A new method for performance control of a differential active inductor for low power 2.4GHz applications

In this paper we present a new method for controlling the performance of a Differential Active Inductor (DAI) used as resonating output load of an RF amplifier and working at Ultra Low Power (ULP) consumption. A new solution is proposed for linearity improvement without extra power consumption and without SNR degradation. For a given impedance value at the resonance frequency of the DAI (corresponding to a given amplifier gain), tradeoff between quality factor Q and IIP₃ is highlighted. Then, an optimization method is proposed which takes into account the power consumption. A simulated DAI presents -2.7 dBm IIP₃, 40 nV/Hz noise voltage density and almost 3.0 kΩ load at the resonance frequency of 2.45 GHz. The total power consumption is 0.8 mW under 1 V power supply of a 65 nm CMOS technology, and the circuit occupies 0.0012 mm² of silicon area.