Ultra-Low-Power Cryogenic SiGe Low-Noise Amplifiers: Theory and Demonstration

作者：Montazeri Shirin; Wong Wei Ting; Coskun Ahmet H; Bardin Joseph C^*

来源：IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2016, 64(1): 178-187.

DOI：10.1109/TMTT.2015.2497685

• Cryogenic low-noise amplifier (LNA)
• low power
• radio astronomy
• silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT)

Low-power cryogenic low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) are desired to ease the cooling requirements of ultra-sensitive cryogenically cooled instrumentation. In this paper, the tradeoff between power and noise performance in silicon-germanium LNAs is explored to study the possibility of operating these devices from low supply voltages. A new small-signal heterojunction bipolar transistor noise model applicable to both the forward-active and saturation regimes is developed from first principles. Experimental measurements of a device across a wide range of temperatures are then presented and the dependence of the noise parameters on collector-emitter voltage is described. This paper concludes with the demonstration of a high-gain 1.8-3.6-GHz cryogenic LNA achieving a noise temperature of 3.4-5 K while consuming just 290 W when operating at 15-K physical temperature.

• 出版日期2016-1