A Wide-gain-range Intermediate Frequency Integrated Circuit for a Superheterodyne Receiver

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A wide-gain-range Intermediate Frequency (IF) integrated circuit is designed and implemented for a superheterodyne receiver in standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. It consists mainly of a programmable attenuator, a Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA), a downconverting mixer and a fixed gain amplifier. The π-type-network attenuator is chosen over a T-type network one in order for a compact layout. The common-gate-input VGA is used for a high operation frequency, a small phase shift and a wide gain range. The common-gate Gilbert-type mixer with a dynamic current injection technique and a capacitive cross-coupling technique is employed for proper gain, low noise and high linearity. Furthermore, a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is also integrated monolithically so as to generate the desired local clock signal for the mixer. Measurement results show that, from an area of 2.16 mm×1.46 mm and power consumption of 234 mW, the IF chip is able to operate properly with a gain range of 5 dB ~ 57 dB, output power of above 0dBm, and so on. In addition, the on-chip local clock with an operation frequency of 660 MHz and a phase noise of -119.34 dBc @1 MHz is achieved.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• I. INTRODUCTION
• II. RECEIVER ARCHITECTURE
• III. CIRCUITS AND ANALYSIS
• IV. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
• V. CONCLUSIONS
• REFERENCES

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 A. Ferrero, "Two-port network analyzer calibration using an unknown 'thru'" 2 (2): 505-507, 1992

2 S. B. Ferreira, "System Design of a 2.75-mW Discrete-Time Superheterodyne Receiver for Bluetooth Low Energy" 65 (65): 1904-1913, 2017

3 Q. Gu, "RF System Design of Transceivers for Wireless Communications" Springer US 2005

4 D. Zhao, "Design of VGA for 6 GHz radio frequency communication system" 1-4, 2012

5 H. Liu, "Cell-based variable-gain amplifiers with accurate dB-linear characteristic in 0.18 m CMOS technology" 50 (50): 586-596, 2015

6 U. Mayer, "Analysis and reduction of phase variations of variable gain amplifiers verified by CMOS implementation at C-band" 4 (4): 433-439, 2010

7 Q.-H. Duong, "An all CMOS 743 MHz variable gain amplifier for UWB systems" 678-681, 2006

8 D. Ma, "An X- and Ku- Band Wideband Recursive Receiver MMIC With Gain-Reuse" 46 (46): 562-571, 2011

9 L. Huang, "A low-voltage CMOS Programmable Gain Amplifier for WSN application" 1-4, 2011

10 K. Wang, "A Monolithic UHF RFID Transceiver for Mobile UHF RFID Readers" 154-158, 2016

11 I. Madadi, "A High IIP2 SAW-Less Superheterodyne Receiver With Multistage Harmonic Rejection" 51 (51): 332-347, 2016

12 M. Tohidian, "A Fully Integrated Discrete-Time Superheterodyne Receiver" 25 (25): 635-647, 2017

13 Q. H. Duong, "A 95-dB linear low-power variable gain amplifier" 53 (53): 1648-1657, 2006

14 C. S. Lin, "A 9-50-GHz gilbert-cell down-conversion mixer in $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS technology" 16 (16): 293-295, 2006

15 C. Wu, "A 2GHz CMOS Variable-Gain Amplifier with 50dB Linear-in-Magnitude Controlled Gain Range for 10Gbase-LX4 Ethernet" 484-541, 2004

16 J.-S. Syu, "A 2.4-GHz low-flicker-noise CMOS sub-harmonic receiver" 60 (60): 437-447, 2013

17 N. Stanica, "A 2.4-GHz ISM-Band Sliding-IF Receiver With a 0.5-V Supply" 43 (43): 1138-1145, 2008

18 X. Huang, "A 0.8-3GHz 40dB dynamic range CMOS variable-gain amplifier" 1030-1033, 2011

19 A. Balankutty, "A 0.6-V zero-IF/low-IF receiver with integrated fractional-N synthesizer for 2.4-GHz ISM-band applications" 45 (45): 538-553, 2010

20 F.-J. Huang, "$0.5-{\mu}m$ CMOS T/R switch for 900-MHz wireless applications" 36 (36): 486-492, 2001

21 J. Li, "1GHz, 68dB CMOS variable gain amplifier with an exponential-function circuit" 1-4, 2010

22 J. Wagner, "0.5-9 GHz CMOS variable gain amplifier with control linearization, low phase variations and self-matching" 100-103, 2014