Abstract: This paper describes the implementation of an RF receiver front-end for the 2.4 GHz industrial scientific medical band under TSMC 0.13μm CMOS technology; it comprises a low noise amplifier (LNA) which uses an added gate-source capacitor for low power performance and a dual-converter composed of a single-balanced active RF mixer and double-balanced passive IF mixer. Dual-down-conversion technique is used for reducing power. A 2.4 GHz low power low-IF RF receiver front-end is proposed. An LNA for rejecting image signal, an inductor-capacitor (LC) tank is used in series with source of input-stage transistor of the RF mixer, and combined with the LC load of the LNA, 30-dB image rejection is realized. Fabricated in a 0.13μm CMOS process, the proposed chip occupies 0.42 mm² area, achieves 4 dB noise figure, -22 dBm IIP3 and 37 dB voltage gain dissipating only 4.2-mW under 1.2-V supply.

Key words: front-end, low-IF, low power, LNA, mixer