Design of a New Harmonic Noise Frequency Filtering Down-Converter in InGaP/GaAs HBT Process

Abstract

An InGaP/GaAs MMIC LC VCO designed with Harmonic Noise Frequency Filtering(HNFF) technique is presented. In this VCO, internal inductance is found to lower the phase noise, based on an analytic understanding of phase noise. This VCO directly drives the on-chip double balanced mixer to convert RF carrier to IF frequency through local oscillator. Furthermore, final power performance is improved by output amplifier. This paper presents the design for a 1.721 GHz enhanced LC VCO, high power double balance mixer, and output amplifier that have been designed to optimize low phase noise and high output power. The presented asymmetric inductance tank(AIT) VCO exhibited a phase noise of -133.96 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and a tuning range from 1.46 GHz to 1.721 GHz. In measurement, on-chip down-converter shows a third-order input intercept point(IIP3) of 12.55 dBm, a third-order output intercept point(OIP3) of 21.45 dBm, an RF return loss of -31 dB, and an IF return loss of -26 dB. The RF-IF isolation is -57 dB. Also, a conversion gain is 8.9 dB through output amplifier. The total on-chip down-converter is implanted in 2.56<TEX>${\times}$</TEX>1.07 mm<TEX>$^2$</TEX> of chip area.