CMOS radios continue to evolve so as to satisfy the demands of new applications. Below 7 GHz, cellular and WiFi standards have been pushing the performance to support increasingly higher data rates while consuming less power. Such endeavors require novel architectures that also lend themselves to efficient circuit design. In addition, new radios have emerged around 30 GHz for 5G, around 60 GHz for WiGig, around 140 GHz for 6G, and around 300 GHz for sub-terahertz communications. Each of these frequency bands presents interesting and unique challenges, but a unifying principle among them is the need for beamforming.

This presentation deals with recent developments in receiver design for this broad range of applications. We examine the shortcomings of standard direct-conversion architectures and draw concepts from the state of the art to improve their performance. We also contend that heterodyne reception may outperform direct conversion in some cases. We then study beamforming techniques with emphasis on solutions that draw minimal power.