A Low Noise and Low Power, SiGe-BiCMOS LNA for IEEE 802.11a Applications

This paper presents a design methodology and measurement results of a low noise and low power fully-integrated LNA, compatible with all the three bands of IEEE 802.11a WLAN applications in the 5-6 GHz. Microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) has been fabricated using a commercial 0.35-mum silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology. We emphasized, in this paper, on the importance of simultaneous noise-input matching and extracting parasitic components through the use of electromagnetic modeling and simulation. Finally, the measurement results shows that SiGe-HBT, on-chip matched LNA exhibits a noise figure (NF) of 2.9 dB, gain > 14dB, input return loss < -10dB, output return loss < -10dB. The circuit consumes only 10.6 mW, under 3.3V supply voltage and has a die area of 595 times 925 mum², including pads