3.15 dB NF, 7.2 mW 3–9 GHz CMOS ultra-wideband receiver front-end

A 3-9 GHz receiver front-end (RFE) with excellent stop-band rejection by 0.18 μm CMOS technology is demonstrated. A pre-filter is used to achieve high stop-band rejection and good RF-port input matching. An output buffer with a lowpass filter is used to enhance the conversion gain and to suppress the high-frequency noise and leakage. In the low-noise mode, the RFE consumes 7.2 mW and achieves conversion gain (CG) of 20.21±1.97 dB, a minimum noise figure (NF) of 3.15 dB, and input 1 dB compression point (P_1dB) of -16.3 dBm. It is believed that this is the lowest NF ever reported for a CMOS UWB RFE with power consumption lower than 10 mW. In the high-gain mode, the RFE consumes 19.35 mW and achieves a high and flat CG of 32.63±1.55 dB.