A 1.4V 25mW Inductorless Wideband LNA in 0.13μm CMOS

In recent years, the wireless communication has evolved towards multi-function and multi-standard terminals. Reducing the number of external components and the reuse of both digital and RF functional blocks is a key feature when a single terminal has to process a multitude of standards with different data rates, modulation types, and frequency bands. Usually, the requirement for low-cost in consumer electronics implies the use of CMOS technology. CMOS is well suited for high integration however the design of RF circuits in CMOS is challenging. The recent chipsets for multi-standard RF applications mainly use multiple narrowband or tunable LNAs [1]. These types of LNAs occupy larger chip real estate. High-Q inductors do not easily lend themselves for integration in a digital CMOS process, due to the need of special process enhancements such as high substrate resistivity to implement them. The CMOS process with RF enhancements usually lags one to two generations behind the digital one. The design migration of a system with RF blocks to a new process becomes very daunting due to the continuous scaling of CMOS technology.