An Integrated High Linearity CMOS Receiver Frontend for 24-GHz Applications

Utilizing a standard 130-nm CMOS process, a RF frontend is designed at 24 GHz for automotive collision avoidance radar application. Single IF direct conversion receiver (DCR) architecture is adopted to achieve high integration level and to alleviate the DCR problem. The proposed frontend is composed of a two-stage LNA and downconversion mixers. To save power consumption, and to enhance gain and linearity, stacked NMOS-PMOS $g_m$-boosting technique is employed in the design of LNA as the first stage. The switch transistors in the mixing stage are biased in subthreshold region to achieve low power consumption. The single balanced mixer is designed in PMOS transistors and is also realized based on the well-known folded architecture to increase voltage headroom. This frontend circuit features enhancement in gain, linearity, and power dissipation. The proposed circuit showed a maximum conversion gain of 19.6 dB and noise figure of 3 dB at the operation frequency. It also showed input and output return losses of less than -10 dB within bandwidth. Furthermore, the port-to-port isolation illustrated excellent characteristic between two ports. This frontend showed the third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of 3 dBm for the whole circuit with power dissipation of 6.5 mW from a 1.5 V supply.