Low power RFICs for receiver applications - design and performance issues

This paper consider two important low-power radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for receiver applications - mixers and oscillators. The performance of a mixer when the transistor's body terminal is used as one of the inputs is considered. It was observed that this topology allows the use of lower supply voltages compared to conventional Gilbert Cell mixers. In the case of the oscillator, the effects of hot carriers on the performance of a LC-tank negative resistance oscillator was studied. The important effects are a drop of oscillation amplitude and a slight increase in frequency. Also, the effects of fluctuations in the transistor's channel length on the oscillator performance are investigated. The use of body bias is proposed as a means to compensate for changes in the performance characteristics due to these fluctuations.