A 1.57-GHz RF front-end for triple conversion GPS receiver

A low-power, 1.57 GHz RF front-end for a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver has been designed in a 1.0 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology. It consists of a low noise amplifier with 15 dB of gain, a single balanced mixer with 6.3 mS of conversion g/sub m/, a Colpitts LC local oscillator, and an emitter coupled logic (ECL) divide-by-eight prescaler. This front-end has a single sideband (SSB) noise figure of 8.1 dB and is part of a triple conversion superheterodyne receiver whose IF frequencies are 179, 4.7, and 1.05 MHz. Low power consumption has been achieved, with 10.5 mA at 3 V supply voltage for the front-end, while the complete receiver is expected to draw about 12 mA.