On the Use of Forward Body Biasing Technique for Low Power Ultra-Wideband Low Noise Amplifiers Design and Implementation

Abstract

This paper discusses the utilization of forward body biasing (FBB) technique for low power low noise amplifier (LNA) design. Two low power wideband LNAs utilizing current reuse with FBB technique are being presented. LNA1 is a cascode (common gate followed by common source) LNA while LNA2 is implemented as a current reuse (common source followed by common source). FBB is used for presented LNAs input gates’ transconductance boosting. LNA1 has a minimum post layout noise of 3.9 dB and a maximum gain of 12.5 dB. Its circuit current that derived from 0.65 voltage supply is only 1.68 mA. LNA2 achieves a high post-layout gain. Its maximum value is 13.6dB. It has a flattened post-layout noise figure with a minimum value of 3.19 dB. It is powered from a 0.615V and drives a current of 10.7 mA. With a dissipated power of 1.09 mW and 6.58 mW for LNA1 and LNA2, respectively, both LNAs have good isolation performance. LNA1 and LNA2 have output and input matching impedance over the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency range of interest (3.1~10.6 GHz). These low power ultra-wideband LNAs are designed and simulated in CMOS 130nm process.