Circuit Synthesis of a 140–220 GHz Low-Noise Amplifier in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS

The synthesis of a broadband LNA operating at THz-frequencies is presented. The overall synthesis time does not exceed 2.5 hours. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this work presents the first ever published synthesis of a THz LNA circuit. The synthesized LNA provides more than 15 dB gain over a frequency range from 140–220 GHz with a 3dB-bandwidth of 70 GHz from 150–220 GHz. The minimum noise figure is 8.2 dB and a maximum P1dB of −1.5 dBm can be achieved in simulation.

I. Introduction

With the increasing demand for higher data rates in connection with evolving mobile communication standards such as 5G and 6G in the near future, THz communication (0.1 – 10 THz) attracts increasingly attention over the last years. With potential data rates of several Tbit/s, it enables a new field of wireless applications such as real-time UHD video streaming, real-time virtual reality, and telemedicine. Due to the much higher bandwidth compared to traditional wireless communication technologies, a large number of applications can be supported simultaneously without significant degradation in performance. Furthermore, the highly directional transmission makes it difficult to eavesdrop on communication channels. This makes THz communication attractive for highly secured applications, for defense and other sensitive industries such as healthcare and finance.