A Wideband 60–100 GHz GaAs Low-Noise Amplifier as a Pre-Amplifier to a CMOS Receiver

This paper presents a wideband GaAs low-noise amplifier (LNA) that operates as a pre-amplifier for a CMOS receiver, with a background motivation of a chiplet-level integration. A GaAs pre-amplifier will improve the total gain and noise performance of the receiver. The paper presents a comprehensive analytical method for wideband matching - a design methodology for optimum matching networks. As a result, this LNA features a particularly wide bandwidth from 60 to 100 GHz with an average gain of 15 dB. The LNA was implemented with 0.1-µm GaAs pHEMT technology. The circuit occupies a die area of 1 mm-, noise figure is 7.2-8.5 dB at 60–100 GHz with a gain of 12–21 dB and DC power consumption of 20 mW.