A new linearity enhancing technique for ultra-wide dynamic range low noise amplifiers

Abstract

This paper presents a new linearity enhancing technique for design of LNAs (Low Noise Amplifiers) which require high linearity and low power consumption for CDMA mobile station applications. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme over the conventional scheme, four different low noise amplifiers for 9000 MHz and 1.85 GHz applications have been designed, fabricated and measured using 0.5 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology. The measured results of both 900 MHz and 1.85 GHz LNAs show that the proposed scheme consumes less than 50% of power that is required with conventional scheme, while maintaining comparable gain and linearity. Specifically, a 900 MHz LNA has NF of 1.65 dB, transducer power gain (S/sub 21/) of 16.5 dB and IIP3 of +3 dBm including gain controllability with power consumption of only 21 mW (3 V) using maximum f/sub T/ of 15 GHz BiCMOS technology.