A V-Band Variable Gain Low-Noise Amplifier in 28-nm Bulk CMOS

This paper presents a V-band variable gain low noise amplifier (VGLNA) in the TSMC 28-nm CMOS process. The proposed VGLNA includes a three-stage cascode amplifier and the input stage is designed with low noise by utilizing source inductor degeneration. The gain control is implemented in all three stages. The first and second stages use current steering and the third stage uses the splitting cascode topology. With the combination of these two gain control methods, the phase variation can be reduced. The VGLNA has a measured peak gain of 20.45 dB at 53 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 47.4-61.5 GHz. The measured gain tuning range is 21.45 dB and the phase variation is smaller than 9.6o. The NF is 4.27-5.36 dB at 47-61 GHz. The VGLNA draws 17.4 mA current from a 1.2 V power supply. The application area is the V- band beamformer system.