Analysis and design of a 1.7‐ to 27.1‐GHz low‐noise amplifier

Abstract

This letter illustrates a 1.7-to 27.1-GHz single-stage cascode low-noise amplifier (LNA) with high and flat gain response. In the presented LNA, to obtain high and flat gain response in the broad bandwidth, the Micro-strip type pHEMT is utilized as the common-source stage so as to alleviate the gain bandwidth degradation caused by parasitic parameters. Meanwhile, multiple inductive-peaking inductors are employed to enhance the gain. By optimizing the combination of several bandwidth extension techniques, the experimental results indicate that the exhibited LNA achieves high average gain up to 14.6 dB with ±1.5 dB variation, 2.4 dB typical noise figure, and 14-dBm OP 1dB in the frequency range from 1.7 to 27.1 GHz. Fabricated by using 0.15-μm GaAs pHEMT process, the presented LNA occupies a chip area of 0.96 mm 2 .broadband amplifier, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron-mobility transistor (pHEMT), gain enhancement techniques, low-noise amplifier (LNA), monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)