ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a novel low-power merged low noise amplifier (LNA), mixer, and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) called LMV cell exploiting a series LC (SLC) resonator. In contrast to the conventional parallel LC (PLC) resonator, the SLC resonator plays the role of enhancing the voltage swing at the series LC connection node which is cross coupled to the gate of the VCO switching transistors. The low intermediate frequency or baseband signal can be directly sensed at the drain nodes of the VCO switching transistors by adding simple resistor–capacitor (RC) filters. Using a 65-nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the proposed LMV cell is optimized for the phase noise performance, and compared to the performance of the Liscidini's LMV cell which stacks the LNA, mixer, and VCO exploiting a PLC resonator. Compared to the Liscidini's LMV cell, the proposed LMV cell has larger voltage gain and better phase noise performance for the same dc power dissipation. While the simulated phase noise of the Liscidini's LMV cell is −47.8, −75.7, and −100.3 dBc/Hz, the phase noise of the proposed LMV cell is −71.2, −92.8, and −113 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz, 100 kHz, and 1 MHz offset frequency, respectively. The simulated voltage conversion gain of the Liscidini's LMV cell and the proposed LMV cell is 20 and 30 dB, respectively. Both LMV cells consume 0.35 mW dc power from a 1-V supply.