A Low-Power, Linearized, Ultra-Wideband LNA Design Technique

This work proposes a practical linearization technique for high-frequency wideband applications using an active nonlinear resistor, and analyzes its performance with Volterra series. The linearization technique is applied to an ultra-wideband (UWB) cascode common gate Low Noise Amplifier (CG-LNA), and two additional reference designs are implemented to evaluate the linearization technique - a standard (without linearization) cascode CG-LNA and a single-transistor CG-LNA. The single-transistor CG-LNA achieves +6.5 to +9.5 dBm IIP3, 10 dB (max.) gain, and 2.9 dB (min.) NF over a 3-11 GHz bandwidth (BW); the LNA consumes 2.4 mW from a 1.3 V supply. The cascode linearized LNA achieves +11.7 to +14.1 dBm IIP3, 11.6 dB (max.) gain, and 3.6 dB (min.) NF over 1.5 to 8.1 GHz; the cascode LNA consumes 2.62 mW from a 1.3 V supply. Experimental results show that the linearization technique improves the cascode LNA's IIP3 by a factor of 3.5 to 9 dB over a 2.5-10 GHz frequency range.