Design and Analysis of a Cascode Bipolar Low-Noise Amplifier With Capacitive Shunt Feedback Under Power-Constraint

A cascode bipolar low-noise amplifier (LNA) with capacitive shunt feedback has been developed to present a solution for simultaneous noise and power match when the real part of the optimum source impedance is not 50 Ω in order to keep high current density under power constraint. The proposed LNA als...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 2011-06, Vol.59 (6), p.1539-1551
Main Authors: KANG, Byoungjoong, YU, Jinhyuck, SHIN, Heeseon, KO, Sangsoo, KO, Won, YANG, Sung-Gi, CHOO, Wooseung, PARK, Byeong-Ha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplifiers
Applied sciences
Bipolar
Bypasses
capacitive shunt feedback
Circuit properties
Design engineering
Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits
Electronic circuits
Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Feedback
Impedance
Impedance matching
Inductors
Linearity
low-noise amplifier (LNA)
Noise
noise figure (NF)
Noise levels
Noise measurement
Radiocommunications
second-order interaction
Shunts
SiGe
Silicon germanides
Telecommunications
Telecommunications and information theory
Transistors
Transmitters. Receivers
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Summary:A cascode bipolar low-noise amplifier (LNA) with capacitive shunt feedback has been developed to present a solution for simultaneous noise and power match when the real part of the optimum source impedance is not 50 Ω in order to keep high current density under power constraint. The proposed LNA also has the capability for the simultaneous improvement of noise figure (NF) and linearity. In addition, we analyzed and verified that the second-order interaction, which affects the third-order nonlinearity, becomes less sensitive to the low-frequency input termination at higher bias currents. The possibility of removing the low-frequency LC trap is investigated based on this analysis. We also show that LNAs with smaller base and/or smaller emitter resistances require lower source impedance at low frequencies to improve linearity by the same amount. Finally, prudent layouts for improving the performance of the LNA are considered. Eleven design examples of the proposed LNA, which individually operate at 880, 1575, or 1960 MHz, are fabricated in a low-cost 0.35- μm SiGe BiCMOS process to verify the design and analysis experimentally. The fabricated LNAs have excellent performances, especially in NF. For example, the 880-MHz LNA has an NF of 0.9 dB, a power gain of 16 dB, and an IIP 3 of +14 dBm with current consumption of 11 mA from a 2.8-V power supply.
ISSN:0018-9480
1557-9670
DOI:10.1109/TMTT.2011.2136355