A high linear broadband cascode LNA employing common-gate linearity enhancing technology

作者：Zhang Zhichao^*; Khan Muhammad; Anh Dinh; Chen Li

来源：IEICE Electronics Express, 2013, 10(23): 20130603.

DOI：10.1587/elex.10.20130603

• low-noise amplifier (LNA)
• nonlinearity
• third-order input intercept point (IIP3)
• modified derivative superposition (MDS)

This paper presents a low power, high linearity wideband cascode low noise amplifier (LNA) targeting the multi-standard wireless communication applications including LTE, GSM and Zigbee. Analyzing a cascode amplifier shows the common source (CS) stage is the main nonlinearity source for the LNA. The modified derivative superposition (MDS) technology is widely adopted to improve the linearity. In addition, when the operating frequency increases, the nonlinearity influence coming from the common gate (CG) increases and limits the linearity performance of the LNA. Based on the modified derivative superposition (MDS) technique, this work investigates the nonlinearity effects of the common gate (CG) stage on the cascode amplifier and employs both the derivative superposition (DS) and a terminal LC resonator on the CG stage. The nonlinearity coming from the CG stage is degraded in higher frequency and the high linear bandwidth is also increased. A cascode LNA was designed, analyzed, and implemented in the IBM 0.13-mu m CMOS technology. The LNA achieved a third-order intercept point (IIP3) of + 13.6 dBm, 3 dB NF and a 12 dB gain in a wide frequency from 700MHz to 1.1 GHz.

• 出版日期2013
• 单位Saskatoon; Saskatchewan