Novel design topology for ultra low power down converters with broadband on chip matching network

A novel design topology for ultra low power receivers and down converters has been developed. Using this topology, a monolithic L-band down converter consisting of an input amplifier and a double balanced mixer has been implemented with a standard 0.7 /spl mu/m GaAs-MESFET process. The circuit has a single ended 50 /spl Omega/ input and differential outputs offering totally more than 40 dB voltage conversion gain at 1 GHz and 30 dB at 2 GHz. It is supplied by a single lithium cell and has a dc power consumption of less than 2.0 mW at 2.7 V. Through a more exact modeling of the parasitic capacitance of n-implanted resistors an improved agreement between measurement and simulation was achieved. Finally, the determination of the noise figure at a high impedance output from a 50 /spl Omega/ measurement is presented.