Search

Two major techniques for gain improvement of the CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) and mixer are presented. First, the inductive interstage matching is applied to design a cascode amplifier for increasing the power transfer between the common source (CS) and common gate (CG) stages. Second, a super source follower (SSF) is utilized in a P-type micromixer for increasing the conversion gain of the mixer. A series of investigations are performed for demonstrating the feasibilities of the proposed techniques. The LNA and mixer designs based on the proposed techniques are realized using 0.35 ìm 1P4M CMOS technology. Then their measured results are compared with those of a preliminary design, which fully integrates a conventional cascode amplifier and a P-type micromixer. The gain of the LNA is increased 2.1 dB and the noise figure is maintained at the same value of the preliminary design. On the other hand, the conversion gain of the super source follower (SSF) of the micromixer output is improved about 9.5 dB. Such improvements reveal great potential of the proposed design techniques on the gain enhancement for the LNA and mixer. Then, the measured results of the preliminary design show the return-loss of 25 dB, the isolation of better than 30 dB, and the conversion gain of 4.8 dB in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 2067–2070, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21838 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1.2-V fully integrated 0.35-μm inductively degenerated common source CMOS low-noise amplifier has been demonstrated at 2.4 GHz in this paper. A simple common source configuration can be operated at lower voltage and has lower output impedance when compared with a conventional high output impedance cascode LNA circuit topology. The input matching inductance, output matching inductance, and source degeneration inductance are integrated on a single chip. The fully integrated 2.4-GHz CMOS LNA has 5.27-dB power gain, 17-dB input return loss, 15-dB output return loss, 4-dB noise figure, and -1-dBm IIP1dB and 8-dBm IIP3 at Vdd = 1.2 V and Idd = 10 mA, respectively. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 36: 136–139, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10699 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The package strain improves the noise figure (NF) of the low-noise amplifier (LNA). The maximum noise reduction is ∼0.53 dB (13%) at the operating frequency of 2.4 GHz under the biaxial tensile strain of 0.037%. The NF reduction of the strained LNA is mainly due to the enhanced transconductance and cutoff frequency of the individual nMOSFET device under the same strain and bias conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A truly balanced operation of a 5.2-GHz Gilbert micromixer with a single-ended input and a single-ended output is demonstrated using 2-μm GaInP/GaAs HBT technology. Because the micromixer has a single-ended input, a passive LC current combiner is used to convert the mixer-differential output into a single-ended output. A cross-coupled LC oscillator with oscillation frequency of 4.3 GHz and a cascode buffer amplifier are also integrated in the same chip. The fully integrated upconversion micromixer has conversion gain of -2.5 dB and OP1dB of -12.5 dBm when input IF = 0.9 GHz and thus output RF = 5.2 GHz. The IF input return loss is better than 25 dB for frequencies up to 6 GHz, while the RF output return loss is better than 12 dB for frequencies from 5.15 to 5.35 GHz. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 45: 277–279, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20795 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-gain shunt-series shunt-shunt wideband amplifiers with and without emitter-peaking capacitors are demonstrated by using GaInP/GaAs HBT technology. Experimental results show that the power gain is 28 dB from DC to 6 GHz for a wideband amplifier without emitter-peaking capacitors. On the other hand, a wideband amplifier with emitter-peaking capacitors can increase the gain bandwidth up to 8 GHz at the cost of lower input/output return loss. Both circuits have similar power and noise performance. The noise figures of both designs are less than 2.8 dB for frequencies below 6 GHz. OP1dB and OIP3 are 7 and 20 dBm at 2 GHz, respectively. Total current consumption is 67 mA at 5-V supply voltage for both wideband amplifiers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 43: 67–69, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20377 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A GaInP/GaAs HBT micromixer for 2.4/5.2/5.7-GHz multiband WLAN applications is demonstrated. Our experimental results show that the input return loss |S11| is below -25 dB from DC to 10 GHz with power-conversion gains of 11.7, 11.9, and 11.5 dB at frequencies of 2.4, 5.2, and 5.7 GHz, respectively. The wideband matching characteristic makes the micromixer very suitable for multiband applications. Input P1dB is -4 dBm and IIP3 is 2.36 dBm. Port-to-port isolation is also quite satisfactory. In addition, the single-to-differential input stage in the Gilbert micromixer eliminates the need for common-mode rejection. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 43: 87–89, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20383 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A one-stage hybrid power amplifier integrated with gap-coupled microstrip lines for impedance matching is demonstrated in this work. The gap-coupled microstrip line amplifier module realized here can provide 15-dB power gain, 33.5-dBm output power, and 42% power-added efficiency (PAE) at 2.3 GHz. The demonstrated topology is suitable in monolithic IC technology, especially in the millimeter-wave frequency because the gap-coupled microstrip lines can be easily compacted into small size. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 41: 346–348, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20137 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The realization of wideband amplifiers with shunt-series shunt-shunt dual-feedback configuration with commercially available 0.35-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology is reported. The SiGe HBT used here has ft of 67 GHz and BVceo of 2.5 V. The experimental results show that power gain is 10 dB from DC to 12 GHz for a shunt-series shunt-shunt wideband amplifier, with the help of the emitter capacitive peaking technique. Input- and output-return losses are better than 10 dB for the same frequency range. Noise figure increases from 8 to 12 dB for frequencies from 1 to 18 GHz. OP1dB and OIP3 are 0 dBm and 12 dBm at 1 GHz, respectively. Total current consumption is 11 mA at 3.3 V supply voltage. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 40: 518–520, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20021 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel interpretation of transducer power gain (GT) is presented by optical analogy. By employing scattering parameters of the input/output matching network and the transistor, we have developed a simple method to derive GT. In addition to simplicity, our theory also has the advantage of giving the physical meaning for each term of the formula of GT. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 31: 124–126, 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geometrical interpretation of 0

A regenerative frequency divider with a differential transimpedance amplifier (TIA) active load using 0.35 µm SiGe HBT technology is demonstrated. The differential TIA is beneficial for higher frequency and lower sensitivity operation, and the inductive peaking enhances the bandwidth of the output buffer. From the experimental results, the operating frequency ranges from 5 to 27 GHz ( fmax/fmin=5.2) for a supply voltage of 5 V and core power consumption of 49.5 mW. The chip size is 0.86×0.822 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]