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Design of a Low-Voltage LNA with Considering Reliability and Variability Issues

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of using the adaptive body bias technique to minimize the negative consequences of the process variability and reliability issues in CMOS RF circuits. In recent years, ongoing downsizing in transistors’ aspect ratio led to process variation error and reliability concerns that, particularly for transistors, are threshold voltage increase and electron mobility drift. The studied optimization approach is based on combining the main low noise amplifier (LNA) circuit with an adaptive body bias circuit, and both are designed for ISM band 902–928 MHz. This technique is applied to a low-power, low-voltage, variable-gain, low noise amplifier to adjust the major effects of process variation, namely threshold voltage increment and electron mobility decrement. The amount of normalized variations in noise figure, small-signal gain (S21), and minimum noise figure parameters of the circuit are examined over a wide range of voltage gain. The post-layout simulation results in the 180 nm CMOS process show that with employing this technique and under 16% threshold voltage and mobility variation, NF is decreased by a factor close to 4.87 times and 2.27 times compared to the LNA with constant DC body bias, respectively. These results show the superior performance of the proposed approach. In addition to normalized results, the Monte− Carlo simulation results are also provided to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed circuit in the corners. In order to validate the circuit performance, mathematical calculations are provided, as well.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. The authors also declare that they have no financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Sahand New Town, Tabriz, 5331817634, Iran

    Ava Khoshgoftar, Hassan Faraji Baghtash, Esmaeil Najafi Aghdam & Tayebeh Azadmousavi

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  1. Ava Khoshgoftar
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  2. Hassan Faraji Baghtash
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  3. Esmaeil Najafi Aghdam
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Correspondence to Hassan Faraji Baghtash.

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Khoshgoftar, A., Faraji Baghtash, H., Najafi Aghdam, E. et al. Design of a Low-Voltage LNA with Considering Reliability and Variability Issues. J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. B 104, 115–128 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40031-022-00839-y

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