AN ultra-wideband SiGe BiCMOS LNA for W-band applications

Abstract

This article presents the design steps and implementation of a W‐band ultra‐wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) for both automotive and imaging applications. Three amplifiers based on common‐emitter topology with different configurations are manufactured using IHP 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS 300/500 GHz (ft/fmax) SG13G2 technology. A three‐stage single‐ended structure is proposed for ultra‐wideband imaging purposes. As the results are analyzed, this 0.2 mm2 LNA can operate in a 25 GHz of measured 3‐dB bandwidth in W‐band with 21 dB peak gain and 4.9 dB average noise figure using 1.5 V supply voltage. It consumes 50 mW of power in the edge operation conditions and the output 1 dB compression point is found as −4 dBm. To the authors' knowledge, this chip achieves one of the best overall performances compared to other W‐band LNAs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1274–1278, 2015