UWB distributed amplifier design using lookup tables and g_m over I_D methodology

This paper introduces a synthesis procedure for designing Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) Distributed amplifiers (DA) based on lookup tables exploiting the g_m over I_D methodology. In order to validate the proposed approach, two conventional DAs with different number of stages were synthetized. The two DAs were implemented using the IHP 0.13 µm SiGe process and both achieve power gain of 11 dB, bandwidth of 10.6 GHz and DC-power consumption of 26 mW with a 1.2 supply voltage. The post-layout simulations validate both the accuracy and effectiveness of the procedure proposed for optimizing the DA performances. Additionally, the four-stage DA configuration, designed with the proposed approach achieves input/output matching return losses better than 16/18 dB. To the authors knowledge, these values are the best input/output return losses ever reported in literature for a conventional DA designed for UWB applications.