A CMOS UWB K-band impulse radar receiver

A K-band UWB quadrature receiver with a precision rectifier for non-coherent detection of pulses is implemented in 90 nm CMOS. The LNA topology is a Common Gate - Common Source topology followed by a double-balanced Gilbert mixer for down conversion. Without the rectifier the measured peak conversion gain is 10 dB with a -3 dB bandwidth of 4.4 GHz and a NF of 15 dB consuming 50 mA. To rectify the pulses a transconductance amplifier together with a precision full wave rectifier (PFWR) based on current steering is implemented. The full receiver chain with down-conversion and rectification of pulses are demonstrated with measurements.