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Variation tolerant design methods for wideband low noise amplifiers

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Abstract

In this paper, we develop design techniques for reducing the impact of manufacturing variations on wideband low noise amplifiers (LNA). Utilizing an efficient modeling and circuit optimization method, we investigate the sensitivity of LNA performance metrics to process variations and determine that the input impedance matching is particularly sensitive to perturbations in component values. To mitigate the impact of process variations on the input impedance matching, we add additional circuit elements and tunable capacitors to dynamically compensate for manufacturing variations after fabrication. The results indicate that the proposed design techniques can increase manufacturing yield by up to one order of magnitude for input impedance matching with only a 14% increase in noise figure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., MS-380, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Arthur Nieuwoudt, Tamer Ragheb, Hamid Nejati & Yehia Massoud

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  1. Arthur Nieuwoudt
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  2. Tamer Ragheb
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  3. Hamid Nejati
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  4. Yehia Massoud
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Correspondence to Yehia Massoud.

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Nieuwoudt, A., Ragheb, T., Nejati, H. et al. Variation tolerant design methods for wideband low noise amplifiers. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 58, 49–54 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9212-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9212-7

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