Low-Noise Parametric Resonant Amplifier

We propose a resonant parametric amplifier with an enhanced noise performance by exploiting the noise-squeezing effect. Noise squeezing occurs through the phase-sensitive amplification process and suppresses one of the two quadrature components of the input noise. When the input signal is only in the direction of the nonsuppressed quadrature component, squeezing can lower that noise figure by almost 3 dB. The resonant structure of the proposed amplifier is inspired by a Fabry-Perot laser amplifier to achieve the squeezing effect using a low number of LC elements. We design and simulate the proposed noise-squeezing parametric amplifier in a conventional 65-nm CMOS process. A minimum noise-squeezing factor of -0.35 dB is achieved with a signal gain of 26 dB for one quadrature component of a 10-GHz narrow-band signal.