A 1.3 dB NF 7.7 mW 28 GHz LNA in 22 nm FDSOI Technology using Redistribution Layer Gate Inductor

This paper presents a 28 GHz source-degenerated cascode low noise amplifier (LNA) in 22 nm fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) technology with a redistribution layer (RDL) gate inductor. In a source-degenerated cascode LNA, high quality factor (Q) of the gate inductor is necessary to achieve a low noise figure (NF). However, it is hard to push the quality factor of an on-chip inductor beyond a point. This work demonstrates that very high Q inductors can be realized using a multi-layer RDL technology. Taking advantage of the designed high Q RDL inductor, the NF of a millimeter-wave (mmWave) LNA is significantly reduced. Overall, the designed single-stage LNA achieves a 1.29 dB NF, 12.2 dB gain at 28 GHz, with a DC power consumption of 7.7 mW only.