26-42 GHz SOI CMOS low noise amplifier

A complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) single-stage cascode low-noise amplifier (LNA) is presented in this paper. The microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) is fabricated using digital 90-nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. All impedance matching and bias elements are implemented on the compact chip, which has a size of 0.6 mm × 0.3 mm. The supply voltage and supply current are 2.4 V and 17 mA, respectively. At 35 GHz and 50 Ω source/load impedances, a gain of 11.9 dB, a noise figure of 3.6 dB, an output compression point of 4 dBm, an input return loss of 6 dB, and an output return loss of 18 dB are measured. The -3-dB frequency bandwidth ranges from 26 to 42 GHz. All results include the pad parasitics. To the knowledge of the author, the results are by far the best for a silicon-based millimeter-wave LNA reported to date. The LNA is well suited for systems operating in accordance to the local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) standards at 28 and 38 GHz and the multipoint video distribution system (MVDS) standard at 42 GHz.