Methods and devices for reducing DC current consumption of a multi-stage LNA amplifier. According to one aspect, first and second amplification stages are stacked to provide a common conduction path of a DC current. The first stage includes a common-source amplifier, the second stage includes a common-drain amplifier. Coupling between the two stages is provided by series connection of load inductors of the respective stages and a capacitor coupled at a common node between the inductors. According to another aspect, a current splitter circuit is used to split a current to the first stage according to two separate conduction paths, one common path to the two stages, and another separate from the second stage. According to yet another aspect, the current splitter circuit includes a feedback loop that controls the splitting of the current so to maintain a constant current through the common path.

A system and method which includes receiving an input signal having an envelope and generating an envelope detection signal corresponding to the envelope. A bias current provided to an amplifier circuit is adjusted based upon the envelope detection signal, the amplifier circuit including an amplifier and a transformer. The transformer is configured to establish a magnetically coupled feedback loop from an output of the amplifier to an input of the amplifier. An output signal is provided, by the amplifier circuit, in response to the input signal.

Front end systems and related devices, integrated circuits, modules, and methods are disclosed. One such front end system includes a low noise amplifier in a receive path and a multi-mode power amplifier circuit in a transmit path. An overload protection circuit can adjust an impedance of a switch coupled to the low noise amplifier based on a signal level of the low noise amplifier. The multi-mode power amplifier circuit includes a stacked output stage including a transistor stack of two or more transistors. The multi-mode power amplifier circuit also includes a bias circuit configured to control a bias of at least one transistor of the transistor stack based on a mode of the multi-mode power amplifier circuit. Other embodiments of front end systems are disclosed, along with related devices, integrated circuits, modules, methods, and components thereof.

A system and method which includes receiving an input signal and providing, by an amplifier circuit, an output signal in response to the input signal, the output signal having an envelope. An envelope detection signal corresponding to the envelope of the output signal is generated. A bias current provided to an amplifier circuit is adjusted based upon the envelope detection signal. The amplifier circuit includes an amplifier and a transformer, the transformer being configured to establish a magnetically coupled feedback loop from an output of the amplifier to an input of the amplifier.

A LNA comprises an input, a transformer structure and a first transistor and a second transistor, each having gate, source, and drain terminals. The transformer structure has a first winding pair, a second winding pair and a third winding pair. Each winding of the first winding pair connects to the input node and one source terminals of the transistors. The second winding pair is proximate the first winding pair. The second winding pair connects to a ground node and the transistor source terminals. The third winding pair is proximate the first winding pair and it connects to a bias signal source and a gate terminal of the transistors. An output connects to the transistor drain terminals. The windings of the first and second winding pairs are offset and rotated 180 degrees with respect to the other winding in the pair. The third winding pair performs a Gm boost function.

A low-power standard-compliant NB-IoT wake-up receiver (WRX) is presented. The WRX is designed as a companion radio to a full NB-IoT receiver, only operating during discontinuous RX modes (DRX and eDRX), which allows the full high-power radio to turn off while the wake-up receiver efficiently receives NB-IoTWake-Up Signals (WUS). The fabricated receiver achieves 2.1 mW power at −109 dBm sensitivity with 180 kHz bandwidth over the 750-960 MHz bands. The WRX is fabricated in 28 nm CMOS and consumes 5× less power than the best previously published traditional NB-IoT receivers. This disclosure is the first designed dedicated wake-up receiver for the NB-IoT protocol and demonstrates the benefits of utilizing a WRX to reduce power consumption of NB-IoT radios.

A low noise amplifier (LNA) includes a first transistor and a second transistor. A source of the second transistor is connected to a drain of the first transistor. The LNA further includes a feedback transformer. A gate of the first transistor is connected to a primary winding of the feedback transformer and a gate of the second transistor is connected to a secondary winding of the feedback transformer.

A circuit comprising: an input terminal; a first amplifier coupled to the input terminal of the circuit to receive an input signal; a first inductor having a first terminal coupled to the input terminal and a second terminal configured to be coupled to the ground terminal, wherein the first inductor is arranged with a second inductor and configured to magnetically couple therewith, wherein said second inductor is coupled to the first amplifier and is configured to sense a current through the amplifier.

Compact low noise amplifiers that have wide-band coverage while meeting necessary input matching and output matching characteristics. Embodiments include a wide-band, two-stage LNA with minimum degradation in performance compared to multiple narrow-band, single-stage LNAs. A generalized embodiment includes a first amplifier stage having a terminal coupled to a mutually coupled inductor circuit and to a second amplifier stage. The second amplifier stage includes a terminal coupled to the mutually coupled inductor circuit. The mutually coupled inductor circuit comprises electromagnetically coupled inductors L1, L2. Second terminals of the first and second amplifier stages are coupled to respective degeneration inductors. The electromagnetically coupled inductors L1, L2 of the inductor circuit substantially increase the output bandwidth of the LNA with minimum degradation in performance.

A high frequency amplifier circuit includes a transistor including a drain, a gate, and a source, an inductance-capacitor (LC) tank connected to the drain, and a transformer connected to the gate and the source.