A Blocker Filtering Technique for SAW-Less Wireless Receivers

TLDR: An active filtering technique to remove the out-of-band blockers in wireless receivers is presented, employing a feed-forward filtering path to produce an arbitrarily narrow frequency response in the low-noise amplifier (LNA), eliminating the need for an external surface acoustic wave filter at the receiver front-end.

Abstract: An active filtering technique to remove the out-of-band blockers in wireless receivers is presented. The circuit employs a feed-forward filtering path to produce an arbitrarily narrow frequency response in the low-noise amplifier (LNA), eliminating the need for an external surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter at the receiver front-end. The required notch filtering in the feed-forward path is realized through a receiver translational loop, driven by the same local oscillator (LO) signals used in the main receiver. For the proof of concept, a prototype amplifier in 65 nm standard CMOS, intended for Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) applications, is implemented. When the filtering is enabled, the amplifier 3-dB bandwidth reduces from 220 MHz to about 4.5 MHz, and a stop-band rejection of over 21 dB is achieved.