A 0.3-to-1.3GHz Multi-Branch Receiver with Modulated Mixer Clocks for Concurrent Dual-Carrier Reception and Rapid Compressive-Sampling Spectrum Scanning

A flexible RF receiver is introduced that uniquely uses CW-modulated clocks for the down-conversion mixers in its mixer-first and low-noise transconductance branches, thereby enabling tuned matching and reception concurrently at two RF carriers. Turning off the modulation reverts the receiver back to single-carrier operation, whereas using PN sequences to modulate the mixer clocks enables rapid, wideband compressive-sampling spectrum scanning. All three functions are accomplished within a single unified architecture. A prototype of the multi-branch modulated-mixer-clock receiver was developed in 65nm CMOS and operates from 0.3 to 1.3GHz. For single-carrier reception, the receiver delivers 15MHz RF bandwidth, 42dB conversion gain, 3.3dB NF, +3.3dBm B1dB, and +12.2dBm OB-IIP3. Concurrent dual-carrier reception at 500MHz and 900MHz offers -8.4dBm B1dB and <;6dB NF. In rapid CS spectrum scanning mode, the receiver achieves 66dB dynamic range with -75dBm sensitivity over a 630MHz RF span within 0.71us and consumes 18.5nJ per detected signal.