Mixer-First Extremely Wideband 43–97 GHz RX Frontend with Broadband Quadrature Input Matching and Current Mode Transformer-Based Image Rejection for Massive MIMO Applications

This work presents an ultra-wideband mixer-first front-end that can cover mmWave communications bands in the frequency range 43–97 GHz. The front-end employs a mmWave 90°coupler as an input stage in order to achieve wideband matching and RF quadrature signal generation. Passive mixer and multi-gated gm3-cancellation IF amplifiers used to achieve and maintain high linearity across the frequency range. In addition, the frond-end implements a current mode image rejection using a transformer based IF 90°coupler. The receiver front-end is implemented in CMOS 22nm FD-SOI technology and achieves an ultra-wideband S11 matching while employing up to 32 dB image rejection and 1.6-5.2 dBm in-band IIP3. In addition, the front-end supports up to 6 Gbps 64QAM modulated data.