A comparison between common-source and cascode topologies for V-band millimeter-wave MMIC Low Noise Amplifier design

In this paper, a three-stage cascode LNA and a three-stage common source LNA are presented. A comparison in terms of noise figure and gain between the two designed three-stage MMIC common source and cascode LNAs is discussed. This LNAs will be used as a part of a WPAN (Wirless Personal Area Network) receiver in the millimeter-wave band at 60 GHz. These low noise amplifiers are designed according to the MMIC technology (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) in PH15 process from UMS foundry and uses a 0.15 μm GaAs PHEMT (Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor). The three-stage cascode LNA shows better performances compared to the three-stage common source LNA. The proposed three-stage cascode LNA exhibits a very low noise figure which is equal to 1dB and a high gain which is about 23 dB. An input return loss of -6.61 dB and an output return loss of -11.26 dB are also achieved by this LNA