A 1.5-V 0.25-μm CMOS current-reuse up-converter for 3-5 GHz low-power WPANs

In this paper the measured performance of a 3-5 GHz low-power up-converter is presented. The circuit is based on a current-reuse topology with resistive load. It was implemented in a standard low-cost 0.25-μm CMOS technology. The up-converter achieves 3.8-dB of power gain, an output 1-dB compression point of -10.8 dBm, and a 8-dB single-sideband noise figure, while drawing only 2.3 mA from a 1.5-V supply voltage. An operating bandwidth of 1.5 GHz was measured. The reported comparison carried out with the state-of-the-art of wideband/low-power mixers demonstrates that excellent RF performance has been achieved. The proposed circuit is in accordance with the wideband/low-power requirements of 3-5 GHz ultra-wideband WPANs.