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 130 nm CMOS technology on a single die and packaged using a QFN48. CRR1 occupies an active area of 0.54 mm2. From 1 to 1.7 GHz, it achieves a conversion gain of 41.5 dB, a double-sideband (DSB) NF of 6.5 dB, S11<−10 dB, and an IIP3 of −28.2 dBm, while the local-oscillator (LO) frequency is at 1.3 GHz. CRR2 occupies an active area of 0.025 mm2. From 0.2 to 1 GHz, it achieves an average conversion gain of 37 dB, an average DSB NF of 8 dB, and an IIP3 of −21.5 dBm while the LO frequency is at 0.7 GHz. Both CRR1 and CRR2 consume 1.66 mA from a 1.2 V supply voltage.