A X/Ku-Band Broadband Low Noise Amplifier in 0.18 μm CMOS

This paper presents a X/Ku-band wideband low noise amplifier (LNA), which consists of a cascode stage and a common-source stage based on 0.18 μm CMOS process working at 9-15 GHz. The parasitic capacitance at the gate-source of the cascode and the parasitic capacitance at the drain of the common-source stage are involved in the input and output matching network. In this way, two independent passive devices are used to form a T-shaped matching structure achieving the broadband performance. Moreover, the number of passive devices is saved and the chip area is also saved. The measured results of the LNA show a low return loss (< -10 dB) in the range of 9-15 GHz and a greater gain (> 10 dB). In addition, the noise factor is 4.43 dB at the center frequency. It generates 21 mA bias current at a 1.8 V supply and the area of the layout is 607μm×460μm.