A low voltage SiGe BJT integrated RF amplifier with very high third order intercept point

We present a 0.7 to 1.3 GHz RF amplifier with very high third order intercept point (IP3) for use in an integrated receiver. The amplifier is designed in a modern high volume commercial SiGe HBT process and operates with a collector voltage of 1.8 V. An integrated shunt diode linearizer, inductive emitter degeneration, and output impedance matching are all optimized together to achieve an IP3 of +40 dBm with an IP3/Pdc figure of merit ratio of 18.5. This combination of techniques has resulted in unprecedented linearity for a design in a silicon process with a low breakdown voltage