RF-ESD design and measurement of CMOS LNAs: a comparison between diode and inductive protection

Author

Leroux, Paul ; Steyaert, Michiel

Author_Institution

ESAT-MICAS, Katholieke Univ., Leuven, Belgium

fYear

2005

fDate

4-7 April 2005

Firstpage

171

Lastpage

176

Abstract

The paper compares two types of ESD-protection suited for the protection of CMOS low-noise amplifiers. This comparison is illustrated by the design and measurement of two high performance LNA prototypes. The first amplifier, with diode protection, targets the GPS L1 band at 1.57 GHz. It features a very low noise figure of 1.3 dB and a gain of 16.5 dB. The second amplifier was designed for 5 GHz wireless LAN applications and uses inductive ESD-protection. This prototype has a power gain of 20 dB and a noise figure of 3.5 dB. Both amplifiers surpass the industrial 2 kV HBM specification.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; electrostatic discharge; integrated circuit design; protection; radio equipment; radiofrequency amplifiers; semiconductor device measurement; 1.3 dB; 1.57 GHz; 16.5 dB; 2 kV; 20 dB; 3.5 dB; 5 GHz; CMOS LNA; CMOS low-noise amplifiers; GPS L1 band; HBM specification; RF-ESD-protection; diode protection; human body model ESD stress; inductive protection; noise figure; power gain; wireless LAN applications; Circuits; Diodes; Electrostatic discharge; Gain; Global Positioning System; Noise figure; Protection; Prototypes; Semiconductor device measurement; Variable structure systems;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microelectronic Test Structures, 2005. ICMTS 2005. Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8855-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICMTS.2005.1452256

Filename

1452256