A 12.5 mW Packaged K-Band CMOS SOI LNA with 1.5 dB NF

This paper presents a packaged single-ended low-noise amplifier (LNA) for a K-band SATCOM phased-array receiver. The LNA is fabricated in a 45 nm Semiconductor-on-Insulator (SOI) CMOS process technology. It has a measured peak gain of 23.1 dB at 17.4 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth (BW) of 8.1 GHz (13.9 - 22.0 GHz). The measured NF is 1.5 dB at (15.7 - 17.2 GHz) and it is <; 1.7 dB at (13.9 - 20.9 GHz). At 18 GHz, the measured IP1dB, and IIP3 are -21.6, and -12 dBm, respectively. The CMOS LNA achieved this high gain and low NF with a power consumption of 12.5 mW. At 18 GHz, when the power consumption is increased to 21.6 mW, the measured gain is 24.4 dB, and the measured NF is 1.38 dB. To the authors' knowledge, this packaged single-ended CMOS LNA has the highest gain, with the lowest NF, and power consumption when compared to published packaged and non-packaged K-Band LNAs in SiGe and CMOS processes.