7. Conclusions
An LNA with variable gain and operating frequency band was designed. Many topologies were investigated with all their pros and cons. Finally we decided for a cascode with feedback resistance thanks to its good trade-off between noise and stability. The total current consumption was limited to about 9 mA with a very low supply voltage of 0.8 V for a total of only 7.2 mW of dissipated power. The noise was minimized by means of a high-Q input mesh, obtained with reactive (noiseless) components and by maximizing the gain (Friis formula): we managed to obtain a very good 1 dB NF in every high gain mode. We used an LC resonating load, due to its advantages like the band pass behavior, the low added noise and the high gain at the resonance frequency. A very important achievement is the good input matching, in all the considered frequency range, with the same external matching network. This implies a significant reduction in the fabrication costs, since the external components contribute considerably to the overall cost. As the new telecommunication standard UMTS requires a dual gain preamplifier, we implemented a low gain mode as well, that helps in improving the overall linearity of the receiver.