Low Noise and Highly Linear Wideband CMOS RF Front-End for DVB-H Direct-Conversion Receiver

Abstract

In this paper, a wideband CMOS radio frequency (RF) front-end for digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) receiver is proposed. The RF front-end circuit is composed of a single-ended resistive feedback low noise amplifier (LNA), a single-to-differential amplifier, an I/Q down-conversion mixer with linearized transconductors employing third order intermodulation distortion cancellation, and a divide-by-two circuit with LO buffers. By employing a third order intermodulation (IMD3) cancellation technique and vertical NPN bipolar junction transistor (BJT) switching pair for an I/Q down-conversion mixer, the proposed RF front-end circuit has high linearity and low low-frequency noise performance. It is fabricated in a 0.18µm deep n-well CMOS technology and draws 12mA from a 1.8V supply voltage. It shows a voltage gain of 31dB, a noise figure (NF) lower than 2.6dB, and an IIP3 of -8dBm from 470MHz to 862MHz.