6.5 A 3dB-NF 160MHz-RF-BW Blocker-Tolerant Receiver with Third-Order Filtering for 5G NR Applications

The introduction of the fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) standard has imposed several challenges in the design of sub-6GHz receivers (RX). Firstly, the maximum channel bandwidth(2BW) increases to 100MHz, while a -15dBm continuous-wave (CW) blocker can be located only \Delta f=85MHz away from the desired band edge. Such a small \Delta f/BW(\sim2) places a stringent linearity requirement on an RX, thus demanding the use of higher-order filtering. Secondly, in-band (IB) linearity also becomes critical, since the band of interest may contain many signals resulting from carrier aggregation and digital beamforming 0peration. Finally, a sub-3dB noise Figure (NF) is required to achieve the highest possible link budget, which allows to maximize the spectral efficiency and data rate.
Electronics