Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, packet data, broadcast, messaging, and so on. Examples of such wireless networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, and Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks. These wireless networks may also utilize various radio technologies such as Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), cdma2000, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).
Wireless devices used in such wireless networks include receiver sections for converting radio frequency (RF) signals received by an antenna to baseband signals for digital processing.
The LNA 104 and mixer 108 are typically provided on an integrated circuit (“IC” or “chip”) 110, whereas the bandpass filter 106 is typically provided off-chip. A matching network (MN) 112 may be provided for impedance matching in passing filtered signals from the bandpass filter 106 back to the chip 110. The signals from the matching network 112 are input as differential signals to an input stage 114 of the mixer 108, which downconverts the signal to baseband or some intermediate frequency.
The input stage 114 of the mixer may have a conventional common-gate only (CGO) configuration, as shown in
For a CGO input stage, in order to achieve high gain, the transconductance gmn of the NMOS transistors must be relatively large, which requires a matching network with a very high Q matching factor. Consequently, a potential disadvantage for CGO input stage is high sensitivity to input Q matching factor.
In various embodiments, a method and apparatus for downconverting a received RF signal in a wireless device are disclosed. In an embodiment method, differential signals from an off-chip matching network may be input to a CGCS input stage of a mixer, which downconverts the signals to baseband or some intermediate frequency. The input stage includes a common-gate stage, which may include a pair of NMOS transistors coupled to a differential input at their gates and sources, and a common-source stage, which may include a pair of PMOS transistors coupled to a current source at their sources, the differential inputs at their gates, and the common-gate stage at their drains, and RF choke inductors coupled between the differential input and ground.
A potential advantage of an embodiment method using the CGCS input stage over the existing CGO transconductance stage configuration is that by adding a common-source stage through the PMOS differential-pair, the transconductance gain is decoupled from the high Q matching network.
RF signals received by antenna 302 are amplified by LNA 304 provided on a chip 303. The amplified signals are passed off-chip to a bandpass filter 306. A matching network 308 provides impedance matching for transmitting the filtered signals 310, 311 back on to chip 303. The differential signals are input to CGCS input stage 312 of mixer 314, which downconverts the signals to baseband or some intermediate frequency.
PMOS transistors M3420 and M4422 are connected at their gates through resistors 424, 425. The sources of the PMOS transistors are tied to current source 430, providing the “common-source” aspect of the circuit. Like NMOS transistors 306, 408, the gate of each PMOS transistor 420, 422 is cross-coupled to the opposite input signal than its source through capacitors 432, 433, respectively. Current is generated through each PMOS transistor in response to the input signal at its gate and the current provided by current source 320. The total current It is the sum of the current through the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor on each column of the input stage.
Inductors 450 and 451 are coupled between the sources of the NMOS transistors 406 and 408, respectively, and a ground terminal. The inductors operative as RF choke inductors and exhibit high impedance at the operating frequency so that most signal current flow up into the transistors instead of ground during operation.
A potential advantage of the CGCS input stage over the existing CGO transconductance stage configuration is that by adding a common-source stage through the PMOS differential-pair 420, 422, the transconductance gain is decoupled from the high Q matching network 308.
and gmn is the transconductance of the NMOS transistors.
Referring back the
where gmp is the transconductance of the PMOS transistors.
for a CGO stage, only the first term, √{square root over (gmn)}, exists. In order to achieve high gain, the NMOS transconductance gmn has to be sufficiently large, which in turn requires a very high Q matching network. In practice, providing a matching network with a very high Q factor may be difficult to implement and may increase the cost of external components.
The addition of the common-source stage adds the second term,
and will compensate for the gain if gmn is not sufficiently high and also relax the Q matching factor. Intuitively, to get high gain from a CGO transconductance stage, the voltage Vin should be as small as possible, however low Q matching will cause Vin to increase and cause a gain drop from the CGO stage. However, with the addition of the voltage-driven common-stage PMOS differential-pair, the Vin increase may produce more current from the common-source stage and thus compensate the gain loss in the common-gate NMOS stage. This is an advantage of combining common-gate and common-source stages without introducing a power consumption penalty.
In an embodiment, a CGCS input stage for a receiver chain includes NMOS transistors M1406 and M2408 having a width of 300 μm and a length of 0.24 μm, and PMOS transistors M3420 and M4422 having a width of 240 μm and a length of 0.24 μm. The cross-coupled capacitors 412, 413 for the NMOS transistors may be about 6 pF, and cross-coupled capacitors 432, 433 for the PMOS transistors may be about 3 pF. The four resistors 410, 411, 424, and 425 may be about 10 kΩ and the two inductors 450, 451 may be about 9 nH.
A number of embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the CSCG mixer input stage may be used in a variety of wireless devices having similar receivers, including those designed for use in wireless network systems, wireless local area networks, and/or wireless personal area networks. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/470,556, filed Sep. 6, 2006 and entitled, “COMMON-GATE COMMON-SOURCE TRANSCONDUCTANCE STAGE FOR RF DOWNCONVERSION MIXER”, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/748,854, filed Dec. 8, 2005 and entitled, “COMMON-GATE COMMON-SOURCE TRANSCONDUCTANCE STAGE FOR RF DOWNCONVERSION MIXER”, the entire contents of both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
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Parent | 11470556 | Sep 2006 | US |
Child | 12859533 | US |