A 189GHz three-stage super-gain-boosted amplifier with power gain of 10.7 dB/stage at near-fmaxfrequencies in 65nm CMOS

In this paper, a 189GHz three-stage super-gain boosted amplifier with power gain of 10.7dB/stage in 65nm CMOS is presented. Based on the U-boosted core and Y/Z-embedding network, a super-gain-boosting technique is proposed to improve the power gain of amplifier at
$\text{near}-f_{\max}$
frequency. The cross-conductance technique is analyzed and exhibits the potential to improve the mason's
$U$
of an active two port network leading to the further improvement of the theoretical upper limit of the maximum available gain
$(G_{ma})$
. Furthermore, by employing the sensitized inductor, the sensitivity to improve mason's
$U$
due to the process variations and modeling errors can be decreased. On top of the U-boosted core, additional Y/Z-embedding networks are employed to make
$G_{ma}$
reach the boosted
$c_{ma_{-}upper} {\it limit}$
. Based on the proposed super-gain-boosting technique, a three-stage amplifier is implemented in 65nm CMOS process, exhibits a peak small-signal gain of 32.1dB and a saturated power of -1.96dBm at 189GHz.