System-level simulation and analysis of a WiMAX direct-conversion receiver in 90nm CMOS

In this paper, different system-level issues involved in the design of the analog front-end of a direct-conversion receiver are investigated using Agilent Advanced Design System 2009 (ADS 2009). The receiver is designed to target Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), which has been rapidly gaining momentum as an alternative to cable and DSL in delivering wireless broadband access to end-users. The receiver is designed to operate in the unlicensed frequency band from 5.725 to 5.825 GHz with a total noise figure of 6.398 dB, a third-order input-referred intercept point at 5.567 ilBm, 1-dB compression point at -4.433 dBm and a total power gain of 40 dB. High-level design trade-offs within the direct-conversion receiver architecture are investigated to characterize the effect of each block in the whole system´s performance. A systematic top-down design flow is developed, that would further improve subsequent efforts to design a fully integrated wireless 90 nm CMOS transceiver.