Smart gain partitioning for noise — Linearity trade-off optimization in multi-standard

This paper analyzes the gain - noise - linearity partitioning in multi-standard radio receivers embedding baseband analog signal conditioning. The presented novel gain partitioning strategy tailored towards multi-standard radio receivers optimally mitigates the extreme reception conditions specific to the wireless environment. Based on a first order system level analysis, the paper develops a standard independent methodology that drives the gain partitioning strategy and enables the designer to handle efficiently the large amount of information from the envisaged wireless standards. The receiver gain is split between an RF front-end embedding programmable gain and a high-dynamic range Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA). As the receiver NF and IIP3 change with the RF front-end gain, we proposed a generic algorithm to find the optimal gain partitioning between the receiver´s two variable gain blocks.