A 1-V CMOS RF front-end for IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless sensor networks in intelligent transportation system

This paper describes a low-voltage, low-power CMOS RF front-end for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) implementation in the 2.45-GHz band based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The design targets a low-IF receiver architecture and consists of a low-noise amplifier and a quadrature mixer that downconverts an RF input at the 2.45-GHz band to an IF at 2 MHz. To promote low cost and low-voltage operation, all RF inductors are implemented on-chip and the LC-folded-cascode structure is employed for the mixer. By using a 0.18-¿m 6-Metal RF CMOS process, the simulated front-end achieves a noise figure of 8.6 dB, IIP₃ of -21 dBm, S₁₁ of -30 dB and the total conversion voltage gain of 41 dB. The power dissipation is at 2.2 mW for a 1-V supply.