Analog Integr Circ Sig Process (2006) 49:123–130
DOI 10.1007/s10470-006-9642-z
DC offsets in direct conversion multistandard wireless receivers:
Modeling and cancellation
Seok-Bae Park · Mohammed Ismail
Received: 27 March 2006 / Accepted: 29 June 2006 / Published online: 19 September 2006


C Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract To realize a high performance direct conversion
receiver for multistandard wireless communications, the lim-
iting factors in the direct conversion receiver should be iden-
tified and removed. In this paper, among many problems in
direct conversion receivers, the DC offset problem is studied.
The origins of the DC offset are summarized, and three self-
mixing mechanisms generating the DC offset are modeled
to better understand how the static (or time-invariant) and
dynamic (or time-varying) DC offsets are produced from
the mechanisms. A DC offset cancellation scheme consist-
ing of a static DC offset canceller and a dynamic DC offset
canceller is proposed and verified through simulations.
Keywords Direct conversion receivers . DC offset
modeling . DC offset cancellation . Adaptive filtering
1 Introduction
A great deal of effort in academia and industry has been
made to meet the ever-growing demands for low-cost, low-
power, and single-chip transceivers for multistandard wire-
less communications. To reach the ultimate goal, the first step
would be the choice of an appropriate transceiver architec-
ture. Among many architectures, the direct conversion (also
known as zero-IF or homodyne) architecture is the most at-
S.-B. Park (
) · M. Ismail
Analog VLSI Laboratory, Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA; Firstpass
Technologies, Dublin, Ohio, 43017, USA
e-mail: parks@ece.osu.edu
M. Ismail
e-mail: ismail@ece.osu.edu
tractive architecture for multistandard wireless transceivers
due to its simplicity and suitability for monolithic integra-
tion as well as multistandard operation [1]. Though the direct
conversion architecture possesses many preferable character-
istics, it still has some critical drawbacks which should be
mitigated in order to be successfully implemented. In this
paper, we explore the DC offset problem, one of the inher-
ent problems in the direct conversion architecture. Our focus
here is on the receiver side.
Figure 1 shows a generic direct conversion receiver (DCR)
architecture. In DCRs, as the desired signal band is down-
converted directly to baseband, any DC offset can corrupt the
desired signal. In addition, as most of amplification in DCRs
takes place in the baseband chain, a small DC offset can be
amplified by baseband amplifiers to a level that saturates the
following stages and consequently prohibits the amplifica-
tion of the desired signal [2]. Therefore, it is necessary to
cancel the DC offset to successfully implement the DCR.
Two types of DC offset have been identified. DC off-
set can be considered constant over time (called static or
time-invariant) or changing over time (called dynamic or
time-varying). We use the term static/dynamic DC offset
throughout the paper.
Thus far, to use AC coupling, high pass filtering, or DC
feedback loop is the most popular and common solutions
[3–6]. They can be effective in eliminating the static DC
offset, but cannot cancel the dynamic DC offset which is
varying fast. Digital cancellation methods have been also
introduced for cancelling the static and dynamic DC offsets
in [7–9]. However, the cancellation methods have been
developed mostly for a specific standard or a modulation
scheme, and little work has been done for multistandard
wireless receivers.
In this paper, we investigate the origin of the DC off-
set and then model the DC offset. Based upon the model,
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124 Analog Integr Circ Sig Process (2006) 49:123–130

I
LPF VGA ADC

LNA DSP
LNA
90 o

Q
LPF VGA ADC
LO Leakage

Fig. 1 Direct conversion receiver architecture

(a) Self-mixing due to LO leakage

we propose a DC offset cancellation scheme for a multi-
standard DCR including both static and dynamic DC offset
cancellers.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, how
the DC offset can be generated and how it can be mod-
eled are presented. In Section 3, a DC offset cancellation LNA
method for a multistandard DCR and a novel dynamic DC
offset canceller are proposed. And Section 4 concludes the LO Leakage

paper.

2 DC offset problem in direct conversion receivers (b) Self-mixing due to LO leakage radiated

In this section, we summarize the DC offset generation mech-

anisms in DCRs and present the modeling of the DC offset
to better understand the DC offset problem.
LNA
2.1 DC offset generation
Interferer Leakage
DC offsets in DCRs can be generated by the following mech-
anisms [1, 10, 11]:
1. transistor mismatches in the signal path, (c) Self-mixing due to interferer leakage
2. self-mixing of local oscillator (LO) signals leaking into Fig. 2 Generation of DC offsets due to self-mixing
the RF port of the mixer and the input port of the LNA as
shown in Fig. 2(a),
DC offset generated by self-mixing mechanisms here. Thus
3. self-mixing of LO signals leaking into, radiated from, and
we assume that the components such as LNAs, mixers, and
reflected back to the antenna as shown in Fig. 2(b),
filters are ideal and do not exhibit nonlinearities. Particularly,
4. self-mixing of strong in-band interferers leaking into the
we assume that the above circuits are well-balanced so that
LO port of the mixer from the output of the LNA as shown
the DC offset produced by the even-order nonlinearity would
in Fig. 2(c), and
not be an issue here. Usually, LNAs and mixers should be
5. second-order intermodulation (IM2) of the components
designed such that their even-order nonlinearity could be
such as LNAs, mixers, and filters.
low enough. In this way, we can simplify the problem and
Though only the I-branch is shown in Fig. 2, the Q-branch
separate the DC offset due to self-mixing from the DC offset
undergoes the same phenomenon.
due to IM2. The DC offset produced by mechanism 1 is not
The DC offsets generated by the mechanism 1 and 2 can
significant, so that it is not modeled in this paper. It can be
be considered as static whereas those by the mechanism 3
reduced by better matching in layout and can be cancelled out
and 4 as dynamic, which will be clearer from the modeling
using the static DC offset canceller which will be discussed
presented in the next section.
in Section 3.
Figure 3 shows the I-branch of DCR. Using complex en-
2.2 DC offset model
velope representation [12], the local oscillator (LO) signal
l(t) in the figure can be expressed as
In this section, we present mathematical formulation of DC
offset problem. As the main source of DC offset is self- √
mixing which is the signal multiplied by itself, we analyze the l(t) = 2 Re{e j2π fc t }

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