A CMOS low noise transconductance amplifier for 1–6 GHz bands

The linearity and noise requirements in multi-band multi-standard applications make the design of RF CMOS circuits very challenging. A wideband low-noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) in CMOS 0.13 µm technology that operates between 1–6 GHz is presented. The LNTA is based on a shunt-feedback (SFB) amplifier with current-reuse scheme and employing the noise-canceling technique used in low-noise amplifier designs for wideband input matching. Simulation results show a good trade-off between noise and power-consumption across the frequency span with an average noise figure of 4 dB and a minimum transconductance of 42 mS over the entire band. Performance variations were estimated at 2 GHz with Monte Carlo analysis. The total power consumption is 8.4 mW from 1.2 V supply.