RF TOPICS

Contents
FUNDAMENTAL DEFINITIONS ......................................................................................................... 2 Smith Chart ..................................................................................................................................... 3 POWER ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Real/Imaginary ............................................................................................................................ 5 Decibels ....................................................................................................................................... 5 VSWR............................................................................................................................................... 6 BJT ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Modes of Operation.................................................................................................................... 7 Current Mirror/ Widlar Current Source ...................................................................................... 8 Bipolar Mirror with Base-Current Compensation....................................................................... 9 AMPILFIERS ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Single Stage ................................................................................................................................. 9 Cascaded Amplifiers.................................................................................................................. 10 Amplifier Classes ....................................................................................................................... 12 Amplifier Design........................................................................................................................ 13 Maximum gain design ........................................................................................................... 13 Noise ......................................................................................................................................... 13 SILICON/CMOS .............................................................................................................................. 15 ATTENUATORS/FILTERS ................................................................................................................ 16 DuFIS Attenuator ...................................................................................................................... 16 Cellular Overview & 3G UMTS HSPA High Speed Packet Access Tutorial. ................................ 17 Terms ................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. APPENDIX ..........................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Reflection Coefficient ...............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

FUNDAMENTAL DEFINITIONS
S-Parameters S-parameters, or scattering parameters, are elements of an n-port network that defines a circuits input and output ports. They are power measurements that describe output powers for various input powers by using matched loads. Insertion Loss: IL = -20log10|S21|[dB] Insertion loss is the dB expression of the transmission coefficient |S 21| Not that this loss can be intrinsic loss in the DUT and/or mismatch loss (imperfect |S11|) Input Return Loss: RLout=|20log10|S11||[dB] By definition, return loss is a positive quantity but is commonly referred to as a negative value. It is a scalar measure of how close the input impedance of the network is to the nominal system impedance. Output Return Loss: RLout=|20log10|S22||[dB] Similar to RL just on the output.

Reverse gain & Reverse Isolation: grev=20log10|S12|[dB] . . &. . Irev=|grev|=|20log10|S12||[dB]

Smith Chart
A Smith chart is a mapping (bilinear transformation) of the impedance plane onto the reflection coefficient plan using the below formula. (Weber pg 27) = Z-Zo / Z+Zo Question: Why use this equation?

Points: Outside the smith chart assume negative impedances VSWR is defined as the maximum voltage on the line divided by the minimum voltage on the line.

Rotate Locus Clockwise is toward the generator c = 3x108 m/s = f wavelength = 180 degrees on Smith Chart Impedance repeats itself every half wavelength along uniform transmission line Moving x degrees along the line moves a point on the locus 2x

http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/smithchart.cfm

POWER
Power is the amount of work that is done over a period of time. Watt [J/s]

Real/Imaginary Decibels
10log() 20log() 3dB point

VSWR
Voltage Standing Wave Ratio at a port is the ration of the standing wave maximum voltage to the standing wave minimum voltage. It therefore relates to the magnitude of the voltage reflection coefficient and hence to the magnitude of either S11 for the input port or S22 for the output port. sin =
| | | |

sout =

| |

| |

Reflection Coefficient

BJT
While the BJT is biased to operate in the active mode, it is at heart, a transconductance amplifier represented by a few characteristic parameters. (Sedra/Smith -- pg29) r = input resistance between B and E gm = a short-circuit transconducatnace ro = output resistance

Modes of Operation
Active Mode, also called forward active mode, Only base-emitter junction is forward biased Used if the transistor is to operate as an amplifier. Cutoff Mode, is used for switching applications. Saturation Mode, Collector-base junction is forward biased. Also used for switching applications. Reverse Active Mode, or inverse active, mode is rarely used but important.

Mode Cutoff Active Reverse Active Saturation

EBJ Reverse Forward Reverse Forward

CBJ Reverse Reverse Forward Forward

Forward Active Reverse Biased Emitter-Follower Common Base/ Common Emitter

Current Mirror/ Widlar Current Source

(Bob Widlar patent in 1967) The Widlar Current Source is a variant of a current mirror with an emitter resister on Q2 allowing very low currents to be realizable with very small resistor values.

Bipolar Mirror with Base-Current Compensation

(Sedra/Smith pg 650) Matt Raygors assignment Why do we need Base-Current compensation?

AMPILFIERS
Microwave Engineering 3rd Edition - David M. Pozar Power Amplifiers Chapter 11.5 pg 570

Single Stage

Base-to-Emitter/Collector Phase Shift Common Emitter (output from the collector) --- 180 degree phase shift Common Collector (output from the emitter) --- 0 degree phase shift

Single Stage Transistor Phase Splitter

http://electriciantraining.tpub.com/14180/css/14180_40.htm

The phase shift occurs when a voltage is applied to the base of the BJT. This voltage causes the current i c to increase therefore increasing the emitter voltage. Since VE + VCE must equal Vcc, and VBE is theoretically constant, VCE will therefore decrease with an increase in VB. 9

IC to VCE Phase Shift The reason IC and VCE waveforms are out of phase is because of the load line. As the base voltage increases, IC increases. As IC increases, Vout increase but VCE decreases.

IC and VCE AC waveforms are offset by 180. This is important because power, and therefore efficiency, is calculated using I C and VCE waveforms.

Cascaded Amplifiers
(Microelectronics Circuits 5th Edition (Sedra/Smith) Pg. 25) Most amplifier designs utilize multiple stages. For example, a typical GSM power amplifier is usually composed of a cascade of three stages. The amplifier is fed by a signal source, with a corresponding impedance, and drives the first stage which then drives the second stage which then drives the third stage ultimately bringing power to the load. The reason for using multiple stages is because it allows for a design realizing a voltage gain and power gain that would otherwise not be realizable with a single stage amplifier. Each stage in the below figure plays a different role in the overall amplifier design.

10

Stage 1) In order to avoid losing signal strength at the input where the signal is usually very small, the first stage has a relatively high input resistance with only a modest gain factor of 10. Stage 2) The second stage is used to realize the bulk of the voltage gain and therefore has a higher gain factor of 100 but a lower input resistance. Stage 3) The third and final stage acts as a bugger amplifier and is not asked to provide any voltage gain. This last stage has unity gain but a low output resistance, much lower than RL allowing for all of the signal to be transferred to the load.

11

Amplifier Classes
Class A Conduct over entire range of the input signal cycle Theoretical maximum efficiency 50% Inherently linear circuits - Most small-signal and low-noise amplifiers operate as class A circuits Class B Conducts over the input signal cycle Theoretical maximum efficiency 78% Usually two complimentary transistors operate in a push-pull configuration Here, the bias is arranged to shut of the output device every half cycle. Class C Conducts over very small amount of input signal cycle Theoretical maximum efficiency of 100% Generally uses a resonant circuit on output stage to recover fundamental - Can only be used with constant envelope modulations Class D, E, F (Switching Amplifiers) Conducts over small amount of input signal cycle May achieve very high efficiencies Uses transistor as a switch to pump a highly resonant tank circuit

Switching amplifiers ideally operate on the two axis of the IC-VCE curve.

12

Amplifier Design
Maximum gain design
11.3 Single-Stage Transistor Amplifier Design After stability is checked, maximum gain (maximum power transfer) can be realized by conjugately matching the input and output. This occurs because GO of a transistor is fixed. Therefore overall gain is controlled by maximizing GS and GL. in=*S out=*L

Noise
SNR
Signal to noise ration. Ratio of single power to the noise power.

Noise power
Noise power (Pnoise) can be equated to an equivalent noise temperature. Ni = kT0B k= 1.380x10-23J/K is Boltzmanns constant T is temperature in degrees kelvin (K) B is the bandwidth of the system in Hz

Noise Factor (F)

Noise factor is an alternative characterization of noise used to measure the degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio between the input and output of the component

The noise factor of a device is related to its noise temperature Te

13

Noise Figure (NF)

Noise Figure is just Fdb.

14

SILICON/CMOS
BJTs are more reliable, and can realize larger currents and powers. But while BJTs are the component choice for RF engineers, Silicon designers weapon of mass destruction is the MOSFET. Bandgap Voltage ? Bandgap References ?

15

ATTENUATORS/FILTERS
DuFIS Attenuator

16

Cellular Overview & 3G UMTS HSPA High Speed Packet Access Tutorial.
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/cellular_concepts/mobile-basics-concepts.php http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/3g-hspa/umts-high-speed-packet-access-tutorial.php Cell system for frequency re-use Areas are broken up into regions (or cells) allowing different transmitter/receiver communication links to use the same frequency. Cell Clusters A cluster is a group of adjacent cells, each having a different frequency band, ensuring that no interference will occur between cells even if some spectral overlap occurs. Often these clusters contain 7 cells. Cell Size By making the cells smaller, a greater capacity is obtained, however, more base stations are required. Macro cells: Large, remotely populated areas. 10km in diameter Micro cells: Densely populated areas. 1km in diameter Pico cells: Very small areas of buildins, tunnels Selective cells: When 360 coverage is not required. Entrance to tunnel for example. Umbrella cells:Covering many microcells allow for fewer handovers. Multiple Access Schemes These multiple access schemes have allowed multiple users to access the cellular system simultaneous. FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access Used by all analogue systems, this scheme divides the spectrum up by frequencies and assigns a channel to each user on the system. TDMA Time Division Multiple Access Used when cellular systems were transitioning to digital schemes, TDMA sent data in bursts. Each user would not only get a frequency assigned, similar to the FDMA scheme, but would also get a time allocated allowing multiple users to use the same frequency by simply sharing the time needed to send short data bursts . CDMA Code Division Multiple Access When generating a direct sequence spread spectrum, the data to be transmitted is multiple with a spreading or chip code. This widens the spectrum of the signal, but it can only be decided in the receiver if it is again multiple with the same spreading code. All other signals are not seen. In this way, the base station allocates different codes to different users and when it receives the signal it will use one code to receive the signal from one mobile, and another spreading code to receive the signal from another mobile. Analogy: Many people in a room talking different languages. Even though noise is high, you can hear and understand your own language over everyone elses conversation. OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OFDMA is the form of multiple access scheme being considered for 4G. (LTE for UMTS/W-CDMA & UMB for CDMA2000)

17

Air-Interface Modulations & Waveforms

ACPR/ACLR
ACPR used for CDMA and ACLR used for WCDMA

LTE - 4G
Uses OFDMA for downlink Uses SC-FDMA for uplink because it has lower PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio)

E-UTRA is evolution from UMTS

18