Low-voltage tunable pseudo-differential transconductor with high linearity

A novel tunable transconductor is presented. Input transistors operate in the triode region to achieve programmable voltage-to-current conversion. These transistors are kept in the triode region by a novel negative feedback loop which features simplicity, low voltage requirements, and high output resistance. A linearity analysis is carried out which demonstrates how the proposed transconductance tuning scheme leads to high linearity in a wide transconductance range. Measurement results for a 0.5 μm CMOS implementation of the transconductor show a transconductance tuning range of more than a decade (15 μA/V to 165 μA/V) and a total harmonic distortion of −67 dB at 1 MHz for an input of 1 Vpp and a supply voltage of 1.8 V

A 300-800MHz Tunable Filter and Linearized LNA applied in a Low-Noise Harmonic-Rejection RF-Sampling Receiver

A multiband flexible RF-sampling receiver aimed at software-defined radio is presented. The wideband RF sampling function is enabled by a recently proposed discrete-time mixing downconverter. This work exploits a voltage-sensing LNA preceded by a tunable LC pre-filter with one external coil to demonstrate an RF-sampling receiver with low noise figure (NF) and high harmonic rejection (HR). The second-order LC filter provides voltage pre-gain and attenuates the source noise aliasing, and it also improves the HR ratio of the sampling downconverter. The LNA consists of a simple amplifier topology built from inverters and resistors to improve the third-order nonlinearity via an enhanced voltage mirror technique. The RF-sampling receiver employs 8 times oversampling covering 300 to 800 MHz in two RF sub-bands. The chip is realized in 65 nm CMOS and the measured gain across the band is between 22 and 28 dB, while achieving a NF between 0.8 to 4.3 dB. The IIP2 varies between +38 and +49 dBm and the IIP3 between -14 dBm and -9 dBm, and the third and fifth order HR ratios are more than 60 dB. The LNA and downconverter consumes 6 mW, and the clock generator takes 12 mW at 800 MHz RF.\ud \u