An Improved Design for the CSSDA for Broadband Microwave Applications

Abstract

The design of high gain and very flat broadband amplifier is one of the main challenging aspects in emerging modern communication systems especially with the implementation in integrated circuit process. Distributed amplification is the best way toward the broadband applications, but it is not the optimal solution and needs to improve the gain level and flatness. A novel design technique of the distributed amplifier is presented. The cascaded single-stage distributed amplifier is used with replacing the image parameter filter sections in the amplifier structure by shunt peaking common-source amplifier circuits. The potential benefits of the new technique over the classical distributed amplifier techniques are: high gain, maximum flat, on-chip area saving, and reducing the complexity of the parasitic-aware optimization process. These benefits have been validated through simulation examples. Based on the modified design method, a fully integrated six-stage amplifier has been implemented. The amplifier offers 25dB power gain with ±1dB ripple for more than 18GHz bandwidth.