A Differential LNA Architecture with Improved Figure of Merit Using 40 nm UMC CMOS Technology for mmWave Band Receiver Applications

High performing low noise amplifier at millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequencies should have high gain, high linearity, low noise figure, low power and high reverse isolation. Realizing such performance has been a challenging task for researchers due to tradeoff among design parameters. With the increase in operating frequency this tradeoff has become even more significant. Therefore, a consolidated analysis of performance parameters in terms of Figure of Merit (FOM) is essential for designing a better LNA. In this paper, a 3-stage balun-less differential-ended LNA has been proposed, which utilizes the benefits of cascode topology incorporating CMOS push–pull technique. The proposed LNA provides better performance in terms of linearity, reverse isolation and Noise Figure, that results in improved FOM value. The proposed design exhibits gain of 25.5 dB with NF 1.46 dB, input reflection coefficient of − 15.8 dB and IIP3 of − 11.6 dBm resulting in FOM value of 78.29 with unconditional stability. Therefore, the proposed LNA is suggested as a potential candidate for applications employing mm-wave frequencies.