Design of a low-power, broadband receiver for mmwave 5G applications

Focusing on multi-Gbps data rates, ultra-low latency, and user selectivity, the 5G network employs massive MIMO arrays. In such arrays, the power consumption of each element including the receiver becomes critical for efficiency. In particular, the receivers are required to have low noise figure, high operational bandwidth, and robust to interferers while consuming low power. Among the architectures, mixer-first receivers are attractive in terms of power consumption and interference tolerance but, have slightly higher noise figure than their conventional counterparts. In this thesis, the student will design such a low-power receiver, focusing on the robustness to the LO variations over a broad bandwidth of operation. The thesis work starts with a literature study followed by a theoretical analysis complemented by simulations. The most promising topology will be selected and analyzed further with detailed simulations and layout.