB, flat forward gain (S
₂₂
) of 11.4 plusmn 0.4 dB, reverse isolation (S12) of 40 ~ -48 dB, and noise figure (NF) of 4.12 ~ 5.16 dB over the 3.1-10.6 GHz band of interest. Good 1-dB compression point (P
_1dB
) of -7.86 dBm and input third-order inter-modulation point (IIP3) of 0.72 dBm are achieved at 6.4 GHz. The chip area is only 681 mum times 657 mum excluding the test pads.