Highly linear receiver front-end adopting MOSFET transconductance linearization by multiple gated transistors

Abstract

Highly linear receiver RF front-end adopting MOSFET transconductance linearization by linearly superposing several common-source FET transistors in parallel (multiple gated transistor, or MGTR), combined with some additional circuit techniques are reported. In MGTR circuitry, linearity is improved, by using transconductance linearization which can be achieved by canceling the negative peak value of g''(m) of the main transistor with the positive one in the auxiliary transistor having a different size and gate drive combined in parallel. This enhancement, however, is limited by the distortion originated from the combined influence of g'(m) and harmonic feedback, which can greatly be reduced by the cascoding MGTR output for the amplifier and by the tuned load for the mixer. Experimental results designed using the above techniques show IIP3 improvements at given power consumption by as much as, 10 dB for CMOS low-noise amplifier at 900 MHz and 7 dB for Gilbert cell mixer at 2.4 GHz without sacrificing other features such as gain and noise figure.