Ultralow-Noise Figure and High Gain Ku-Band Bulk CMOS Low-Noise Amplifier With Large-Size Transistor

Abstract

This letter presents a fully integrated <italic>Ku</italic>-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a large-size transistor using 65-nm bulk complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology. To achieve an ultralow-noise figure, an optimization methodology balancing the ON-chip gate inductor and the parasitic capacitance of the large-size device is introduced. Using a voltage supply of 1 V, the proposed LNA has a 1.66-dB noise figure and 32.48-dB gain and, thus, outperforms other reported <italic>Ku</italic>-band bulk CMOS LNAs in these two respects. The LNA achieves the highest figure of merit I among reported <italic>Ku</italic>-band CMOS, silicon germanium, and gallium arsenide hetero-junction bipolar transistor LNAs. The LNA consumes a dc power of 22 mW and occupies a core area of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$0.58\\,\\,{\\times }\\,\\,0.43\\,\\,{\\text {mm}}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.