A novel low power low voltage LNA and mixer for WLAN IEEE 802.11a standard

The paper presents a 5.8 GHz low voltage low noise amplifier (LNA) and a down-conversion mixer design integrated in a TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS process. The LNA has a cascode inductive source degeneration structure. The proposed mixer features an RF input stage that converts the RF input voltage to current, which is coupled to the core of a Gilbert cell using a current mirror. This implementation eliminates the current source transistor at the bottom and furthermore reduces the supply voltage. The LO frequency is at 5.6 GHz. The designed LNA and mixer require only a 1.5 V supply voltage and consumes 17.2 mW DC power. At 5.8 GHz, this front-end circuit has a single-sideband noise figure (SSB NF) of 7.8 dB, with input return loss of -8 dB, with output return loss of -14.5 dB, third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of -20.56 dBm, and conversion gain of 15.7 dB.