Design and Layout Considerations of a D-Band SiGe LNA for Radiometric Applications

A D-Band SiGe HBT low-noise amplifier (LNA) is presented in IHP's 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The proposed 3 stage cascode common emitter architecture provides a good balance between gain, noise figure and power consumption. The LNA is centered at 187.5 GHz, near the H2O absorption line (183 GHz), and provides a gain of 29 dB with 3 dB bandwidth of 15 GHz and maximum noise figure of 8.6 dB, making it suitable for radiometric applications. Layout optimization is done with electromagnetic simulations using MOMENTUM planar solver. The effects of unwanted couplings and parasitics on the device performance are characterized and layout considerations are given for an optimal design. Post layout simulations show a Figure of Merit of 358 which is in the state of the art of the LNAs at 183GHz.