A Low Noise Figure Rail-to-Rail Variable-Gain LNA for 900-MHz LoRa
Application in 65nm CMOS Technology
Abstract
This paper presents a low noise figure (NF) variable-gain low
noise amplifier (VG-LNA) for the Long-Range (LoRa) Application. In the
proposed circuit, a gain-cascaded branch is utilized to provide a
rail-to-rail control voltage to vary the gain of LNA in a wide range and
improve the dynamic range of the front-end LoRa receiver block. Besides,
the proposed LNA’s gain is amplified using a current reused technique.
The functionality of the suggested VG-LNA is assessed by the post-layout
simulation results provided by TSMC 65 nm CMOS technology with a 1.2 V
supply voltage. The simulation results demonstrate that the circuit’s
gain is varied linearly from 7dB to 21dB by changing the control voltage
from rail-to-rail. Besides, the proposed VG-LNA has an NF of less than
1.8 dB and S11 of better than -14 dB in a wide temperature range, while
the power consumption is 6.8 mW @ 900 MHz. Also, the occupied area of
the VG-LNA is 0.819 mm2 ( 910 µm× 900µm).
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