A 5-GHz radio front-end with automatically Q-tuned notch filter and VCO

A low-voltage receiver front-end for 5-GHz radio applications is presented. The receiver consists of a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with notch filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and a mixer. The LNA/notch filter has an automatic Q-tuning circuit integrated with it to provide good image rejection. On-chip transformers are used extensively in the receiver to improve performance and facilitate low-voltage operation. The receiver has a gain of 19.8 dB, noise figure of 4.5 dB, a third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of -11.5 dBm, and an image rejection of 59 dB, and the VCO had a phase noise of -116 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset.

[1]  D. Marchesan,et al.  A family of monolithic inductor-varactor SiGe-HBT VCOs for 20 GHz to 30 GHz LMDS and fiber-optic receiver applications , 2000, 2000 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium Digest of Papers (Cat. No.00CH37096).

[2]  Calvin Plett,et al.  Post-processed Cu inductors with application to a completely integrated 2-GHz VCO , 2001 .

[3]  H.R. Rategh,et al.  A 5-GHz CMOS wireless LAN receiver front end , 2000, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  Calvin Plett,et al.  Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design , 2003 .

[5]  Thomas H. Lee,et al.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits: RF CIRCUITS THROUGH THE AGES , 2003 .

[6]  Calvin Plett,et al.  A completely integrated 1.9 GHz receiver front-end with monolithic image reject filter and VCO , 2000 .

[7]  Mohammed S. Ghausi,et al.  Design of analog filters : passive, active RC, and switched capacitor , 1990 .

[8]  C. Plett,et al.  A completely integrated 1.8 volt 5 GHz tunable image reject notch filter , 2001, 2001 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37173).

[9]  T. Yoshimasu,et al.  A low-current Ku-band GaAs monolithic image rejection down-converter , 1992 .

[10]  Y. Tsividis,et al.  Design techniques for automatically tuned integrated gigahertz-range active LC filters , 2002 .

[11]  C. Plett,et al.  The effect of varactor nonlinearity on the phase noise of completely integrated VCOs , 2000, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[12]  J.R. Long,et al.  Monolithic transformers for silicon RF IC design , 2000, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[13]  Sorin P. Voinigescu,et al.  5-GHz SiGe HBT monolithic radio transceiver with tunable filtering , 1999, RFIC 1999.

[14]  J.R. Long,et al.  A low-voltage 5.1-5.8-GHz image-reject downconverter RF IC , 2000, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[15]  Ali M. Niknejad,et al.  Analysis, design, and optimization of spiral inductors and transformers for Si RF ICs , 1998, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[16]  Yannis Tsividis,et al.  1.8 GHz tunable filter in Si technology , 1996, Proceedings of Custom Integrated Circuits Conference.

[17]  R. Weigel,et al.  A fully integrated VCO at 2 GHz , 1998, 1998 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers, ISSCC. First Edition (Cat. No.98CH36156).

[18]  Fred J. Taylor,et al.  Electronic filter design handbook , 1981 .

[19]  Calvin Plett,et al.  A study of digital and analog automatic-amplitude control circuitry for voltage-controlled oscillators , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[20]  T. Soorapanth,et al.  A 0 dB-IL, 2140/spl plusmn/30 MHz bandpass filter utilizing Q-enhanced spiral inductors in standard CMOS , 2001, VLSIC 2001.

[21]  S.S. Wong,et al.  A 0 dB-IL, 2140/spl plusmn/30 MHz bandpass filter utilizing Q-enhanced spiral inductors in standard CMOS , 2001, 2001 Symposium on VLSI Circuits. Digest of Technical Papers (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37185).

[22]  Yannis Tsividis,et al.  High Frequency Continuous Time Filters in Digital CMOS Processes , 2000 .

[23]  Fred J. Taylor,et al.  Electronic filter design handbook : LC, active, and digital filters , 1988 .

[24]  Scott D. Willingham,et al.  Integrated video-frequency continuous-time filters , 1995 .

[25]  Hyunchol Shin,et al.  A 1.8-V 6/9-GHz switchable dual-band quadrature LC VCO in SiGe BiCMOS technology , 2002, 2002 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium. Digest of Papers (Cat. No.02CH37280).

[26]  Salvatore Levantino,et al.  A 2-V 2.5-GHz-104-dBc/Hz at 100 kHz fully integrated VCO with wide-band low-noise automatic amplitude control loop , 2001, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[27]  A. Niknejad,et al.  Analysis , Design , and Optimization of Spiral Inductors and Transformers for Si RF IC ’ s , 1998 .

[28]  Behzad Razavi,et al.  RF Microelectronics , 1997 .

[29]  Behzad Razavi,et al.  A study of phase noise in CMOS oscillators , 1996, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[30]  A. Niknejad,et al.  Fully–integrated low phase noise bipolar differential VCOs at 2.9 and 4.4 GHz , 1999 .

[31]  Howard C. Luong,et al.  A fully-integrated 900-MHz CMOS wireless receiver with on-chip RF and IF filters and 79-dB image rejection , 2001, VLSIC 2001.

[32]  A. Abidi,et al.  Physical processes of phase noise in differential LC oscillators , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE 2000 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (Cat. No.00CH37044).

[33]  M. A. Copeland,et al.  A 1.9-GHz silicon receiver with monolithic image filtering , 1998 .