Subharmonically pumped CMOS frequency conversion (up and down) circuits for 2-GHz WCDMA direct-conversion transceiver

Subharmonically pumped frequency down- and upconversion circuits are implemented in 0.18-μm mixed-mode CMOS technology for 2-GHz direct-conversion WCDMA transceiver applications. These circuits operate in quadrature double-balanced mode and a required octet-phases (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°, and 315°) local oscillator (LO) signal comes from an active multiphases LO generator composed of a polyphase filter and active 45° phase shifting circuits. For linearity improvement, predistortion compensation and negative feedback schemes are used in the frequency down- and upconversion circuits, respectively. The downconverter achieves a conversion voltage gain of 20 dB (to 1-MΩ load), 4-dBm IIP3 (18-dBm OIP3 to 50-Ω load), 41-dBm IIP2 and 8.5-dB DSB NF at 1-MHz IF frequency, consuming 13.4 mA from 1.8-V supply, in the WCDMA Rx band (2110-2170 MHz). The upconverter, operating as two switched gain modes in the WCDMA Tx band (1920-1980 MHz), consumes 19.4 mA from 1.8-V supply and shows 14.5-dB conversion power gain, 15 -dBm OIP3 (0.5-dBm IIP3) and -11 dBm P_1dB at maximum gain mode. At minimum gain mode, it realizes -0.3-dB conversion loss, 10.7-dBm OIP3 (11-dBm IIP3) and 0-dBm P_1dB, respectively. 3GPP WCDMA modulation tests are performed for both up- and downconversion circuits and the results are discussed in this paper.