Design of triple-band CMOS GPS receiver RF front-end

Abstract

This letter describes the design of a triple-band Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that simultaneously covers the L1, L2 and L5 frequency bands. The proposed receiver uses an image-rejection technique that can separate signals from the three frequency bands to three corresponding ports. It uses a single RF path containing a low-noise amplifier (LNA), and active and passive mixers with a pair of local oscillator signals. The triple-band GPS RF front-end chip is fabricated using 130nm CMOS technology, and has a noise figure of less than 7.1dB and an S11 coefficient of less than -10dB in the frequency range 1.15-1.6GHz. The experimental results demonstrate a 35-40dB image rejection ratio at each output port with a power consumption of 7.2mW (LNA and mixers) using a 1.2V supply voltage.