A 2.4-GHz, Sub-1-V, 2.8-dB NF, 475- $\mu$ W Dual-Path Noise and Nonlinearity Cancelling LNA for Ultra-Low-Power Radios

A 0.7-V, 2.4-GHz low-power LNA combines a 1:3 front-end balun with dual-path noise and nonlinearity cancellation for the improved noise performance at low powers. In traditional noise cancellation techniques, only the noise of the main path is cancelled, while the noise of the auxiliary path is reduced by using higher power. In the proposed design, the noise and nonlinearity of both the main and the auxiliary paths are mutually cancelled allowing for low-power operation. The 2.8-dB noise figure, −10.7 dBm third-order input intercept point LNA in a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s 65-nm GP process consumes 475 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of power resulting in an figure of merit of 28.8 dB, which is 8.2 dB better than the state of the art.

[1]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  A sub-1V, 2.8dB NF, 475µW coupled LNA for internet of things employing dual-path noise and nonlinearity cancellation , 2017, 2017 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC).

[2]  Sang-Gug Lee,et al.  An ultra-wideband CMOS low noise amplifier for 3-5-GHz UWB system , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[3]  J. Long,et al.  The modeling, characterization, and design of monolithic inductors for silicon RF IC's , 1997, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[4]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  CMOS energy efficient integrated radios for emerging low power standards , 2016, 2016 International SoC Design Conference (ISOCC).

[5]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  An IEEE 802.15.6 Standard Compliant 2.5 nJ/Bit Multiband WBAN Transmitter Using Phase Multiplexing and Injection Locking , 2015, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[6]  Jun Deguchi,et al.  A 0.6V 380µW −14dBm LO-input 2.4GHz double-balanced current-reusing single-gate CMOS mixer with cyclic passive combiner , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[7]  Ahmad Mirzaei,et al.  A blocker-tolerant wideband noise-cancelling receiver with a 2dB noise figure , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[8]  B. Nauta,et al.  Wideband Balun-LNA With Simultaneous Output Balancing, Noise-Canceling and Distortion-Canceling , 2008, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[9]  B. Nauta,et al.  Wide-band CMOS low-noise amplifier exploiting thermal noise canceling , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[10]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  A 0.7V 194µW 31dB FOM 2.3–2.5 GHz RF frontend for WBAN with mutual noise cancellation using passive coupling , 2015, 2015 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC).

[11]  Liang-Hung Lu,et al.  Design of Ultra-Low-Voltage RF Frontends With Complementary Current-Reused Architectures , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[12]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  A 2.5nJ/bit multiband (MBAN & ISM) transmitter for IEEE 802.15.6 based on a hybrid polyphase-MUX/ILO based modulator , 2014, 2014 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.

[13]  B. Nauta,et al.  The Blixer, a Wideband Balun-LNA-I/Q-Mixer Topology , 2008, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

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

[15]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  A Sub-1-V 194- $\mu{\hbox{W}}$ 31-dB FOM 2.3–2.5-GHz Mixer-First Receiver Frontend for WBAN With Mutual Noise Cancellation , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[16]  Kenichi Okada,et al.  F3: Radio architectures and circuits towards 5G , 2016, 2016 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).