Design of a 300-mV 2.4-GHz Receiver Using Transformer-Coupled Techniques

This paper presents a 1.6-mW 2.4-GHz receiver that operates from a single supply of 300 mV allowing direct powering from various energy harvesting sources. We extensively utilize transformer coupling between stages to reduce headroom requirements. We forward-bias bulk-source junctions to lower threshold voltages where appropriate. A single-ended 2.4 GHz RF input is amplified and converted to a differential signal before down-converting to a low IF of 1 to 10 MHz. A chain of IF amplifiers and narrowband filters are interleaved to perform programmable channel selection. The chip is fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process. The receiver achieves -91.5-dBm sensitivity for a BER of 10e-3.