Low-power front-end and local oscillator for millimeter-wave receivers

This paper presents the design of a 60-GHz millimeter wave (mm-wave) receiver RF front-end (LNA and mixer) and the local oscillator in CMOS65nm and 1.2-V supply. The system-level design and specifications of all blocks are discussed. Two-stage LNA is used to provide a total gain of 11dB with 6-dB NF. The power consumption for the LNA is 10mW and occupies an area of 0.08mm². Fully differential Gilbert mixer is used with current bleeding technique to increase the gain. The conversion gain is more than 4dB at 10-MHz intermediate frequency. The area of the mixer is 0.0054mm² and the power dissipation is 5mW. A differential Clapp oscillator is used for the push-push oscillator topology, which is suitable for mm-wave generation. The oscillator is single-ended and an on-chip balun is used to convert the output to differential. The receiver achieves 16-dB conversion gain and consumes 24mW.