Receiver architecture with complementary passive mixer and complementary common-gate tia with low-noise gain control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9160388-B2
Application number	US-201213719076-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2012
Priority date	Dec 18, 2012
Publication date	Oct 13, 2015
Grant date	Oct 13, 2015

Abstract

A circuit for a low-power and blocker-tolerant mixer-amplifier stage may include a complementary mixer formed by transmission gates having complementary structures. The complementary mixer may be configured to receive one or more radio-frequency (RF) signals and to convert the one or more RF signals to intermediate frequency (IF) current signals. A complementary TIA may be coupled to the complementary mixer and may be configured to receive the IF current signals and provide IF voltage signals. The complementary TIA may be formed by coupling an NMOS-TIA and a PMOS-TIA to a common load. A first portion of the complementary mixer may be coupled to the NMOS-TIA and a second portion of the complementary mixer may be coupled to the PMOS-TIA.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A circuit for a low-power and blocker-tolerant mixer-amplifier stage, the circuit comprising:
a complementary mixer formed by transmission gates having complementary structures, the complementary mixer being configured to receive one or more radio-frequency (RF) signals and to convert the one or more RF signals to intermediate frequency (IF) current signals; and
a complementary TIA coupled to the complementary mixer and configured to receive the IF current signals and to provide IF voltage signals, the complementary TIA being formed by coupling an NMOS-TIA and a PMOS-TIA to a common load,
wherein a first portion of the complementary mixer is coupled to the NMOS-TIA and a second portion of the complementary mixer is coupled to the PMOS-TIA.

2. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the NMOS-TIA comprises a common-gate NMOS-TIA, and wherein the PMOS-TIA comprises a common-gate PMOS-TIA.

3. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the NMOS-TIA comprises a differential common-gate NMOS-TIA, and wherein the PMOS-TIA comprises a differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

4. The circuit of claim 3 , wherein the complementary TIA is formed by coupling drain nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA to drain nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

5. The circuit of claim 3 , wherein output nodes of the first portion of the complementary mixer are coupled to source nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA, and wherein output nodes of the second portion of the complementary mixer are coupled to source nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

6. The circuit of claim 3 , wherein the common load comprises an RC load, and wherein the common load is coupled between drain nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA and drain nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

7. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the complementary mixer comprises an NMOS transmission gate and the second portion of the complementary mixer comprises a PMOS transmission gate.

8. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the common load comprises a variable RC load and is configured to provide a low-noise gain control for the complementary TIA, and wherein the complementary mixer is configured to tolerate large blocker signals.

9. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the complementary TIA is configured to consume lower power as compared to a non-complementary TIA with similar amplification.

10. A method for providing a low-power and blocker-tolerant mixer-amplifier, the method comprising:
forming a complementary mixer by coupling transmission gates having complementary structures, and configuring the complementary mixer to receive one or more radio-frequency (RF) signals and to convert the one or more RF signals to intermediate frequency (IF) current signals;
forming a complementary TIA by coupling an NMOS-TIA and a PMOS-TIA to a common load; and
coupling the complementary TIA to the complementary mixer and configuring the complementary TIA to receive the IF current signals and to provide IF voltage signals,
wherein coupling the complementary TIA to the complementary mixer comprises coupling a first portion of the complementary mixer to the NMOS-TIA and a second portion of the complementary mixer to the PMOS-TIA.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein coupling the NMOS-TIA comprises coupling a common-gate NMOS-TIA, and wherein coupling the PMOS-TIA comprises coupling a common-gate PMOS-TIA.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein coupling the NMOS-TIA comprises coupling a differential common-gate NMOS-TIA, and wherein coupling the PMOS-TIA comprises coupling a differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein forming the complementary TIA comprises coupling drain nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA to drain nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising coupling output nodes of the first portion of the complementary mixer to the source nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA, and coupling output nodes of the second portion of the complementary mixer to the source nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first portion of the complementary mixer comprises an NMOS transmission gate, and wherein the second portion of the complementary mixer comprises a PMOS transmission gate.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the common load comprises an RC load, and wherein the method comprises coupling the common load between drain nodes of the corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA and drain nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the common load comprises a variable RC load, and wherein the method comprises configuring the variable RC load to provide a low-noise gain control for the complementary TIA, and configuring the complementary mixer to tolerate large blocker signals.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising configuring the complementary TIA to consume lower power as compared to a non-complementary TIA with similar amplification.

19. A circuit for a radio-frequency (RF) receiver, the circuit comprising:
a front-end circuit configured to receive RF signals from an RF antenna;
a complementary mixer formed by transmission gates having complementary structures, the complementary mixer being configured to receive one or more RF signals from the front-end circuit and to convert the one or more RF signals to intermediate frequency (IF) current signals; and
a complementary TIA coupled to the complementary mixer and configured to receive the IF current signals and to provide IF voltage signals, the complementary TIA being formed by coupling an NMOS-TIA and a PMOS-TIA to a common load,
wherein a first portion of the complementary mixer is coupled to the NMOS-TIA and a second portion of the complementary mixer is coupled to the PMOS-TIA.

20. The circuit of claim 19 , wherein:
the NMOS-TIA comprises a differential common-gate NMOS-TIA and the PMOS-TIA comprises a differential common-gate PMOS-TIA,
the complementary TIA is formed by coupling drain nodes of a corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA to drain nodes of a corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA,
output nodes of the first portion of the complementary mixer are coupled to source nodes of the corresponding NMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate NMOS-TIA, and output nodes of the second portion of the complementary mixer are coupled to source nodes of the corresponding PMOS transistor pair of the differential common-gate PMOS-TIA, and
the first portion of the complementary mixer comprises an NMOS transmission gate and the second portion of the complementary mixer comprises a PMOS transmission gate.

Assignees

• Broadcom Corp

Inventors

• Mikhemar Mohyee
• Darabi Hooman

Classifications

• H03F1/086

  with FET's · CPC title

• H04B1/0003

  Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain (digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00) · CPC title

• H03F3/45179

  using MOSFET transistors as the active amplifying circuit (H03F3/45278 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H03F2203/45306

  the common gate stage implemented as dif amp eventually for cascode dif amp · CPC title

• H03D7/1441 Primary

  using field-effect transistors (H03D7/145 takes precedence) · CPC title