Design and Analysis of a 21–29-GHz Ultra-Wideband Receiver Front-End in 0.18-$\mu$ m CMOS Technology

This paper reports the design and analysis of 21-29-GHz CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA), balun and mixer in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS process for ultra-wideband automotive radar systems. To verify the proposed LNA, balun, and mixer architectures, a simplified receiver front-end comprising an LNA, a double-balanced Gilbert-cell-based mixer, and two Marchand baluns was implemented. The wideband Marchand baluns can convert the single RF and local oscillator (LO) signals to nearly perfect differential signals over the 21-29-GHz band. The performance of the mixer is improved with the current-bleeding technique and a parallel resonant inductor at the differential outputs of the RF transconductance stage. Over the 21-29-GHz band, the receiver front-end exhibits excellent noise figure of 4.6±0.5 dB, conversion gain of 23.7±1.4 dB, RF port reflection coefficient lower than -8.8 dB, LO-IF isolation lower than -47 dB, LO-RF isolation lower than -55 dB, and RF-IF isolation lower than -35.5 dB. The circuit occupies a chip area of 1.25×1.06 mm
²
, including the test pads. The dc power dissipation is only 39.2 mW.