A 1.2 V, 430 MHz, 4 dBm power amplifier and a 25 /spl mu/W front-end, using a standard digital CMOS process

Autonomous transceivers working in the ISM UHF bands should meet both requirements of a long battery lifetime and a small overall volume, thus implying a reduction in the receiving power consumption down to less than 1 mW. Ultimately, this goal will only be reached by using original topologies and lowering the supply voltage down to single battery cell operation. A RF front-end and a power-amplifier (PA) designed for the 433 MHz European ISM band are presented. Both RF building blocks have been integrated in a standard 0.5 /spl mu/m digital CMOS process with 0.65 V threshold voltages. The front-end includes an LNA and a downconverter mixer. It achieves a total double sideband (DSB) noise figure of 9 dB, with a dynamic range of 85 dB for a 60 kHz bandwidth, while dissipating only 250 /spl mu/W at 1.2 V supply voltage. The PA includes two fully integrated class A stages together with an output class C amplifier. It achieves a +4 dBm output power with a 15% overall efficiency under 1.2 V supply voltage.