5.8 GHz low-flicker-noise CMOS direct-conversion receiver using deep-n-well vertical-NPN BJT

This paper demonstrates a 5.8 GHz low-power, low-flicker-noise direct-conversion receiver using deep-n-well vertical-NPN BJT based subharmonic Gilbert mixer. The deep-n-well vertical-NPN BJT is placed in the LO switching core of the bottom-level subharmonic mixer and the input transconductance stage of the subsequent IF VGA. As a result, the flicker noise corner is improved and the noise figure is 9.5 dB at IF=100 kHz. The maximum gain reaches 50 dB in the operated frequency. The total power consumption is 10 mW at 1.8 V supply voltage.