A SiGe D-Band Low-Noise Amplifier Utilizing Gain-Boosting Technique

A D-band low-noise amplifier with gain boosting is implemented in a 0.13 $\mu{\rm m}$ SiGe BiCMOS technology, occupying 0.4 mm $^{2}$ of IC area. The circuit consists of two stages of cascode amplifiers with inductive common-base termination, which improves the gain by increasing the output impedance. The measurements show more than 20 dB gain from 110 to 140 GHz, consuming 12 mW of total dc power from a single voltage supply of 2.0 V. The measured noise figure is within 5.5 to 6.5 dB in the same frequency range. To the authors' knowledge, these results demonstrate the best silicon low-noise amplifier performance up to date in this frequency range.