An area-efficient broadband balun-LNA-mixer front-end for multi-standard receivers

An area-efficient wideband receiver front-end for multi-standard receivers is presented. To handle large input signal levels, dual gain modes are employed in the LNA stage. For input signals lower than -17.5 dBm, a noise-canceling balun CG-CS LNA is employed. The LNA features a local feedback loop to reduce power consumption. For input signals in the range of from -17.5 to -5.2 dBm, the CG-CS LNA is bypassed with a balun unit-gain inverter stage. The proposed front-end shows better than -12 dB input matching for both gain modes in the frequency range of 0.4-3.4 GHz. Due to the lack of off-chip balun, the proposed front-end consumes low area. Moreover, the full differential structure leads to enhanced linearity performance. The post-layout simulation results in RF CMOS 0.18 µm process shows the conversion gain of 24.5/13.06 dB in HG/LG modes. The minimum DSB NF is 3.77/9.84 dB, and the third input intercept point (IIP3) is -7.29/-1.8 dBm. The circuit dissipates 12.93 mW with an active area of 0.073 mm2.