A SYSTEMATIC COMPUTER-AIDED APPROACH TO LOW-NOISE AMPLIFIER DESIGN.

Low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) are critical to a wide variety of electronic circuits. In the design phase preceding fabrication, an LNA needs to be designed for a given set of specifications (e.g., gain, noise-figure, power consumption, etc.), which tend to be application-dependent. Typically, LNA design using commercial computer-aided design (CAD) tools can be human-intensive and requires a certain degree of expertise. This paper presents a systematic multi-phase CAD approach for the design of LNAs. In the first phase, a quick pre-analysis of the given LNA specifications is carried out leading to the selection of an appropriate LNA topology. In the second phase, an initial design of the LNA is generated employing an appropriate design procedure. Finally, the initial design is adjusted/fine-tuned so as to meet/exceed the given specifications, where necessary. The advantages of the proposed approach are shown through several practical LNA design examples in 0.18 μm CMOS technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]