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Title 2.4 GHz Low-power Receiver Front-end Employing I/Q Mixer with Current-reused Quadrature Transconductor for Bluetooth Low Energy Applications
Authors (Sengjun Jo) ; (Hyeonjun Kim) ; (Kuduck Kwon)
DOI https://doi.org/10.5573/JSTS.2021.21.5.364
Page pp.364-372
ISSN 1598-1657
Keywords Bluetooth low energy; current-bleeding circuit; current-reuse; IoT; I/Q mixer; gain and phase mismatch; low-IF receiver; low-voltage; quadrature generator; quadrature transconductor
Abstract In this paper, a 2.4 GHz Bluetooth low energy (BLE) receiver front-end with a new in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) down-conversion active mixer employing a current-reused quadrature trans-conductor is presented for low-power low-voltage Internet of Things applications. In the proposed I/Q mixer, the current-bleeding circuit, whose main role is to reduce the flicker noise in the switching stage, enhances the overall transconductance and provides quadrature signals with the main quadrature transconductor. Consequently, it improves the conversion gain and noise figure of the mixer without additional power consumption. The proposed BLE receiver front-end consists of a current-reused push-pull low-noise amplifier and an I/Q mixer with a current-reused quadrature transconductor. Simulated in a 65 nm CMOS process, the designed receiver front-end achieves a noise figure of 3.3 dB, conversion gain of 37.6 dB, and input-referred third-order intercept point of ?22.73 dBm. It draws a bias current of 1 mA from a nominal supply voltage of 1 V. The active die area is 0.5 mm2.