A Synthesis Tool for CMOS RF Low-Noise Amplifiers

A stand-alone design automation tool tailored for radio frequency (RF) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) low-noise amplifier (LNA) designs is presented. Rather than relying on commercially available circuit simulators such as Spectre or Hspice, the presented synthesis tool is self-contained with its own built-in modules for faster optimization. Foundry-provided silicon-verified RF device models are incorporated into the synthesis procedure for accurate parasitic modeling. The proposed synthesis tool can be used as an independent circuit design environment for LNAs or, alternatively, as an auxiliary tool generating an initial design for a commercial design environment to reduce design time. To validate the proposed approach, an LNA operating at 900 MHz is synthesized and fabricated in a 0.25-mum CMOS technology. Measurement results are presented, which shows the viability of the proposed synthesis tool.