Digitally tunable low noise amplifier

Abstract

Low noise amplifiers are classified into two categories: Wideband low noise amplifiers and Narrowband low noise amplifiers. Wideband LNAs are known for achieving a poor noise performance. On the other hand, the noise performance of the narrowband amplifiers is good but only over a small frequency range. This constraint made their use restricted to certain applications, such as cellular phone applications (superheterodyne architecture), where a single operational frequency is needed. This thesis introduces a new low noise amplifier topology that provides a high selectivity and a low noise figure over a wide frequency range. The digitally tunable low noise amplifier can be implemented in narrowband applications as well as broadband applications. This thesis discusses in detail the design of the DTLNA. A detailed noise analysis is also discussed in this work. The noise analysis includes the effect of induced gate noise in CMOS, which is rarely cited but nonetheless of fundamental importance in establishing the limits of achievable noise performance. In addition, this thesis demonstrates the performance results of the digitally tunable low noise amplifier. These results prove that the overall performance of the DTLNA surpasses the performance of both wideband and narrowband amplifiers

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