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A low-power 2.4-GHz combined LNA–VCO structure in 0.13-µm CMOS

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Abstract

A combined low-noise amplifier and voltage-controlled oscillator (LNA–VCO) is implemented in a 0.13-µm CMOS technology. The low-power LC VCO and LNA circuits are stacked and share the same bias current. An LC filter is used between the LNA and the VCO to improve the isolation between the two functions. Based on the measurement results of the proof-of-concept prototype, the LNA achieves a gain of 18.4 dB and a noise figure (NF) of 3.8 dB at 2.4 GHz. The VCO has a center frequency of 2.45 GHz with a −5.3 dBm output power and a phase noise of −119 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. The combined LNA–VCO block consumes 240 µW from a 0.8 V supply.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Access to computer-aided design (CAD) tools, the CMOS technology design kit, and fabrication are facilitated by CMC Microsystems. The authors would like to thank Roozbeh Mehrabadi and Dr. Roberto Rosales for their CAD tool and technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMS Lab, University of Bordeaux, Talence, France

    Thierry Taris

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Hooman Rashtian, Amir Hossein Masnadi Shirazi & Shahriar Mirabbasi

Authors
  1. Thierry Taris
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  2. Hooman Rashtian
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  3. Amir Hossein Masnadi Shirazi
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  4. Shahriar Mirabbasi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thierry Taris.

Additional information

This work is an extended version of the following paper:

Thierry Taris, Hooman Rashtian, Amir Hossein Masnadi Shirazi, and Shahriar Mirabbasi, “A Low-Power 2.4-GHz Combined LNA–VCO Structure in 0.13-µm CMOS,” IEEE International NEWCAS Conference, Paris, France, June 2013.

This extended version includes new material as:

A specific section to further explain the inversion coefficient (IC) approach and (gm.fT/ID) metric for the design of low power RF building blocks (Section 2). The analytic expressions of the input impedance and the noise figure for the LNA part (Section 4). A new set of measurement results of the LNA–VCO chip (Section 5).

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Taris, T., Rashtian, H., Shirazi, A.H.M. et al. A low-power 2.4-GHz combined LNA–VCO structure in 0.13-µm CMOS. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 81, 667–675 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-014-0439-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-014-0439-1

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