Experimental results for an inductively matched microwave amplifier in a standard 0.5 micron CMOS process using four identical spiral inductors

Experimental results are presented for an inductively- matched microwave amplifier design in a standard 0.5 micron CMOS process. For the amplifier design, inductive source degeneration is used to provide input impedance matching with on-chip planar spiral inductors. In the proposed approach, four identical spiral inductors are used in the circuit to reduce design complexity for use in course projects. The use of identical spiral inductors also allows the fabricated devices to be characterized by simple parametric measurement of a single spiral inductor. Input return loss for a prototype amplifier was measured to be better than 10 dB from 1.0 to 1.8 GHz. Even with limited gain, the prototype effectively illustrates the proposed design approach. Measurements of the impedance of the on-chip spiral inductor are also provided.