A 3-stage RF down-converter network for portable, wearable 5G applications

The emerging 5G internet-of-things applications in home automation, smart wearables, healthcare monitoring, automotive sensors require low-cost, area efficient, high-performance and low power radio frequency blocks for effective short-range communication. This growing market demand is addressed in this paper by proposing a fully CMOS RF down-converter (RFDC) network for 5G applications. This work aims to achieve high linearity, low noise figure and high gain simultaneously by optimally splitting the performance between the three stages of the RFDC. The proposed down-conversion system is designed in UMC 180 nm CMOS process technology and the post-layout simulations on layout extracted parameters with Cadence SpectreRF shows an IIP3 of − 3.43 dBm, an IIP2 of 78.13 dBm, double-sideband noise figure of 12.76 dB, a conversion gain of 23.69 dB, the spurious-free dynamic range of 71.7 dB, and the phase noise of − 91.39 dBc/Hz at an offset of 5 MHz. The proposed frequency translation circuit occupies a core area of only 0.0043 mm 2 and consumes a low power of 12.6 mW from a 1.8 V supply.