A Highly-Integrated Low-Noise MICS Band Receiver RF Front-End IC with AC-Coupled Current Mirror Amplifier

This work presents a low-noise, low-power receiver RF front-end integrated circuit (IC) for 402-405 MHz medical implant communications service (MICS) band applications using 0.18-mu m CMOS process. The proposed front-end employs an AC-coupled current mirroring amplifier in between the low-noise current-reuse transconductor amplifier and a single-balanced IQ mixer for improved gain and noise performance in comparison to previous works. The designed front-end IC achieves a simulated performance of 36.5 dB conversion gain, 1.85 dB noise figure, and IIP3 of -30 dBm while consuming 440 mu W from 1-V voltage supply. The consumed core layout area, including I/Q LO generation and current bias circuits, is only 0.29 mm(2).