A 9.94dBm IIP3 Inductorless Differential Low Noise Amplifier for Geofencing Applications

An inductorless differential Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) with high linearity, designed for geofencing applications, is presented. The LNA incorporates gm-boosting, linearity optimization, and noise-cancelling stages. A complementary derivative superposition technique is used for gm-boosting, while a common-source noise-cancelling path is employed to implement the linearity enhancement stage. The design uses a differential structure for linearity optimization, addressing inherent stability issues associated with the technique. Implemented in 65nm technology, the LNA occupies a chip area of 0.037 mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and achieves a noise figure (NF) of 3.03 dB, a peak gain of 16.78 dB, and an IIP3 linearity of 9.94 dBm, with a power consumption of 28 mW. The LNA demonstrates good stability and process variation tolerance.