A highly linear low-pass Gm–C filter with a self-biasing transconductor for a digital TV tuner

To improve the linearity of the transconductor in digital TV tuner application, a new technique of multiple gated transistors in self-biasing basis is presented. The proposed design decreases the bill-of-material (BOM) and offers less complexity for the structure. In addition, the proposed transconductor with third-order Chebyshev introduces a low-pass filter with low power consumption and a cut-off frequency of 50–200 MHz. The hybrid tracking low-pass filter is designed to overcome the issue of local oscillator harmonic-mixing for the Advanced Television System Committee terrestrial digital TV tuner integrated circuit. The proposed operational transconductor amplifier (OTA) is designed and implemented in 90 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology. The simulation result with a two-tone test at 100 MHz centre frequency proves that the proposed OTA has 5 dBm input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) compared with a single-gate OTA in the third-order Chebyshev filter. The proposed OTA achieves the maximum noise figure (NF) of 13 dB and maximum IIP3 of approximately 21.7 dBm at 100 MHz, whereas consuming 18 mA with 1.2 V supply voltage it shows great improvement compared to recent research works.

[1]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  A new linearization technique for MOSFET RF amplifier using multiple gated transistors , 2000 .

[2]  Kuduck Kwon,et al.  A 50–300-MHz Highly Linear and Low-Noise CMOS $Gm{\hbox{-}}C$ Filter Adopting Multiple Gated Transistors for Digital TV Tuner ICs , 2009 .

[3]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  Highly linear receiver front-end adopting MOSFET transconductance linearization by multiple gated transistors , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  Rinaldo Castello,et al.  A 40-MHz-to-1-GHz Fully Integrated Multistandard Silicon Tuner in 80-nm CMOS , 2013, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[5]  B. Kim,et al.  Highly linear CMOS RF MMIC amplifier using multiple gated transistors and its Volterra series analysis , 2001, 2001 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Sympsoium Digest (Cat. No.01CH37157).

[6]  David J. Comer,et al.  A low-frequency, continuous-time notch filter using Gm-C circuits , 1999 .

[7]  Zhang Li,et al.  A fully integrated CMOS GPS receiver with double conversion technique , 2010, 2010 International Symposium on Signals, Systems and Electronics.

[8]  Andrea Mazzanti,et al.  A 5th order gm-C low-pass filter with ±3% cut-off frequency accuracy and 220MHz to 3.3GHz tuning-range in 28nm LP CMOS , 2014, ESSCIRC 2014 - 40th European Solid State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC).

[9]  Alessandro Trifiletti,et al.  Linearization Technique for Source-Degenerated CMOS Differential Transconductors , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs.

[10]  Mohammed Ismail,et al.  A low-voltage, highly linear voltage-controlled transconductor , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs.

[11]  Bang-Sup Song,et al.  A 48-to-860MHz CMOS Direct-Conversion TV Tuner , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers.

[12]  Sang-Gug Lee,et al.  A 50-300-MHz low power and high linear active RF tracking filter for digital TV tuner ICs , 2010, IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference 2010.

[13]  Zhao Bin,et al.  Analysis and design of a 250-MHz Gm-C filter with discrete tuning scheme in 0.18-μm CMOS for UWB receiver , 2013 .

[14]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  A 23.4 mW 68 dB Dynamic Range Low Band CMOS Hybrid Tracking Filter for ATSC Digital TV Tuner Adopting RC and Gm-C Topology , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[15]  Ya-Hui Teng,et al.  Large Improvement in Image Rejection of Double-Quadrature Dual-Conversion Low-IF Architectures , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[16]  Chinchun Meng,et al.  60-GHz 0.18-um CMOS dual-conversion receiver using Schottky diode mixer and slow-wave rat-race hybrid , 2012, Proceedings of 2012 5th Global Symposium on Millimeter-Waves.

[17]  Jan-Michael Stevenson,et al.  A Multi-Standard Analog and Digital TV Tuner for Cable and Terrestrial Applications , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers.

[18]  Bang-Sup Song,et al.  A 48–860 MHz CMOS Low-IF Direct-Conversion DTV Tuner , 2008, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[19]  Ihn S. Kim,et al.  Microstrip Posts and Dielectric Resonators Showing a Steep Slope at Lower and Upper Stopbands for , 2000 .

[20]  Yiannos Manoli,et al.  Design of Low-Power Direct-Conversion RF Front-End With a Double Balanced Current-Driven Subharmonic Mixer in 0.13 $\mu {\rm m}$ CMOS , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[21]  Rozita Teymourzadeh,et al.  High linear low noise amplifier based on self-biasing multiple gated transistors , 2014, 2014 2nd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and System Engineering (ICEESE).

[22]  Eric A. M. Klumperink,et al.  A 400-to-900 MHz receiver with dual-domain harmonic rejection exploiting adaptive interference cancellation , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[23]  L. Larson,et al.  Modified derivative superposition method for linearizing FET low-noise amplifiers , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[24]  H. Trabelsi,et al.  A 863-870-Mhz spread-spectrum direct conversion receiver design for wireless sensor , 2006, International Conference on Design and Test of Integrated Systems in Nanoscale Technology, 2006. DTIS 2006..

[25]  Minkyu Je,et al.  Analysis and design of a 250-MHz Gm-C filter with discrete tuning scheme in 0.18-μm CMOS for UWB receiver , 2013, 2013 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on RF and Wireless Technologies for Biomedical and Healthcare Applications (IMWS-BIO).

[26]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  A CMOS Harmonic Rejection Mixer With Mismatch Calibration Circuitry for Digital TV Tuner Applications , 2008, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[27]  Peter J. Vancorenland,et al.  A harmonic rejection mixer robust to RF device mismatches , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[28]  Jaeyoung Choi,et al.  A CMOS Wideband RF Front-End With Mismatch Calibrated Harmonic Rejection Mixer for Terrestrial Digital TV Tuner Applications , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[29]  T. Kalkur,et al.  Tunable Dual Band Filter with BST Capacitors , 2014 .

[30]  Tae Wook Kim,et al.  A 6.75 mW $+$ 12.45 dBm IIP3 1.76 dB NF 0.9 GHz CMOS LNA Employing Multiple Gated Transistors With Bulk-Bias Control , 2011, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[31]  Eric A. M. Klumperink,et al.  A 0.3-to-1.2GHz tunable 4th-order switched gm-C bandpass filter with >55dB ultimate rejection and out-of-band IIP3 of +29dBm , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[32]  Jun-Da Chen.  A low-voltage ultra-wideband down-conversion mixer with improved power conversion gain , 2011 .