An Inverter-Based Wideband Low-Noise Amplifier in 40 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

Multistandard RF chips have been highly demanded for multipurpose wireless applications. However, in RF circuits, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) plays an important role in determining the receiver's performance. In this paper, we present a scalable wideband LNA based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters, employing two bandwidth expansion techniques to achieve a large bandwidth without using inductors. Fabricated by the 40 nm CMOS process, the LNA attains 0.1–8.0 GHz of flat bandwidth with S21=17.5 dB and S11≤-10 dB. The minimum NF measured is 5.1 dB and the power consumption is 14.3 mW at 1.3 V. The LNA core circuit is as small as 0.001 mm2 since no large passive device is used. A study of LNA scalability has been conducted by comparing the performances of circuits with the same topology fabricated by the 65, 90, and 180 nm CMOS processes.