Design and measurement techniques for a low noise amplifier in a receiver chain for MedRadio spectrum of 401–406 MHz frequency band

This work presents design and practical techniques to measure specifications of a low noise amplifier (LNA) in a complete receiver chain at Medical Device Radio Communication (MedRadio) band in 401–406 MHz frequency range. Supported by detailed quantitative explanations, the proposed measurement methods help in characterizing the LNA without duplicating it on the chip only for the characterization and promises to save experimental time and cost. A common source inductively degenerated LNA has been designed and fabricated in 180 nm mixed mode CMOS technology. The measurement results show that the LNA consumes 700 μW power while giving a voltage gain of 31 dB, S11<-14 dB and noise figure of 5.8 dB at 400 MHz frequency. Complete receiver chain measurements with this LNA confirms the results from the proposed methods.

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