Design of a 45 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Low Noise Amplifier for a 30 GHz Millimeter-Wave Wireless Transceiver in Radar Sensor Applications

Abstract

The millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band is rapidly becoming utilized in wireless technologies due to its large bandwidth and high data throughput. Wireless technology is increasingly becoming the backbone of the Internet of Things (IoT). This has resulted in increased applications of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum and congestion of the microwave band. This can be solved by utilizing more bandwidth at higher frequency bands. One notable application of IoT pertains to radar sensing, which has experienced increased popularity across various domains such as autonomous vehicles, gesture recognition, drones, and health monitoring. Radar sensors have been employed in these applications to perform tasks including proximity sensing, direction detection, speed measurement, target localization, and capturing physiological indicators such as heartbeat and breathing. Several factors have an impact on the performance of radar sensors, encompassing the maximum range for target detection, measurement precision, capability to differentiate between multiple targets, and ability to operate effectively in environments with high levels of noise. This paper presents the design of a 45 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) low noise amplifier (LNA) for a mmWave Ka-band wireless transceiver for radar sensors. The LNA was designed to operate at 0.6V and 700 μA for low power consumption. The LNA consists of an inductive degenerated common source (CS) and a common gate (CG) diode-connected load. The LNA achieves a power gain of 31.19 dB and a noise figure (NF) of 0.133 dB at 30 GHz consuming 0.42 mW of power.