
AD6459
–8–
REV. 0
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
The AD6459 provides most of the active circuitry required to
realize a complete low power, single-conversion superhetero-
dyne receiver, or the latter part of a double-conversion receiver,
at input frequencies up to 500 MHz, with an IF from 5 MHz to
50 MHz. The internal I/Q demodulators, and their associated
phase-locked loop, support a wide variety of modulation modes,
including n-PSK, n-QAM and GMSK. A single positive supply
voltage of 3 V is required (2.7 V minimum, 5.5 V maximum) at
a typical supply current of 8 mA at midgain. In the following
discussion, V
POS
will be used to denote the power supply voltage,
which will be normally assumed to be 3 V.
Figure 20 shows the main sections of the AD6459. It consists of
a variable-gain UHF mixer and a linear two-stage IF strip,
which together provide a calibrated voltage-controlled gain range
of more than 76 dB, followed by dual quadrature demodulators.
These are driven by inphase and quadrature clocks that are
generated by a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL), which is locked to a
corrected external reference. A CMOS-compatible power-down
interface completes the AD6459.
Mixer
The UHF mixer is an improved Gilbert-cell design and can
operate from low frequencies (it is internally dc-coupled) up to
an RF input of 500 MHz. The dynamic range at the input of the
mixer is determined, at the upper end, by the maximum input
signal level of
±
90 mV (–11 dBm in 50
between RFHI and
RFLO) up to which the mixer remains essentially linear, and at
the lower end, by the noise level. It is customary to define the
linearity of a mixer in terms of its 1 dB gain-compression point
and third-order intercept, which for the AD6459 are –11 dBm
and 0 dBm, respectively, in a 50
system.
The mixer’s RF input port is differential; that is, pin RFLO is
functionally identical to RFHI, and these nodes are internally
biased. The RF port can be modeled as a parallel RC circuit as
shown in Figure 19.
RFHI
RFLO
C
SH
R
SH
Figure 19. Mixer Port Modeled as a Parallel RC Network
The local oscillator (LO) input is internally biased at V
P
–0.8 V
and must be ac coupled. The LO interface includes a preampli-
fier that minimizes the drive requirements, thus simplifying the
oscillator design and reducing LO leakage from the RF port.
The LO requires a single-sided drive of
±
50 mV, or –16 dBm
in a 50
system. For operation above 300 MHz, noise figure
can be improved by increasing the LO level.
LC
BANDPASS
FILTER
PLL
VPS1
RFHI
AD6459
MXOP
MXOM
IFIP
IFIM
+
–
0
°
50
°
4.7k
4.7k
4.7k
4.7k
GAIN TO
COMPENSATION
AGC VOLTAGE
BIAS
CIRCUIT
VPS2
PRUP
RFLO
LOIP
4
IRXP
IRXN
FREF
FLTR
QRXP
QRXN
GAIN
GREF
19
20
13
14
15
16
17
18
6
7
8
1
2
3
5
COM1
COM2
9
10
11
12
Figure 20. Functional Block Diagram