A Cryogenic 561 μW Ultralow-Power 56–62 GHz Low Noise Amplifier in 130-nm SiGe HBTs

An ultralow-power millimeter-wave (mm-wave) cryogenic low noise amplifier (LNA) has been designed and fabricated in a 130 nm SiGe HBT technology. Measurements at 4.3 K show a peak gain of 18.3 dB at 58 GHz and a simulated average noise figure of 1.28 dB across the 56–62 GHz frequency band. The respective power consumption of just
$561~\mu \text{W}$
is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the lowest one reported so far for a cryogenic mm-wave LNA. The circuit design has been enabled by a HICUM/L2 compact model with various physics-based extensions for capturing the low-temperature HBT behavior. The model shows good accuracy over a large bias and frequency range for temperatures down to 4.3 K.