Abstract
This thesis presents comprehensive methods for the design of RF CMOS Transmit/Receive switch with high power-handling capability and low insertion loss. Techniques such as RF floated body to extend the bandwidth and decrease the insertion loss, and stacking architecture with high substrate isolation to enhance the power-handling capability are used for the design of the T/R switch on a standard 0.18um triple-well CMOS process. The measured performance of the T/R switch designed at 900-MHz demonstrates the effectiveness of the methods presented in this dissertation such that insertion loss less than 1 dB, isolation up to 35.2 dB, and input 1-dB compression point of 30-dBm can be achieved. Besides, insertion loss less than 1.28-dB, isolation higher than 24 dB, and input 1-dB compression point of 27-dBm can be achieved for the switch designed at 5.8-GHz. The switch designed for DC-10 GHz applications can reach insertion loss less than 1.69 dB, with S11 and S22 smaller than -15, and input 1-dB compression point of 27-dBm. Moreover, this dissertation presents a novel application of the active inductor in the design of the low noise amplifier (LNA). To reduce the silicon area consumed by the LNA without sacrificing its linearity, the passive source-degenerated inductor in the conventional design is replaced with the active inductor. The LNA is fabricated with a standard 0.18-um CMOS process. Compared with previous arts, this LNA exhibits good figure of merit (FOM) based on its power consumption of 19 mW, measured power gain of 17 dB, input third-order intercept point of -7 dBm, and noise figure of 3.4 dB at 5.7-GHz.