Design of W-band and V-band Low Noise Amplifiers with Transformer Techniques

• Main Authors: Huang, Chung-Ying, 黃重穎
• Other Authors: Liu, Yi-Chun
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48122490903617678671

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 電機工程學系 === 104 === Due to the scaling of silicon technology, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) integrated circuits especially in W-band (75-110 GHz) and V-band (40-75 GHz) are widely explored in recent years. For example, a CMOS imaging receiver array for fog vision camera and security, and a CMOS transceiver for high-speed video streaming. In wireless communication systems, low noise amplifier (LNA) is the first block in the receiver to amplify the received weak signal with minimum noise added. A good LNA design requires a high gain, low noise figure, high linearity, good input-output matching, and stability. However, the designs of W-band front-end circuits in CMOS technology are challenging due to the transistor parasitic capacitance, the low breakdown voltage, and the quality of the on-chip passive devices. This thesis presents two LNAs in W-band and one LNA in V-band in 90-nm CMOS. The first design is a W-band LNA with a shunt-series transformer feedback at the input to achieve a wideband input matching and low noise performance simultaneously. The first design achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 6.5 GHz, a peak gain of 16.1 dB at 64 GHz, a minimum noise figure of 10 dB, and an input P1-dB of -18 dBm. The second work is an improved design of the first one. Physical layout is revised to improve the accuracy of the electromagnetic modeling. Inter-stage capacitors are substituted for inter-stage transformers for matching optimization. The second design achieves a wide 3-dB bandwidth of 20 GHz, a peak gain of 7.6 dB at 76 GHz, a minimum noise figure about 7.5 dB at 76 GHz, and an input P1-dB of -12 dBm. Lastly, a V-band LNA is proposed. The Gm-boosting technique is adapted in the first stage with a source-to-gate transformer to improve the voltage gain. The T-coil peaking feedback transformer is designed at the output of the first stage to enhance the inter-stage bandwidth. The shunt-series transformer in the inter-stage serves as the matching network to provide a wideband loading. The V-band design in simulation achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 10 GHz, a peak gain of 9.6 dB at 59 GHz, a minimum noise figure of 5 dB at 59 GHz, and an input P1-dB of -12 dBm. All of the proposed amplifiers are designed by the minimum noise measure technique to optimize their performances. Ground shielding under the passive devices are used to minimize the substrate loss.