A V-band 90-nm CMOS low-noise amplifier with modified CPW transmission lines for UWB systems

Abstract

A V-band low-noise, high gain, high linearity single-stage amplifier has been developed in a 90-nm CMOS technology. The design utilized modified co-planar waveguide transmission lines for the input/output matching networks, to avoid lines' width and spacing constraints and to sustain small chip area and low cost fabrication. The developed amplifier exhibited a low noise figure of 4.1 dB, and a gain higher than 10 dB in the frequency range of 57–58 GHz. Additionally, the amplifier has linear characteristics and its measured third-order intercept (IIP3) point is greater than 3 dBm. The proposed design is well suited for millimeter-wave (mmW) front-ends in ultra-wideband (UWB) radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems for high data-rate communications.