CMOS SOI distributed amplifiers for new communication systems

(eng) Distributed amplifiers (DAs) are good candidate to achieve amplification over very broad bandwidths, as ultra wide band transceivers, high speed applications and optical communications. The demonstration of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) CMOS as a viable alternative to the implementation of low-cost monolithic microwave integrated circuits has generated considerable interests in the development of CMOS DAs. The frame of this work was the evaluation of the issues of design and modeling of DAs on a commercially SOI CMOS technology. The purpose was to investigate the advantages of a standard 130 nm SOI CMOS process. Indeed, this technology has already shown good performances for digital applications compared to bulk CMOS technology. At nanometer-scale, SOI CMOS transistors exhibit very high cut-off frequencies, enabling the design of millimetre-wave integrated circuits and therefore the joint integration of microwave circuits with low frequency analog and high-speed digital functions for System-on-Chip applications. However, high losses in passive components remain the main limiting factor for microwave applications with CMOS technologies. Another issue is the high temperature applications. The excellent behavior of SOI CMOS circuits at high temperature suggests the use of this technology. For this reason, the behavior of the DA is investigated with respect to temperature. The results show that the losses induced in the passives are the main contributor to the decrease of the gain and the bandwidth of the DAs at high temperature.