An Inverter-Based Wideband Low-Noise Amplifier in 40 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

Multistandard RF chips have been highly demanded for multipurpose wireless applications. However, in RF circuits, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) plays an important role in determining the receiver's performance. In this paper, we present a scalable wideband LNA based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters, employing two bandwidth expansion techniques to achieve a large bandwidth without using inductors. Fabricated by the 40 nm CMOS process, the LNA attains 0.1--8.0 GHz of flat bandwidth with $S_{21}=17.5$ dB and $S_{11}\leq -10$ dB. The minimum NF measured is 5.1 dB and the power consumption is 14.3 mW at 1.3 V. The LNA core circuit is as small as 0.001 mm 2 since no large passive device is used. A study of LNA scalability has been conducted by comparing the performances of circuits with the same topology fabricated by the 65, 90, and 180 nm CMOS processes.