An ultra compact wideband combined LNA-oscillator-mixer for biomedical applications

In this paper a combined LNA-oscillator-mixer is presented, which exploits the non-linear behavior of a two-integrator oscillator. The LNA, oscillator, and mixer are merged in a single block, allowing current reuse. The result is a low area, low cost, and low power RF front-end in a standard CMOS technology. A common-gate LNA is used, which covers the WMTS frequency bands from 600 MHz to 1.4 GHz. A circuit prototype using UMC 130 nm CMOS technology is presented using a MOSFET-only design to optimize the circuit for power consumption and area. The circuit has 9.7 mW power, 1.2 V supply, and an area of 110 × 90 μm².