A K-Band Low Noise Amplifier in 65-nm CMOS with 3.3-dB NF and 18.1-dB Power Gain

This paper presents a two-stage K-band compact single-ended low noise amplifier (LNA). Cascode gm-boosting technique and shunt-series transformer-feedback (TF-feedback) technique are proposed to improve the gain, bandwidth and noise figure (NF). TF-based matching networks are used for input and inter-stage matching, which can provide much wider bandwidth while occupying less area. Fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process, the LNA achieves a minimum NF of 3.3-dB at 20.5 GHz, a peak power gain of 18.1-dB at 18.5 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth over 16.3-26.6 GHz and an input IP3 (IIP3) over -8 dBm in measurements. With 1.2V voltage supply, the LNA consumes only 16 mA current with a core area of 0.58 × 0.33 mm
²
.