ZigBee LNA design for wearable healthcare application

Abstract

A fully integrated single-band 2.4 GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) is designed by using 0.18μm CMOS technology for ZigBee applications. For healthcare applications, high power consumption is not preferred. Increasing the sensitivity of receiver, therefore, could be a solution resulting in the use of LNA. The impedance expression is mathematically reconstructed into a quadratic equation and leads to the solutions by adding the LC tank in the matching networks. Besides, by using voltage controlled MOS varactor, the LC tanks at the input and output can be tuned. Such topology is convenient for calibrating the frequency drift due to the process variation and unexpected parasitics. The amplifier works at the supply voltage 1.2 V with current dissipation 10 mA. The gains achieved are over 15 dB at 2.4 GHz and the corresponding noise figure is about 2.1 dB.