应用于2.4GHz无线传感网的超低功耗射频接收前端设计

This paper presents the design of an ultralow power receiver front-end designed for a wireless sensor network （WSN） in a 0.18 μm CMOS process. The author designs two front-ends working in the saturation region and the subthreshold region respectively. The front-ends contain a two-stage cross-coupling cascaded common-gate （CG） LNA and a quadrature Gilbert IQ mixer. The measured conversion gain is variable with high gain at 24 dB and low gain at 7 dB for the saturation one, and high gain at 22 dB and low gain at 5 dB for the subthreshold one. The noise figure （NF） at high gain mode is 5.1 dB and 6.3 dB for each. The input 1 dB compression point （IPldB） at low gain mode is about -6 dBm and -3 dBm for each. The front-ends consume about 2.1 mA current from 1.8 V power supply for the saturation one and 1.3 mA current for the subthreshold one. The measured results show that, comparing with the power consumption saving, it is worth making sacrifices on the performance for using the subthreshold technology.     

A 0.18μm CMOS low noise amplifier using a current reuse technique for 3.1-10.6 GHz UWB receivers

A new,low complexity,ultra-wideband 3.1-10.6 GHz low noise amplifier(LNA),designed in a chartered 0.18μm RFCMOS technology,is presented.The ultra-wideband LNA consists of only two simple amplifiers with an inter-stage inductor connected.The first stage utilizing a resistive current reuse and dual inductive degeneration technique is used to attain a wideband input matching and low noise figure.A common source amplifier with an inductive peaking technique as the second stage achieves high flat gain and wide -3 dB bandwidth of the overall amplifier simultaneously.The implemented ultra-wideband LNA presents a maximum power gain of 15.6 dB,and a high reverse isolation of—45 dB,and good input/output return losses are better than -10 dB in the frequency range of 3.1-10.6 GHz.An excellent noise figure(NF) of 2.8-4.7 dB was obtained in the required band with a power dissipation of 14.1 mW under a supply voltage of 1.5 V.An input-referred third-order intercept point(IIP3) is -7.1 dBm at 6 GHz.The chip area,including testing pads,is only 0.8×0.9 mm2.     

Design of a fully differential CMOS LNA for 3.1-10.6 GHz UWB communication systems

A fully differential complementary metal oxide semiconductor （CMOS） low noise amplifier （LNA） for 3.1-10.6 GHz ultra-wideband （UWB） communication systems is presented. The LNA adopts capacitive cross-coupling common-gate （CG） topology to achieve wideband input matching and low noise figure （NF）. Inductive series-peaking is used for the LNA to obtain broadband flat gain in the whole 3.1-10.6 GHz band. Designed in 0.18 um CMOS technology, the LNA achieves an NF of 3.1-4.7 dB, an Sll of less than -10 dB, an S21 of 10.3 dB with ±0.4 dB fluctuation, and an input 3rd interception point （IIP3） of -5.1 dBm, while the current consumption is only 4.8 mA from a 1.8 V power supply. The chip area of the LNA is 1×0.94 mm^2.     

A CMOS variable gain LNA for UWB receivers

A CMOS variable gain low noise amplifier(LNA) is presented for 4.2-4.8 GHz ultra-wideband application in accordance with Chinese standard.The design method for the wideband input matching is presented and the low noise performance of the LNA is illustrated.A three-bit digital programmable gain control circuit is exploited to achieve variable gain.The design was implemented in 0.13-μm RF CMOS process,and the die occupies an area of 0.9 mm~2 with ESD pads.Totally the circuit draws 18 mA DC current from 1.2 V DC supply,the LNA exhibits minimum noise figure of 2.3 dB,S(1,1) less than -9 dB and S(2,2) less than -10 dB.The maximum and the minimum power gains are 28.5 dB and 16 dB respectively.The tuning step of the gain is about 4 dB with four steps in all.Also the input 1 dB compression point is -10 dBm and input third order intercept point(IIP3) is -2 dBm.     

A 0.35μm CMOS Mixer for 2.45-GHz RFID Application

A RF mixer with both low noise and high linearity is designed,operating at 2.45-GHz ISM band for RFID application.The designed mixer uses an optimal input matching network and the carefully chosen sizes of transistors,also with the appropriate bias point,to improve the noise figure(NF).Also,with a resonant LC loop as the current source and a parallel PMOS-resistor as the load,the mixer has a high linearity.The post simulation results show that the single side- band noise figure of 8.57 dB,conversion gain of 10.02 dB,input 1-dB compression point(P-1dB)of-8.33 dBm,and input third-order intercept point(IIP3)of 5.35 dBm.     

Design of a low noise distributed amplifier with adjustable gain control in 0.15μm GaAs PHEMT

正A low noise distributed amplifier consisting of 9 gain cells is presented.The chip is fabricated with 0.15-μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor(PHEMT) technology from Win Semiconductor of Taiwan.A special optional gate bias technique is introduced to allow an adjustable gain control range of 10 dB.A novel cascode structure is adopted to extend the output voltage and bandwidth.The measurement results show that the amplifier gives an average gain of 15 dB with a gain flatness of±1 dB in the 2-20 GHz band.The noise figure is between 2 and 4.1 dB during the band from 2 to 20 GHz.The amplifier also provides 13.8 dBm of output power at a 1 dB gain compression point and 10.5 dBm of input third order intercept point(IIP3),which demonstrates the excellent performance of linearity.The power consumption is 300 mW with a supply of 5 V,and the chip area is 2.36×1.01 mm~2.     

A 0.18μm CMOS single-inductor single-stage quadrature frontend for GNSS receiver

This paper presents an improved merged architecture for a low-IF GNSS receiver frontend,where the bias current and functions are reused in a stacked quadrature LNA-mixer-VCO.Only a single spiral inductor is implemented for the LC resonator and an extra 1/2 frequency divider is added as the quadrature LO signal generator. The details of the design are presented.The gain plan and noise figure are discussed.The phase noise,quadrature accuracy and power consumption are improved.The test chip is fabricated though a 0.18μm RF CMOS process. The measured noise figure is 5.4 dB on average,with a gain of 43 dB and a IIP3 of-39 dBm.The measured phase noise is better than -105 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.The total power consumption is 19.8 mW with a 1.8 V supply. The experimental results satisfy the requirements for GNSS applications.     

A RF receiver frontend for SC-UWB in a 0.18-μm CMOS process

正A radio frequency(RF) receiver frontend for single-carrier ultra-wideband(SC-UWB) is presented. The front end employs direct-conversion architecture,and consists of a differential low noise amplifier(LNA),a quadrature mixer,and two intermediate frequency(IF) amplifiers.The proposed LNA employs source inductively degenerated topology.First,the expression of input impedance matching bandwidth in terms of gate-source capacitance, resonant frequency and target S_(11) is given.Then,a noise figure optimization strategy under gain and power constraints is proposed,with consideration of the integrated gate inductor,the bond-wire inductance,and its variation.The LNA utilizes two stages with different resonant frequencies to acquire flat gain over the 7.1-8.1 GHz frequency band,and has two gain modes to obtain a higher receiver dynamic range.The mixer uses a double balanced Gilbert structure.The front end is fabricated in a TSMC 0.18-/im RF CMOS process and occupies an area of 1.43 mm~2.In high and low gain modes,the measured maximum conversion gain are 42 dB and 22 dB,input 1 dB compression points are -40 dBm and -20 dBm,and S_(11) is better than -18 dB and -14.5 dB.The 3 dB IF bandwidth is more than 500 MHz.The double sideband noise figure is 4.7 dB in high gain mode.The total power consumption is 65 mW from a 1.8 V supply.     

A 2.4GHz CMOS Monolithic Transceiver Front-End for IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN Applications

A 2.4GHz CMOS monolithic transceiver front-end for IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN applications is presented.The receiver and transmitter are both of superheterodyne structure for good system performance.The front-end consists of five blocks:low noise amplifier,down-converter,up-converter, pre-amplifier,and LO buffer.Their input/output impedance are all on-chip matched to 50Ω except the down-converter which has open-drain outputs.The transceiver RF front-end has been implemented in a 0.18μm CMOS process.When the LNA and the down-converter are directly connected,the measured noise figure is 5.2dB,the measured available power gain 12.5dB,the input 1dB compression point -18dBm,and the third-order input intercept point -7dBm.The receiver front-end draws 13.6mA currents from the 1.8V power supply.When the up-converter and pre-amplifier are directly connected,the measured noise figure is 12.4dB,the power gain is 23.8dB,the output 1dB compression point is 15dBm,and the third-order output intercept point is 16dBm.The transmitter consumes 276mA current from the 1.8V power supply.     

A differential low-voltage high gain current-mode integrated RF receiver front-end

A differential low-voltage high gain current-mode integrated RF front end for an 802.11b WLAN is proposed.It contains a differential transconductance low noise amplifier（G_m-LNA） and a differential current-mode 0 down converted mixer.The single terminal of the G_m-LNA contains just one MOS transistor,two capacitors and two inductors.The gate-source shunt capacitors,C_x1 and C_x2,can not only reduce the effects of gate-source C_gs on resonance frequency and input-matching impedance,but they also enable the gate inductance L_g1,2 to be selected at a very small value.The current-mode mixer is composed of four switched current mirrors.Adjusting the ratio of the drain channel sizes of the switched current mirrors can increase the gain of the mixer and accordingly increase the gain of RF receiver front-end.The RF front-end operates under 1 V supply voltage.The receiver RFIC was fabricated using a chartered 0.18μm CMOS process.The integrated RF receiver front-end has a measured power conversion gain of 17.48 dB and an input referred third-order intercept point（IIP3） of-7.02 dBm.The total noise figure is 4.5 dB and the power is only 14 mW by post-simulations.     

A 3.1-4.8 GHz CMOS receiver for MB-OFDM UWB

An integrated fully differential ultra-wideband CMOS receiver for 3.1-4.8 GHz MB-OFDM systems is presented. A gain controllable low noise amplifier and a merged quadrature mixer are integrated as the RF front-end. Five order Gm-C type low pass filters and VGAs are also integrated for both I and Q IF paths in the receiver. The ESD protected chip is fabricated in a Jazz 0.18μm RF CMOS process and achieves a maximum total voltage gain of 65 dB, an AGC range of 45 dB with about 6 dB/step, an averaged total noise figure of 6.4 to 8.8 dB over 3 bands and an in-band IIP3 of-5.1 dBm. The receiver occupies 2.3 mm2 and consumes 110 mA from a 1.8 V supply including test buffers and a digital module.     

一种新颖的低噪声放大器的噪声优化方法

This paper proposes a novel noise optimization technique.The technique gives analytical formulae for the noise performance of inductively degenerated CMOS low noise amplifier（LNA）circuits with an ideal gate inductor for a fixed bias voltage and nonideal gate inductor for a fixed power dissipation,respectively,by mathematical analysis and reasonable approximation methods.LNA circuits with required noise figure can be designed effectively and rapidly just by using hand calculations of the proposed formulae.We design a 1.8 GHz LNA in a TSMC 0.25 μm CMOS process.The measured results show a noise figure of 1.6 dB with a forward gain of 14.4 dB at a power consumption of 5 mW,demonstrating that the designed LNA circuits can achieve low noise figure levels at low power dissipation.     

A 4.2-5 GHz,low phase noise LC-VCO with constant bandwidth and small tuning gain

As the tuning frequency of an integrated LC-voltage controlled oscillator （LC-VCO） increases, it is difficult to co-design the active negative resistance core and the varactor to achieve wideband frequency range, low phase noise, constant bandwidth and small tuning gain together. The presented VCO solves the problem by designing a set of changeable varactor units. The whole VCO was implemented in a 0.18μm CMOS process. The measured result shows -120 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset. The measured tuning range is from 4.2 to 5 GHz and the tuning gain is 8-10 MHz/V. The VCO draws 4 mA from a 1.5 V supply voltage.     

采用动态环路调整的多模式低纹波低纹波电荷泵的设计

In order to improve efficiency and reduce the output ripple, a novel multi-mode charge pump is presented. The proposed charge pump includes dual-loop regulation topology-skip and linear modes. It consumes low quiescent current in skip mode for light loads, and produces low ripple in linear mode for heavy loads, which closes the gap between linear mode and skip mode with active regulation; a multi-mode charge pump employing the technique has been implemented in the UMC 0.6-μm-BCD process. The results indicate that the charge pump works well and effectively; it has low ripple with special regulation, and minimizes the size of the capacitance, then decreases the area of the PCB board. The adjustable output of the positive charge pump is 10-30 V, and the maximum output ripple is 100 mV when the load current is 200 mA. The line regulation is 0.2%/V, and load regulation is 0.075%.     

A low power 3-5 GHz CMOS UWB receiver front-end

A novel low power RF receiver front-end for 3-5 GHz UWB is presented. Designed in the 0.13μm CMOS process, the direct conversion receiver features a wideband balun-coupled noise cancelling transconductance input stage, followed by quadrature passive mixers and transimpedance loading amplifiers. Measurement results show that the receiver achieves an input return loss below -8.5 dB across the 3.1-4.7 GHz frequency range, maximum voltage conversion gain of 27 dB, minimum noise figure of 4 dB, IIP3 of -11.5 dBm, and IIP2 of 33 dBm. Working under 1.2 V supply voltage, the receiver consumes total current of 18 mA including 10 mA by on-chip quadrature LO signal generation and buffer circuits. The chip area with pads is 1.1 × 1.5 mm^2.     

基于90nm CMOS工艺的一种10位低功耗SAR A/D转换器

Traditional and some recently reported low power,high speed and high resolution approaches for SAR A/D converters are discussed.Based on SMIC 65 nm CMOS technology,two typical low power methods reported in previous works are validated by circuit design and simulation.Design challenges and considerations for high speed SAR A/D converters are presented.Moreover,an R–C combination based method is also addressed and a 10-bit SAR A/D converter with this approach is implemented in SMIC 90 nm CMOS process.The DNL and INL are measured to be less than 0.31 LSB and 0.59 LSB respectively.With an input frequency of 420 kHz at 1 MS/s sampling rate, the SFDR and ENOB are measured to be 67.6 dB and 9.46 bits respectively,and the power dissipation is measured to be just 3.17 mW.     

A △∑ fractional-N frequency synthesizer for FM tuner using low noise filter and quantization noise suppression technique

A △∑ fractional-N frequency synthesizer fabricated in a 130 nm CMOS technology is presented for the application of an FM tuner. A low noise filter, occupying a small die area and decreasing the output noise, is integrated on a chip. A quantization noise suppression technique, using a reduced step size of the frequency divider, is also adopted. The proposed synthesizer needs no off-chip components and occupies an area of 0.7 mm2. The in-band phase noise （from 10 to 100 kHz） below -108 dBc/Hz and out-of-band phase noise of -122.9 dBc/Hz （at 1 MHz offset） are measured with a loop bandwidth of 200 kHz. The quantization noise suppression technique reduces the in-band and out-of band phase noise by 15 dB and 7 dB respectively. The integrated RMS phase error is no more than 0.48°. The proposed synthesizer consumes a total power of 7.4 mW and the frequency resolution is less than 1 Hz.     

A 10 GHz high-efficiency and low phase-noise negative-resistance oscillator optimized with a virtual loop model

A virtual loop model was built by the transmission analysis with virtual ground method to assist the negative-resistance oscillator design, providing more perspectives on output power and phase-noise optimization. In this work, the virtual loop described the original circuit successfully and the optimizations were effective. A 10 GHz high-efficiency low phase-noise oscillator utilizing an InGaP/GaAs HBT was achieved. The 10.028 GHz oscillator delivered an output power of over 15 dBm with a phase-noise of lower than -107 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. The efficiency of DC to RF transformation was 35 %. The results led to a good oscillator figure of merit of-188 dBc/Hz. The measurement results agreed well with those of the simulations.     

一种电流复用共栅低噪声放大器的低功耗433/915-MHz射频前端的设计

This paper presents a wideband RF front-end with novel current-reuse wide band low noise amplifier(LNA),current-reuse V –I converter,active double balanced mixer and transimpedance amplifier for short range device(SRD) applications.With the proposed current-reuse LNA,the DC consumption of the front-end reduces considerably while maintaining sufficient performance needed by SRD devices.The RF front-end was fabricated in 0.18 μm RFCMOS process and occupies a silicon area of just 0.11 mm2.Operating in 433 MHz band,the measurement results show the RF front-end achieves a conversion gain of 29.7 dB,a double side band noise figure of 9.7 dB,an input referenced third intercept point of –24.9 dBm with only 1.44 mA power consumption from 1.8 V supply.Compared to other reported front-ends,it has an advantage in power consumption.     

Annealing before gate metal deposition related noise performance in AIGaN/GaN HEMTs

For a further improvement of the noise performance in A1GaN/GaN HEMTs, reducing the relatively high gate leakage current is a key issue. In this paper, an experiment was carried out to demonstrate that one method during the device fabrication process can lower the noise. Two samples were treated differently after gate recess etching： one sample was annealed before metal deposition and the other sample was left as it is. From a comparison of their Ig-Vg characteristics, a conclusion could be drawn that the annealing can effectively reduce the gate leakage current. The etching plasma-induced damage removal or reduction after annealing is considered to be the main factor responsible for it. Evidence is given to prove that annealing can increase the Schottky barrier height. A noise model was used to verify that the annealing of the gate recess before the metal deposition is really effective to improve the noise performance of AIGaN/GaN HEMTs.