A CMOS Dual-mode High-dynamic-range Wideband Receiver RF Front-end

Abstract

A dual-mode wideband high-dynamic-range receiver RF front-end consisting mainly of a low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a mixer is presented and implemented in standard 0.18 mu m CMOS technology. Besides wideband input matching, the wideband LNA is optimized purposefully for low NF and high gain, and the mixer for high linearity and proper gain. In high-gain (HG) mode, with the LNA involved, the high sensitivity can be achieved; in low-gain (LG) mode, with the LNA bypassed, the mixer stands out and makes the front-end exhibit high linearity. In an overall view, the proposed dual-mode wideband RF front-end achieves a high dynamic range. With an occupied die area of 2360 mu m x 1460 mu m and a single supply voltage of 1.8V, measurement results show the dual-mode RF front-end can operate across the desired frequency range of 1.3 similar to 2 GHz and achieve gain of 20 dB and NF of 4.8dB in the HG mode, and average IIP3 of 8 dBm and P1dB of -4 dB in the LG mode, respectively.