A 200 MHz sub–mA RF front end for wireless hearing aid applications

A 200 MHz RF front-end for wireless hearing aid applications has been implemented in a 0.8µm BiCMOS technology. The chip comprises a low noise amplifier, a single balanced mixer, a varactor tuned LC local oscillator with buffer and a 16/17 dual modulus prescaler. The LNA has a measured gain of 17.5dB at 200MHz. The conversion gmof the mixer is 1.88mS. The overall voltage gain and noise figure are 26dB and 5.2dB, respectively. The VCO's phase noise is -104.7 dBc/Hz at an offset of 24kHz.