Performance Analysis of Various Topologies of Common Source Low Noise Amplifier (CS-LNA) at 90nm Technology

One of the basic components in any radio frequency (RF) communication systems is Low Noise Amplifier (LNA). This paper compares various Common Source Low Noise Amplifier (CS-LNA) topologies based on their performance analysis. The three main common source LNA topologies that has been taken for the performance analyses are an inductively loaded Common Source LNA, a CS-LNA with feedback resistor and a CS-LNA cascode stage with inductive source degeneration. In this paper, all the three LNA's are designed for 1.57 GHz frequency which is generally used for Global Positioning System (GPS) applications. The performance of these LNA topologies are analyzed by comparing various aspects such as gain, Noise Figure (NF), S parameters, stability and linearity of each circuit. The simulations are done at 90nm CMOS technology by using Cadence Virtuoso Spectre RF. Out of the three topologies analyzed in this paper, the cascode CS-LNA with inductive source degeneration provides high gain and low noise figure at 1.57 GHz frequency and with 1.2 V power supply.