High IIP3 and Low-Noise CMOS Mixer Using Non-linear Feedback Technique

Abstract

A third-order intermodulation cancelation technique using a non-linear feedback is proposed to design a low-power low-distortion mixer in a 65 nm standard CMOS technology. The IM3 cancelation is achieved by estimating distorting error at a non-linear feedback element and subtracting it from the input. The linearization technique is utilized in the input trans-conductance of the mixer. The circuit functionality is analyzed using Volterra series. The covering frequency range of the mixer is 800 MHz to 5 GHz. The technique increases the input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) and input 1 dB compression point to +16.4 dBm and −1.87 dBm, respectively. It obtains a gain of 9 dB and an input-referred noise of 1.84 nV/ √ Hz while consumes 8.75 mA from 1.2 V supply. The layout of the mixer occupies 0.315 mm × 0.296 mm of silicon area.