Fast power switching low-noise amplifier for 6–10 GHz ultra-wideband applications

This work presents a novel fast switching low power low noise amplifier (LNA) for 6-10 GHz ultra wide band applications using 0.13μm CMOS process from STMicroelectronics. The LNA operates at 1.2V. It achieves a high differential voltage gain about 46 dB with 4.4dB noise figure and a power consumption of 24mW. Fast on and off power switching is achieved by using differential amplifiers with DC coupled eliminating the use of large capacitors that leads to long charging time constants. The output voltage is settled in 1.5 ns when the LNA is switched on and off. The circuit consumes only 32.4 μW of dc power when duty-cycled@100kbps allowing reducing the power consumption.