Ultra-Wideband LNA Designs in Advanced SiGe BiCMOS Technology
Abstract
An ultra-wideband (UWB) mm-Wave low noise amplifier (LNA) suitable for use in high performance broadband wireless communication networks is proposed. The LNA is a key building block in any wireless receiver, and there is a growing demand for wireless networks to operate in the mm-Wave frequency range. Two LNA topologies are presented here. These are two stage LNA designs that are based on cascode and common emitter topologies. The key design techniques used to achieve low noise and wide bandwidth are resistive feedback, inductive emitter degeneration, gain staggering, and inductive peaking. The UWB LNA designs are implemented in an advanced SiGe BiCMOS process. The devices used in these designs are high performance heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) offered by this process. The LNA designs presented achieve a max 3 dB bandwidth of 23.8 GHz, minimum NF of 2.3 dB, peak gain of 24.8 dB, and maximum IIP3 of -3.4 dBm.
Also presented in this thesis is a proposed design strategy for a radiation-hardened (rad-hard) wideband LNA. It is well known that electronic devices suffer from performance degradation when exposed to significant levels of radiation. Radiation-hardening is the process of making electronics robust and resistant to the effects of radiation through fabrication or design techniques. The use of inversion mode (IM) devices will be presented as a means for designing a rad-hard wideband LNA.
Citation
Reents, David Burgess (2023). Ultra-Wideband LNA Designs in Advanced SiGe BiCMOS Technology. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /199042.