MOST Moderate–Weak-Inversion Region as the Optimum Design Zone for CMOS 2.4-GHz CS-LNAs.

In this paper, the MOS transistor (MOST) moderate-inversion (MI)–weak-inversion (WI) region is shown to be the optimum design zone for CMOS 2.4-GHz common-source low-noise amplifiers (CS-LNAs) focused on low power consumption applications. This statement is supported by a systematic study where the MOST is analyzed in all-inversion regions using an exhaustive CS-LNA noise-figure (NF)–power-consumption optimization technique with power gain constraint. Effects of bias choke resistance and MOST capacitances are carefully included in the study to obtain more accurate results, especially for the MI–WI region. NF, power consumption, and gain versus the inversion region are described with design space maps, providing the designer with a deep insight of their tradeoffs. The Pareto-optimal design frontier obtained by calculation—showing the MI–WI region as the optimum design zone—is reverified by extensive electrical simulations of a high number of designs. Finally, one 90-nm 2.4-GHz CS-LNA Pareto optimal design is implemented. It achieves the best figure of merit considering under-milliwatt CS-LNAs published designs, consuming 684 \mu\W, an NF of 4.36 dB, a power gain of 9.7 dB, and a third-order intermodulation intercept point of -\4 dBm with load and source resistances of 50 \Omega. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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