Evaluation of CMOS Front-End Receiver Architectures for GSM Handset Applications

This paper analyses two front-end receiver architectures intended for GSM900 use; (i) A direct-conversion receiver, and (ii) a low-IF receiver using a poly-phase filter. The aim is to determine the circuit performance required for GSM operation and to compare this to current state-of-the-art CMOS performance. The analysis shows that direct-conversion receivers fail to meet specifications when based on of-the-shelf CMOS circuits. The main reason being noisy baseband stages and lack of RF gain. When based on equivalent CMOS performance the low-IF receiver presents a promising solution to fully integrated CMOS receivers for GSM.