A low noise CMOS RF front-end for UWB 6-9 GHz applications

An integrated fully differential ultra-wideband CMOS RF front-end for 6-9 GHz is presented. A resistive feedback low noise amplifier and a gain controllable IQ merged folded quadrature mixer are integrated as the RF front-end. The ESD protected chip is fabricated in a TSMC 0.13 μm RF CMOS process and achieves a maximum voltage gain of 23-26 dB and a minimum voltage gain of 16-19 dB, an averaged total noise figure of 3.3-4.6 dB while operating in the high gain mode and an in-band IIP3 of -12.6 dBm while in the low gain mode. This RF front-end consumes 17 mA from a 1.2 V supply voltage.