Automated, Deterministic Design of N -Stage LNAs With Input/Output/Noise Match and Controlled Bandwidth and Linearity

This contribution presents a novel design approach for$N$-stage low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), with$N \geq 3$, capable of ensuring simultaneous conjugate match, minimum noise measure, prescribed gain (within the technological limits), and minimum inter-stage mismatch (in the Pareto sense) at the design frequency. For reasons of clarity, the illustration of the$N = 3$case is carried out at length, whereas the$N \gt 3$case is only briefly described since, except for a change of indices, it is basically identical. The method is a nontrivial extension of a previously presented one, which was limited, however, to two-stage designs. The design method also integrates linearity assessment directly at the draft stage, contrary to previous works. As an example of application, the design of a real-world three-stage LNA operating in Ka-band is presented.