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8 GHz 1V, CMOS quadrature downconverter for wireless applications

  • RF CMOS
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Abstract

The design and implementation of an 8 GHz CMOS quadrature downconverter, achieving simultaneously low voltage supply operation and good linearity is presented in this paper. This is achieved by relaxing the inherent tradeoff between power conversion gain and linearity governing all active mixers and implementing a mixer using a new version of the bias-offset technique. The quadrature generator uses active inductors embodied in the LO buffer, and provides easy tuning by relaxing the coupling between amplitude and phase tuning of the outputs. It also provides reduced power consumption by eliminating the buffers located between the quadrature generator and the mixers. A prototype implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology occupies an area of 0.44 × 0.3 mm2, operates from a 1V power supply and features an IIP3 of +3.5 dBm, an IIP2 of better than +48 dBm, an input compression point of −5.5 dBm, a power conversion gain of +6.5 dB for the mixers and a quadrature phase and amplitude matching of better than 1.5° and 1 dB respectively over a bandwidth of 100 MHz after tuning. The overall power consumption of the quadrature downconverter is 25.8 mW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King’s College Road, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G4, Canada

    Farsheed Mahmoudi & C. Andre T. Salama

Authors
  1. Farsheed Mahmoudi
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  2. C. Andre T. Salama
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Correspondence to C. Andre T. Salama.

Additional information

Farsheed Mahmoudi was born in Tehran, Iran. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electronics from the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran in 1997 and 2000 respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. His research interests include the design and analysis of RF circuits and systems for wireless applications.

C. Andre T. Salama received the B.A.Sc. (Hons.) M.A.Sc. and Ph. D. degrees, all in Electrical Engineering, from the University of British Columbia in 1961, 1962 and 1966 respectively.

From 1962 to 1963 he served as a Research Assistant at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1966 to 1967 he was employed at Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, as a Member of Scientific Staff working in the area of integrated circuit design. Since 1967 he has been on the staff of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto where he held the J.M. Ham Chair in Microelectronics from 1987 to 1997. In 1992, he was appointed to his present position of University Professor for scholarly achievements and preeminence in the field of microelectronics. In 1989–90, he was awarded the ITAC/NSERC Research Fellowship in information technology. In 1994, he was awarded the Canada Council I.W. Killam Memorial Prize in Engineering for outstanding career contributions to the field of microelectronics. In 2000, he received the IEEE Millenium Medal. In 2003, he received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Semiconductor Technology Conference for seminal and outstanding contributions to semiconductor device research and promotion of Canadian University research in microelectronics. In 2004, he received the NSERC Lifetime Achievement Award of Research Excellence for outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of microelectronics and the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Recognition Award for research excellence and outstanding leadership.

He was associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems in 1986–88 and a member of the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) Technical Program Committee in 1980–82, 1987–89 and 1996–98. He was the chair of the Solid State Devices Subcommittee for IEDM in 1998 and was a member of the editorial board of Solid State Electronics from 1984 to 2002. He is presently a member of the editorial board of the Analog IC and Signal Processing Journal and the Technical Program Committee of the International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD) and the Technical Program Committee of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED). He chaired the technical program committee of ISPSD in 1996 and was the general chair for the conference in 1999.

Dr. Salama is the Scientific Director of Micronet, a network of centres of excellence focussing on microelectronics research and funded by the Canadian Government and Industry.

He has published extensively in technical journals, is the holder of eleven patents and has served as a consultant to the semiconductor industry in Canada and the U.S. His research interests include the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits with emphasis on deep submicron devices as well as circuits and systems for high speed, low power signal processing applications.

Dr. Salama is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, the Electrochemical Society and the Innovation Management Association of Canada.

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Mahmoudi, F., Salama, C.A.T. 8 GHz 1V, CMOS quadrature downconverter for wireless applications. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 48, 185–197 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-006-7630-y

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