A 2–4 GHz Silicon Germanium Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifier MMIC

In this paper, the cryogenic noise performance of the TowerJazz SBC18H3 technology is studied. First, cryogenic small-signal noise models are developed for a SiGe HBT from this process. At a physical temperature of 16.5 K, it is found that a noise temperature as low as 1.5 K is possible at 3 GHz. Leveraging the modeling results, a 2-4 GHz MMIC low noise amplifier is designed and implemented. The amplifier provides a gain of 28 dB and a noise temperature between 3.3 and 4 K while consuming just 3mW of DC power. Moreover, excellent agreement between the cryogenic model and the experimental measurements is observed. To the best of authors' knowledge this is the lowest noise temperature reported for a low-power integrated SiGe low noise amplifier.