A 64 µW, 23 dB gain, 8 dB NF, 2.4 GHz RF front-end for ultra-low power Internet-of-Things transceivers

Abstract

An ultra-low power (ULP) 2.4 GHz RF front-end which consists of a low noise amplifier (LNA) and a passive mixer in a standard 65nm CMOS is presented. LNA adopts a complementary input stage and a current reused 2nd gain stage to achieve a high gain under a low power dissipation with an added linearization method. RF Down-conversion is implemented with a highly linearized complementary passive mixer, which adopts transmission gate type switches. With fully on-chip components, the front-end achieves 23 dB conversion gain, 8 dB NF, −36 dBm P1dB and −21 dBm IIP3 while dissipating a 64 µW power from a 0.6 V supply voltage. LNA achieves a high voltage gain of 26.3 dB and minimum NF of 5.5 dB with a P1dB of −27 dBm and IIP3 of −13 dBm.