A 24-43 GHz LNA with 3.1-3.7 dB Noise Figure and Embedded 3-Pole Elliptic High-Pass Response for 5G Applications in 22 nm FDSOI

This paper presents a 20-44 GHz low-noise amplifier in 22 nm FDSOI with low noise figure and low DC power consumption. The LNA is based on a 3-stage cascode amplifier which is co-designed with embedded high-pass filters so as to results in a very sharp rejection at <; 16 GHz, exhibiting an elliptic filter response. This is ideal for wideband 5G amplifiers as it greatly reduces the 2
^nd
the 3
^rd
harmonic interference issues arising from X and Ku-band blockers (8-16 GHz). A wideband transformer-based input matching is used resulting in S
₁₁
<; -9 dB at 20-40 GHz. The measured gain is > 17 dB at 20-43 GHz with a peak of 23 dB at 40 GHz. The LNA achieves a NF of 3.1-3.7 dB (3.4±0.3 dB) at 24-43 GHz, an in-band IIP3 of -13.2 to -19 dBm at 20-40 GHz, all at a power consumption of 20.5 mW. Operation at 12 mW is also shown, with a maximum gain and minimum NF of 18.2 dB and 3.4 dB at 24-43 GHz. To our knowledge, the LNA represents the highest FoM achieved at this frequency range todate and includes an embedded 3-pole filter response.