A 550-μW, 2.4-GHz ZigBee/BLE Receiver Front End for IoT applications in 180-nm CMOS

Abstract

An ultra-low-power, 2.4 GHz ZigBee and Bluetooth-low-energy (BLE) direct-conversion-receiver front-end for internet of things (IoT) applications is designed and presented. A common-source (CS) Low-noise-amplifier (LNA) and direct back-gate-coupled quadrature-voltage-controlled-oscillator (QVCO) are reusing the current to reduce the power consumption. A symmetrical AND-type passive mixer which converts 50% local oscillator (LO) signal duty cycle to 25% and trans-impedance-amplifier (TIA), converting single-ended RF into differential base-band without I/Q cross talk. Finally, a programmable low-pass-filter (LPF) makes the receiver to operate in both the standards. The proposed full on chip receiver front end is designed with the UMC 180 nm CMOS technology and post layout simulation result show 42dB of conversion-gain (CG), 14 dB of noise-figure (NF),-15dB of S11 and-16dBm of input referred third order inter modulation intercept point (IIP3). The front end consuming 550 μW of power with 0.8 V supply and occupied an area of 1 mm2.