Direct conversion 2.4-GHz receiver front end design for wireless applications

121 p.The 2.4 GHz ISM (industrial scientific and medical) band is a worldwide unlicensed band commonly used for WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). Apart from 802.11b, 802.1 lg, and Bluetooth, the 2.4 GHz band is used for various dedicated short range communications systems which do not follow mainstream standards. Modern RF front-ends must meet rising demands of small form factor, low cost and long battery life in mobile systems. This all points to the elusive system-on-a-chip concept which aims to integrate the RF front-end with the data converters and the digital baseband processing unit using the low-cost standard CMOS process. The Direct Conversion Receiver (DCR) has been identified as the architecture best suited for full system integration. This follows from the few components and the possibility of eliminating off-chip components. For mobile systems, the major problems in direct conversion front end design are low-frequency flicker noise, DC-offset, and power consumption. In this thesis, we aim to tackle the noise figure problem while maintaining low power operation. We also provide a possible solution to the DC-offset problem.MASTER OF ENGINEERING (EEE