A D-Band to J-Band Low-Noise Amplifier with High Gain-Bandwidth Product in an Advanced 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

In this work, a broadband low noise amplifier fabricated in an advanced 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology with f(t)/f(max) of 470/650 GHz is presented. The amplifier comprises 5 pseudo-differential cascode stages. Double-peak transformer-based matching stages in the first 3 stages are used to achieve high gain and low noise across a large bandwidth. A suitable set of baluns was developed to facilitate on-wafer measurements from 100 GHz to 325 GHz. The amplifier provides a peak small-signal gain of 34.6 dB at 160 GHz and 235 GHz. The 3 dB bandwidth is 131 GHz - 277 GHz. The measured noise figure is between 8.4 dB to 12 dB, including baluns. With the balun losses de-embedded, the amplifier's peak small-signal gain increases to 37 dB and stays above 30 dB from 117 GHz to 285 GHz, while the lowest noise figure is 7.1 dB at 155 GHz. The achieved OP1dB stays in between 0 dBm - 1 dBm from 150 GHz to 265 GHz. The amplifier consumes 152 mW with a V-cc of 3 V.