CMOS Active Inductor Using Gm-Boosting Technique with Resistive Feedback and Its Broadband RF Application

This paper presents a novel low-power, high-quality factor, and wide-tunable CMOS active inductor based on the gyrator-C configuration. The Gm-boosting technique is employed to reduce power consumption and noise while enhancing the transconductance. The inclusion of a feedback resistor further improves the quality factor. The designed active inductor operates up to 4.1 GHz, offers a wide inductance tuning range from 4.5 nH to 215 nH, consumes only 1.82 mW at 1.8 V supply, and occupies a compact area of 0.0006 mm2. The input-referred current noise is as low as 27pAHz. This study aims to provide an effective solution to the large area requirements of traditional passive inductors, while simultaneously improving key performance parameters with minimal compromise by introducing a novel active inductor design. The proposed design also exhibits superior performance in key specifications compared with existing active inductor implementations. For demonstration purposes, the active inductor is incorporated into a broadband RF amplifier, achieving near-ideal behavior across the 0.8–2.1 GHz. Corner and Monte Carlo analyses, along with temperature sweep and stability analyses, were carried out to validate the reliability and robustness of the proposed design. Results confirm the effectiveness of the Gm-boosted active inductor for high-performance RF applications, making it a promising candidate for 5G and beyond future wireless communication systems.