A 140 GHz Low-Noise Amplifier in 45 nm RFSOI Based on a Joint-Noise-and-Gain-Optimized Embedding Network

This paper presents a D-band three-stage differential low-noise amplifier (LNA) design employing a joint-noise-and-gain-optimized embedding network in GlobalFoundries’ 45 nm RFSOI process. The embedding network ensures that the amplifier at each stage is gain-boosted and designed for simultaneous noise and conjugate match while minimizing the loss of the input matching network, resulting in LNA with the highest peak gain, lowest NF, and highest figure of merit (FOM) compared to other reported CMOS designs. The LNA has a peak gain of 30.75 dB at 138 GHz, a minimum noise figure (NF) of 4.07 dB, and an OP1dB of -0.21 dBm at 137 GHz. The design consumes a DC power of 25 mW and occupies an active area of 0.129 mm2.