Ultra-Low Power 0.55 mW 2.4 GHz CMOS Low-Noise Amplifier for Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

This paper describes the design topology of two-stage ultra-low power low noise amplifier (LNA) using the forward body bias technique for wireless sensor network (WSN) application. The proposed design employs CMOS 0.13-µm technology at 2.4 GHz frequency. The LNA consumes low power from the forward body bias technique at the first and the second stages. The threshold voltage of the transistor can be lowered using the forward body bias technique. Two stages are implemented in order to enhance the gain while obtaining low power consumption for overall circuit. The measurement results show that the LNA consumes a total power of 0.55 mW at supply voltage 0.55 V. The input return loss (S11) and the output return loss (S22) is 10 and 12 dB, respectively. A gain of 12 dB, noise figure (NF) of 5.9 dB and input third-order intercept point (IIP3) of −3 dBm are achieved.

KEYWORDS:

• Forward body bias
• High gain
• Low noise amplifier
• Low power consumption
• Two-stage
• Wireless sensor network

Additional information

Funding

The authors express their appreciation to the support and contributions from those who assist in this research especially Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Malaysia Ministry of Education grant [9003-00387] that enabled the production of this article.

Notes on contributors

Sohiful Anuar Zainol Murad

Sohiful Anuar Zainol Murad obtained his PhD in electronics from Kyushu University, Japan. Currently, he is a senior lecturer in the School of Microelectronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia. His research interests include RF CMOS front-end integrated circuit design. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Anishaziela Azizan

Anishaziela Azizan obtained her master degree in electronic engineering from Universiti Malaysia Perlis. Currently, she is a lecturer in the Faculty of Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis. Her research interest is in IC design which focuses more in low-power low-noise amplifier (LNA) design. Email: [email protected]

Rohana Sapawi

Rohana Sapawi received her PhD degree in analog circuit design from Kyushu University. She has been a senior lecturer in the Department of Electronics Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia since 2004. Her current research activity is analog circuit design. Email: [email protected]

Tun Zainal Azni Zulkifli

Tun Zainal Azni Zulkifli received the BSc, MSc and DSc degrees in electrical engineering from Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA, in 1995, 1998, and 2002, respectively. Since 2014, he has been with Universiti Teknologi Petronas, where he has been leading the RFIC Group. To date, he has over 79 technical publications and successfully supervised four PhD and seven MSc candidates. Email: [email protected]