A subthreshold low-noise amplifier optimized for ultra-low-power applications in the ISM band

• Main Authors: Do, Aaron V., Boon, Chirn Chye, Do, Manh Anh, Yeo, Kiat Seng, Cabuk, Alper
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Electronic circuits
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/91273; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/4678
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard relaxes the requirements on the receiver front-end making subthreshold operation a viable solution. The specification is discussed and guidelines are presented for a small area ultra-low-power design. A subthreshold biased low-noise amplifier (LNA) has been designed and fabricated for the 2.4-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 standard using a standard low-cost 0.18- m RF CMOS process. The single-stage LNA saves on chip area by using only one inductor. The measured gain is more than 20 dB with an S11 of -19 dB while using 630 µA of dc current. The measured noise figure is 5.2 dB.