2.4-GHz single-ended input low-power low-voltage active front-end for ZigBee applications in 90 nm CMOS

A 2.4-GHz CMOS single ended-input differential-output front-end built with a common source low noise amplifier (CS-LNA) and a switched transconductor mixer (SW-MIX) is presented. The circuit is designed and optimized to work in a ZigBee receiver. Since this is a low power consumption standard, a single-ended LNA is preferred over a fully-differential topology because it leads to lower cost in area and power consumption. Also, moderate and weak inversions regions were selected for the operation of the principal transistors. The front-end prototype has been implemented in a 90 nm RF process and occupies a chip area of 0.74 mm2 including on-chip inductors. Very competitive results are observed: a maximum conversion gain (CG) of 30 dB, a DSB noise figure of 7.5 dB, a maximum IIP3 of −12.8 dBm and IIP2 of 14.4 dBm while it consumes 4.7 mW from a 1.2 V supply.

[1]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  An integrated low power highly linear 2.4-GHz CMOS receiver front-end based on current amplification and mixing , 2005 .

[2]  W. Bachtold,et al.  A 6.5-mW receiver front-end for Bluetooth in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS , 2002, 2002 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (Cat. No.02CH37278).

[3]  Domenico Zito.  A novel low-power receiver topology for RF and microwave applications , 2009, Int. J. Circuit Theory Appl..

[4]  Diego Vázquez,et al.  A low power low voltage mixer for 2.4GHz applications in CMOS-90nm technology , 2010, 13th IEEE Symposium on Design and Diagnostics of Electronic Circuits and Systems.

[5]  Fernando Silveira,et al.  An all-inversion-region gm/ID based design methodology for radiofrequency blocks in CMOS nanometer technologies , 2011 .

[6]  Pietro Andreani,et al.  Noise optimization of an inductively degenerated CMOS low noise amplifier , 2001 .

[7]  J. Ryynanen,et al.  2.4-GHz receiver for sensor applications , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[8]  Troels Emil Kolding,et al.  Noise and intercept point calculation for modern radio receiver planning , 2001 .

[9]  B. Nauta,et al.  A CMOS switched transconductor mixer , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[10]  Rafaella Fiorelli,et al.  LC-VCO Design Optimization Methodology Based on the Ratio for , 2011 .

[11]  Nae-Soo Kim,et al.  A low-power CMOS dual-band RF receiver for IEEE 802.15.4-based sensor node applications , 2010 .

[12]  Songcheol Hong,et al.  A 2.4-GHz sub-mW CMOS receiver front-end for wireless sensors network , 2006 .

[13]  R. Castello,et al.  A 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS front-end for DCS1800/UMTS/802.11b-g with multi-band positive feedback low noise amplifier , 2005, Digest of Technical Papers. 2005 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, 2005..