Design of low-power receiver front-end IC for low-frequency wireless time signal broadcast system

Wireless time signal broadcast system is an essential platform for the operation of radio watches. It is also a good system for broadcasting other civil information such as disaster warning. To obtain wide coverage area, the carrier frequency is usually as low as tens of kHz. When designing receiver front-end IC´s in this low-frequency range, noise consideration is critical. In this paper, the design of a low-power, low-noise receiver front-end IC in 0.35 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology for low frequency time signal broadcast system is reported. The front-end IC tolerates wide input dynamic range of 106 dB and has high sensitivity. With 3.3 V supply voltage, the IC only consumes 0.343 mW when working. Stand-by mode has been implemented to save even more energy. The chip area is only 1300 μm × 908 μm, including ESD protection and bonding pads.