A high-IP3 RF receiver chip set for mobile radio base stations up to 2 GHz

We present a monolithically integrated high third-order intercept point (IP3) radio frequency (RF) receiver chip set for mobile radio base stations up to 2 GHz, in a 25-GHz f/sub T/ Si bipolar production technology. The chip set consists of a RF preamplifier, active mixer circuits, and an intermediate frequency (IF) limiter. The preamplifier gain is 12 dB, the noise figure is 5.5 dB at 900 MHz, and the output (OIP3) is up to +24 dBm depending on supply voltage. The two different mixers provide a conversion gain of 1.5 dB up to 3 dB, an OIP3 in the range of +21 dBm up to +29 dBm, and a minimal single sideband (SSB) noise figure of 13 dB. The IF limiter shows an excellent limiting characteristic at 10 dBm output power and has a high bandwidth of more than 1 GHz.