Abstract: A low power high gain differential UWB low noise amplifier (LNA) operating at 3–5 GHz is presented. A common gate input stage is used for wideband input matching; capacitor cross coupling (CCC) and current reuse techniques are combined to achieve high gain under low power consumption. The prototypes fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS achieve a peak power gain of 17.5 dB with a –3 dB bandwidth of 2.8–5 GHz, a measured minimum noise figure (NF) of 3.35 dB and –12.6 dBm input-referred compression point at 5 GHz, while drawing 4.4 mA from a 1.8 V supply. The peak power gain is 14 dB under a 4.5 mW power consumption (3 mA from a 1.5 V supply). The proposed differential LNA occupies an area of 1.01 mm2 including test pads.

Key words: UWB