Design of low noise amplifier based on tuneable active inductor and capacitor for bluetooth applications

Abstract

Active components such as active inductors and active capacitors have been used to replace their passive counterparts, especially in radio frequency modules. Besides saving colossal silicon area, active inductors are power saviors, tuneable, and provide large inductance ranges. This paper presents the evaluation and performance of a low noise amplifier (LNA) implemented using only active components. The active inductor has a high inductance tunability range from 848 nH to 1660 nH, resulting in a frequency range from 1.85 GHz to 3.02 GHz. The active inductor's quality factor is 11, with a maximum power dissipation of 208.1 µW from a 0.5 V DC power supply. The LNA provides a voltage gain of 8.76 dB with a noise figure of 8.21 dB while consuming 779.16 µW from a 0.85 V supply. The achieved frequency range is commonly used for various wireless communication applications, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Keywords

• Active inductor
• Active capacitor
• Low noise amplifier
• Bluetooth
• RF communication