A Comparison of Off-Chip Differential and LC Input Matching Baluns in a Wideband and Low-Power RF-to-BB Current-Reuse Receiver Front-End

Abstract

A wideband and low-power RF-to-baseband (BB) current-reuse receiver (CRR) front-end is proposed, and its performance is verified using two matching networks, one with an LC balun and on-chip biasing inductor, CRR1, and another with a differential balun and without on-chip biasing inductor, CRR2, requiring less area. The transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and low-noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) share the bias current from a single supply to reduce power consumption. It employs both an active-inductor (AI) and a 1/f noise-cancellation technique to improve the NF and RF bandwidth performance. A passive mixer is utilized for RF to BB conversion, which does not require any DC power and voltage headroom. Both CRR1 and CRR2 are fabricated in TSMC 130nm CMOS technology on a single die and packaged using a QFN48. CRR1 occupies an active area of 0.54 mm2. From 1 to 1.7GHz, it achieves a conversion gain of 41.5dB, a double-sideband (DSB) NF of 6.5dB, S11<−10dB, and an IIP3 of −28.2dBm, while the local-oscillator (LO) frequency is at 1.3GHz. CRR2 occupies an active area of 0.025 mm2. From 0.2 to 1GHz, it achieves an average conversion gain of 37dB, an average DSB NF of 8dB, and an IIP3 of −21.5dBm while the LO frequency is at 0.7GHz. Both CRR1 and CRR2 consume 1.66m from a 1.2V supply voltage.

Innovative techniques for achieving flat response in a dual-resonance ultra-wideband low-noise amplifier

“…Conventional wireless receivers often rely on the inductor degenerated LNA, which possesses desirable attributes [1][2][3], but within a narrow frequency band centred around a single frequency [4,5]. Alternatively, distributed amplifiers (DAs) [6][7][8][9][10][11] offer enhanced impedance matching and high gain across a broader frequency range, albeit necessitating multiple inductors. Another approach for designing broadband LNAs involves employing current conveyors (CC) [12][13][14].…”