Low-Power High-Linearity Mixer-First Receiver Using Implicit Capacitive Stacking With 3× Voltage Gain

In this article, we present a passive mixer-first receiver front end providing low-power integrated solution for high interference robustness in radios targeting Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. The employs novel N-path filter/mixer, linear baseband amplifier, and step-up transformer to realize sub-6-dB NF >20-dBm OB-IIP3 concurrently. proposed filter/mixer exploits an implicit capacitive stacking principle achieve voltage gain of 3 during down-conversion out-of-band linearity simultaneously while using at least 2 $\times $ less total capacitance the same RF bandwidth compared conventional switch-capacitor filter. Fabricated 22-nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI), prototype—including 2:6 transformer—occupies only 0.2 mm 2 active area. Operating frequency range 1.8–2.8 GHz, provides 45–47-dB conversion MHz. Due transformer, implemented consumes 1.7–2.5 mW power < 6-dB NF, ~24/60/1 dBm IIP3/IIP2/B1dB, respectively.