A high linearity 6 GHz LNA in 130 nm SiGe technology

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.23919/EuMIC54520.2022.9923468

In this work, a high linearity LNA at 6 GHz with 1.15 dB NF, 27.7 dB gain is reported with IHP 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The reported LNA achieves a highly linear performance and has -12.2 dBm IP1dB and 4.2 dBm IIP3. A two-stage cascode amplifier with inductive degeneration topology is used to obtain high gain. Optimum transistor biasing and sizing achieves an input matching without using any inductor which allowed low NF and high linearity. Additionally, custom, not PDK defined, transistor layouts have been created to decrease the core's parasitics to enhance the LNA's performance. LNA uses 3.3V as supply and consumes 98 mW DC power while occupying a 0.75 mm2 die area without pads. The reported LNA achieved one of the highest figures-of-merit among silicon-based LNAs and has comparable performance to SOI CMOS LNAs.