Design of an ultra-wideband power-efficient distributed low-noise amplifier

An ultra-wideband (UWB) distributed amplifier implementing high-gain, low-power-consumption gain-cells is presented. The distributed amplifier was fabricated in TSMC 0.18-mum CMOS process and achieved an average power gain of around 10 dB, input return loss of less than -20 dB, and noise figure of 3.3-6.1 dB with a power consumption of only 19.6 mW over the entire UWB range of 3.1-10.6 GHz. In the high-gain operating mode that consumed 100 mW, the distributed amplifier exhibited a high gain of 16 dB with 3.2-6-dB noise figure over the UWB range.