LNA Performance Simulations

1. Power Consumption

• Ground both the input and output of your LNA. If there is no DC blocking capacitor at the output then leave it open-circuited.
• Using the Analog Design Environment choose to run a dc simulation and make sure that Save DC Operation Point is selected.
• Run the simulation. When it is finished click Results -> Print -> DC Operating Points
• Click on the DC voltage source and note the delivered power.

2. S-Parameter Simulations

• You must first instantiate ports at both the input and output of the LNA (analogLib -> Sources -> Independent -> port).
• Edit the properties of the input port
  • Set the Resistance to 50 Ω and the Port number to 1.
  • Set the Source type to dc.
• Edit the properties of the output port
  • Set the Resistance to 50 Ω and set the Port number to 2.
  • Set the Source type to dc.
• In the Analog Design Environment and choose the sp analysis type.
  • Click the Port Select button and select the input and output port on the schematic.
  • Set the Sweep Variable to Frequency
  • Set the Sweep Range to Start-Stop and enter 1.5G for the Start value and 3.5G for the Stop value.
  • Set the Sweep Type to Linear and the Number of Steps to 1000.
  • Leave the Do Noise set to no.
  • Click OK
• Run the simulation
• To plot the results click Results -> Direct Plot -> Main Form ...
  • Make sure that the Analysis is sp and the Function is SP
  • Select Plot Type as Rectangular
  • Set the Modifier to dB20
  • Now simply click the button corresponding to the parameter you wish to plot.

3. Noise Figure using S-parameter Simulation

• Follow steps 1 – 4d from the S-parameter simulation instructions above.
• In the sp Choosing Analyses window, set Do Noise to yes
  • Select the Output Port
  • Select the Input Port
  • Click OK
• Run the simulation
• To plot the results click Results -> Direct Plot -> Main Form ...
  • Make sure that the Analysis is sp and the Function is NF
  • Set the Modifier to dB10
  • Click on Plot
• IIP3 and 1-dB Compression Simulation
• You must first instantiate ports at both the input and output of the LNA (analogLib -> Sources -> Independent -> port)
• Edit the properties of the input port
  • Set the Resistance to 50 Ω
  • Set the Port number to 1
  • Source type should be sine
  • Fill in fund1 for the Frequency name 1
  • Frequency 1 should be 2.4G
  • This is the frequency of the desired signal
  • Fill in prf for Amplitude 1 (dBm)
  • This is a variable name (to be defined later) of the power of the input signal
  • Click on Display second sinusoid
  • Fill in fund2 for Frequency name 2
  • Frequency 2 should be 2.42G
  • This is the frequency of the second tone or “blocker”
  • Fill in prf for Amplitude 2 (dBm)
  • This sets the power of the blocker equal to the power of the input signal
  • Click OK
• Edit the properties of the output port
  • Set the Resistance to 50 Ω and the Port number to 2
  • Set the Source type to dc
• In the Analog Design Environment we need to enable the pss analysis
  • Verify that fund1 and fund2 are displayed in the Fundamental Tones section.
  • Select Beat Frequency and click Auto Calculated
    • The beat frequency should be 20 MHz, this is the greatest common divisor of fund1 and fund2
  • Select Number of harmonics under Output harmonics and fill in the value of 123
    • This field defines the number of harmonics of the beat frequency that the simulation will consider. For IIP3 tests we need to consider up to the frequency (2*2.42GHz – 2.4GHz = 2.44GHz). This means that we need 122 harmonics of the beat frequency (2.44GHz / 20MHz = 122). We use 123 harmonics to go one harmonic higher.
  • Set the Accuracy Defaults (errpreset) to conservative
  • Set the Additional Time for Stabilization (tstab) to 20n
    • This allows any startup transients to settle before calculating the IIP3
  • Click Sweep
  • Choose Variable and check no for Frequency Variable?
  • Fill in prf for the variable name
    • This is the variable defining the power of both the input and blocker signals
  • Check Start-Stop under Sweep Range and fill in -50 for Start and 0 for Stop
  • Set the Sweep Type to Linear and set the Step Size to 5
  • Click OK
• Run the simulation
• To view the results for IIP3 click Results -> Direct Plot -> Main Form ...
  • Set the Analysis to pss
  • Set the Function to IPN Curves
  • Make sure that Select Port ( fixed R(port) ) is set
  • Click Variable Sweep (“prf”) for Circuit Input Power
  • Enter -25 for Input Power Extrapolation Point (dBm)
    • Some experimentation might be in order. You want the resulting extrapolated line to match well with the straight portion of the IM3 components at low power.
  • Select Input Referred IP3 and Order 3rd
  • Select either 2.44G (2*2.42G – 2.4G) or 2.38G (2*2.4G – 2.42G) for the 3rd Order Harmonic
  • Select 2.4G for the 1st Order Harmonic
  • Select the output port on the schematic
  • You Should get a plot similar to Fig. 1 below
    • Note that I use AWD whereas the default waveform viewer in Cadence is Wavescan.
• To View the results for the 1-dB compression point click Results -> Direct Plot -> Main Form ...
  • Set the Analysis to pss
  • Set the Function to Compression Point
  • Check that Select Port ( fixed R(port) ) is set
  • Select Output Power for Format
  • Enter 1 for Gain Compression (dB)
    • We are interested in the 1-dB compression point after all
  • Enter -25 for Input Power Extrapolation Point (dBm)
    • Again some experimentation might be in order
  • Select Input Referred 1 dB Compression
  • Under the 1st Order Harmonics select 2.4G
  • Select the output Port on the schematic
  • The resulting plot should look similar to Fig. 2 below.

Figure 1: Sample IIP3 plot

Figure 2: 1-dB Compression Point