A New Linearization Technique for CMOS RF Mixer Using Third-Order Transconductance Cancellation

A new third-order transconductance (g_m3) cancellation technique is proposed and applied to a conventional radio frequency (RF) mixer for improving circuit linearity. The bulk-to- source voltage is applied to adjust the peak value position of gms. The cancellation of g_m3 is utilized by a negative peak g_m3 transistor combined in parallel with a positive peak g_m3 transistor. For a single device, the measured adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) and third-order intermodulation (IMD3) distortion are both improved over 15 dB. A Gilbert-cell mixer in commercial 0.18-mum CMOS process was designed using the proposed method to further evaluate the linearity. The compensated g_m3 device is placed in the input RF gm-stage and then reducing the principle nonlinearity source of the mixer. From the experiment results, the ACPR and IMD3 of the mixer are improved about 10 and 15 dB, respectively.