Questions for Low Noise Amplifiers

Q1: Consider the transistor with capacitive source degeneration shown in

Fig. 1.

(a) What is Zin?

(b) Now assume that an inductor LS has been added in parallel with
CS , and the value of LS has been chosen to resonate with CS at
the frequency of interest. Assume CS is ideal, while LS is lossy
with a quality factor of 10 at the frequency of interest. What is
Zin?

Figure 1.

Solution:
 Q2: Shown in Fig. 2 is an LNA topology known as a current re-use LNA.
(Note: neglect all small signal capacitances, and assume that the
transistors have infinite output impedance)
(a) What is the input impedance looking into Vin?
(b) What is the noise factor, assuming that the circuit is driven by a
source with output impedance R S ? Neglect induced gate noise.

Figure 2

Solution:
 Q3: Consider the amplifier shown in Fig.3. You may neglect all transistor
capacitances. Assume that transistor M 2 has infinite output impedance,
while transistor M 1 has an output impedance of ro.

(a) Calculate the noise factor of this circuit. You may neglect induced
gate noise.
(b) What is the impact of the cascode transistor M 2 on the noise factor?
What can be done to lessen the noise contribution of this device

Figure 3.
Solution:
 Q4:
It is preferred in current RF designs that the input of LNA be matched to 50 Ω.
The easiest way is to shunt the gate with a resistor of 50 Ω.
a) Calculate the gain, input impedance, and noise figure (NF) in absence of gate
noise. Assume that Rsh=Rs and RL noiseless for NF derivation.
b) What are the disadvantages of shunt resistor with reference to gain and NF?

Solution:
Q5:
The inductor source degenerated amplifier shown below, presents a noiseless resistance
of 50 Ω for input power match.

a) Calculate the input impedance. How we can cancel the imaginary part of complex
input impedance so that the LNA presents 50 Ω real input resistance at input port?
b) Calculate the NF in absence of gate noise. Neglect gate-drain, gate-bulk, and gate-
source capacitance. Tip: use the Q-value of the input network to determine the
gain of the circuit.
c) Cgd bridges the input and output ports. The reverse isolation of this LNA is very
poor. Why is reverse isolation important? Suggest a modification to improve the
reverse isolation.
 Q6: A common-source low noise amplifier (LNA) with feedback is shown in the figure
below. RS is the input source resistance. Assume that the transistors are long-channel
devices and λ = 0.
a) Determine the input impedance (Rin) of the LNA.
b) Calculate the voltage gain, A = Vout/Vin, of the LNA after matching if RF =
10*RS.
c) Derive an expression for the output noise of the LNA contributed by RS after
matching. Assume RF >> RS.

Solution:

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Questions for Mixers
Q7)
Consider the active mixer shown in the figure below, where the LO has abrupt edges and
a 50 % duty cycle. Also, channel-length modulation and body effect are negligible. The
load resistors exhibit mismatch, but the circuit is otherwise symmetric. Assume M1
carries a bias current of ISS. Determine the output offset voltage.

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Q8)

The circuit shown below is a dual-gate mixer used in traditional microwave design.
Assume abrupt edges and a 50 % duty cycle for the LO and neglect channel-length
modulation and body effect.
VDD
RD
VIF
VRF M2

VLO M1

a) Assume that M1 is an ideal switch. Determine the frequency components which

appear at the mixer IF port.

b) Assume when M1 is on, it has an on-resistance of Ron1. Compute the voltage

conversion gain of the circuit. Assume M2 does not enter the triode region and
denote its transconductance by gm2.

c) Assume when M1 is is an ideal switch. Compute the voltage conversion gain of

the circuit

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Q9)
Gilbert mixer and its variants are one of the most popular types of mixers used in today’s
designs due to its good conversion gain, NF, linearity, and isolation.

VDD

R1 VIF R2

+
M 3 M4 M5 M6
VLO
–

+ M1 M2
VRF
–

ISS

a) Derive the expression for the conversion.

b) Derive the expression to identify the frequency components at the output
spectrum of the mixer IF port.
c) Derive the expression for the noise figure.

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