A bias configurable, switchable novel LNA design in 0.15um GaAs pHEMT technology especially for Wi-Fi 6 applications

This master thesis study introduces the design and fabrication of a 0.15 um GaAs pHEMT technology based bias configurable switchable low noise amplifier design for Wi-Fi 6 applications. The proposed design has three frequency cases which are single 2.4 GHz, single 5.8 GHz and concurrent dual band applications. Switching is provided by two switch transistors on the feedback paths. The switching voltage is bias configurable which means there is no need for additional voltage supply for controlling the state of the switching transistors. The designed low noise amplifier chip is fully integrated, no external components are required for the matching. The EM simulation results for the proposed design give the gain of 17.33 dB, noise figure of 2.23 dB and P1dB of 8.32 dBm for 2.4 GHz frequency band. Similarly, the EM simulation results for the 5.8 GHz frequency band, the gain is 18.44 dB, the noise figure is 1.5 dB and P1dB is equal to 3.25 dBm. Lastly, the concurrent dual band operation which contains the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency operation simultaneously, the gain is 17.34 dB and 15.79 dB, the noise figure is 2.23 dB and 1.62 dB, P1dB is 7.77 dBm and 5.34 dBm for 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The power consumption of the designed low noise amplifier chip is 216 mW with 3.3 V single voltage supply. The design also involves the techniques of current reuse, self-biasing, inductive degeneration to optimize the power consumption, area saving and performance enhancements. The dimensions of the designed chip are 3.4x1.5 mm2 including all input and output pads. All simulations and circuit analyses are performed at the AWR design environment by WIN-PL1512 process design kit. To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no other low noise amplifier topology found in literature which combines two different single frequency applications with concurrent dual band condition.