Single‐/multiband CMOS low‐noise amplifier using concentric switching inductors

Abstract

In this article, a low‐noise amplifier (LNA) using concentric switching inductors were designed and measured. A voltage supply is fed through the switching inductors. The presented circuit is a modified cascoded amplifier configuration which input stage is a common‐gate structure. The switching inductors are implemented by three series‐wound concentric planar spiral inductors associated with two PMOSFET switches. According to on or off state of two PMOSFET switches, the circuit has theoretically four transfer characteristics, including one single‐band, two dual‐band, and one triple‐band frequency responses. For the LNA, using the concentric‐type switching inductors, the simulated and measured gains are nearly more than 12 and 10 dB at all operation frequency bands, respectively. The measured reflection coefficients are almost less than −10 dB at all operation frequency bands. The measured minimum noise figures are almost less than 4.5 dB at all operation frequency bands. The power consumption is 9 mW. The chip size is 1.03 × 1.04 mm2. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:309–315, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26591

Low power dissipation SiGe HBT dual-band variable gain amplifier

“…Mobile communication and wireless local-area networks have been developed all over the world as office and home communication infrastructures [1,2]. Because of the inevitable instantaneous obstructions in wireless signal transmission path, one of key requirements of transceivers is to handle large dynamic range signals for careful regulation of signal levels on both up and down streams.…”

Q‐boosted switched inductor based on 1:2 transformer

“…Recently, with the increasing demand for the low cost, multistandard, multiband high data‐rate wireless communications, reconfigurable filters, amplifiers, or voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) that are able to cover multiple frequency bands attract more and more attention. For multiband amplifier, switched inductor technique can be used for matching network design . For LC VCOs, inductive switching, such as switched inductor, switched guard‐ring, and switched substrate‐shield can be used to maximize the tuning range.…”

“…For multiband amplifier, switched inductor technique can be used for matching network design. 1 For LC VCOs, inductive switching, such as switched inductor, 2,3 switched guard-ring, 4 and switched substrateshield 5 can be used to maximize the tuning range. Although the operation bandwidth/frequency tuning range has been successfully increased in the previous publications, the quality factor (Q) of the switchable inductor at ON-state will significantly degenerate due to the on-resistance, which will degenerate the insertion loss of the filter 6,7 output power of the amplifier, and phase noise / power consumption of the oscillator.…”