A 0.6V 32.5mW Highly Integrated Receiver for 2.4GHz ISM-Band Applications

We explore the challenges of designing RF transceivers for an ultra-low-voltage (ULV) supply with performance that is compatible to commercial standards. The ITRS roadmap projects that the aggressive device size scaling will result in supply voltage reductions to well below IV, in particular for low-power technologies. The use of alternative energy sources also requires ULV operation in some applications. Achieving sufficient linearity with low power consumption is very challenging for the ULV mixer and baseband circuits. The on-chip LO generation and distribution is difficult due to the low-voltage device bias. We present optimized mixer and filter topologies, and a polyphase LO buffer, used in a low-power ULV receiver for 2.4GHz applications like Bluetooth or Zigbee. The use of spiral inductors is kept to a minimum to avoid their excessive area. The design techniques demonstrated here can enable the continued integration of RF front-ends onto SoC devices in nano CMOS technologies without requiring dedicated supply voltages or thick oxide devices.