Design and Performance Analysis of a Compact Wideband RF Front-End for 5G and Beyond Wireless Systems

Abstract

Combined with the growing pace of the fifth-generation (5G) and even beyond-5G wireless systems the need of compact, wideband, and energy-efficient radio-frequency (RF) front-end architecture with the ability to support multi-standard and reconfigurable transceivers has risen. This paper describes and discusses a small-scale wideband RF front-end that is aimed at supporting 5G and other sub-6 GHz wireless technologies. This proposed architecture has incorporated a wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) and RF switch to allow broadband impedance matching, low noise performance, and an improved linearity using a smaller silicon area. Front-end is at standard CMOS and is optimised to operate over wideband on the order of careful matching network design, layout-wise considerations. The RF front-end proposed allows continuous operation at 3 -8 GHz, encompassing important 5G bands that are sub-6 GHz, with stable gain, low input reflection, and power consumption. A thorough performance assessment is realised at post-layout simulations, that is, S-parameter analysis, noise figure, linearity measurements, power efficiency. Influence of structure of parasitic effects and layout on overall RF performance is also discussed. The comparative analysis against recently reported RF front-end design proves that the proposed solution has a better trade-off between bandwidth, noise performance, linearity and chip area. These findings demonstrate that the suggested compact wideband RF front-end can be effectively used in the next generation multi-band and versatile wireless transceiver based on 5G and more wireless systems.