E-band low-noise amplifier MMIC with impedance-controllable filter using SiGe 130-nm BiCMOS technology

In this study, an E-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) has been designed using silicon-germanium 130-nm bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology to suppress unwanted signal gain outside operating frequencies and improve the signal gain and noise figures at operating frequencies. The proposed impedance-controllable filter has series (R_s) and parallel (R_p) resistors instead of a conventional inductor-capacitor (L-C) filter without any resistor in an interstage matching circuit. Using the impedance-controllable filter instead of the conventional L-C filter, the unwanted high signal gains of the designed E-band LNA at frequencies of 54 GHz to 57 GHz are suppressed by 8 dB to 12 dB from 24 dB to 26 dB to 12 dB to 18 dB. The small-signal gain S₂₁ at the operating frequencies of 70 GHz to 95 GHz are only decreased by 1.4 dB to 2.4 dB from 21.6 dB to 25.4 dB to 19.2 dB to 24.0 dB. The fabricated E-band LNA MMIC with the proposed filter has a measured S₂₁ of 16 dB to 21 dB, input matching (S₁₁) of -14 dB to -5 dB, and output matching (S₂₂) of -19 dB to -4 dB at E-band operating frequencies of 70 GHz to 95 GHz.