ECE 621: RF Integrated Circuits Design

Section 1: Introduction to RF Transceivers;

RF Transceiver Architectures
Dr. Arun Natarajan, Oregon State University

Course Outline

Objec0ve: Develop an understanding of principles, design and analysis of CMOS radio-frequency
circuits

Instructor: Arun Natarajan, nataraja@eecs.oregonstate.edu , KEC 4105, Phone: 541 737 0606

Spring 2013 (Jan 5, 2015 to March 13, 2015): MWF 9am 10am KEC 1003

Grading: Midterm (02/27/2015): 30%, Homeworks: 20%, Project #1: 20%, Project #2: 30%

Oce hours: W 5pm - 6pm or by appointment

Textbook: RF Microelectronics, 2nd Ed., Behzad Razavi, Prenfce Hall, 2012
(Acknowledgement: Most gures in slides from this textbook}

References:
The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits, Thomas Lee, Cambridge University Press,
2nd Edifon, 2004.

ECE 621: Arun Natarajan 2015

Outline
qTopics:

qRFIC Design Tradeos
qRF Transceiver Architectures

qReading: Razavi, Chapter 1 and Chapter 4

ECE 621: Arun Natarajan 2015

Why RF Design?

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Generic RF Transceiver

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Why CMOS RF Integrated Circuit Design

qWhy design RF circuits in CMOS?

Follow the money. Always follow the money
- All the Presidents Men (1976)

q$
q$$
q$$$
qMillions of transistors available
qLow-costs for high-volume applicafons.
qNear-zero incremental device cost.
qDigital and RF integrafon for SOC.
qNeed extensive calibrafon, opfmized design and CMOS specic architectures to overcome
device performance limitafons.

q If it can be done in CMOS, it will be done in CMOS

ECE 621: Arun Natarajan 2015

Wireless Standard Compa0bility - Example

qLTE bands: ~700MHz to 2.7GHz;

qWiFi: 2.4GHz/5.875GHz
qGPS: ~1.5GHz

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CMOS Integra0on Example

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CMOS Integra0on Example

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CMOS Integra0on Example

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CMOS Integra0on Example

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RF Power Levels
qPA output powers on handsets: 1- 2 Wass
qLNA can receive signals of the order of ~10-12 W
12 orders of magnitude
Normally represent signals on logarithmic scale.

P
Psig,dBm = 10 log sig
1 mW
For sinusoid signal of amplitude, Va ,
Va
2
2
Vrms
Va2
Psig =
=
R
2R
0dBm represents 316mV swing on 50
100dBm represents 3.16V swing on 50

Vrms =

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Voltage and Power Gains

AV ,dB

Vout
= 20 log
V
in

AP,dB

Pout
= 10 log
P
in

AP,dB

= 10 log

2
V out
ROUT
Vin2
RIN

Vout
= AV , dB
= 20 log

Vin

q Equality is achieved when Rin = Rout

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Modula0on

STX (t) = A ( t ) cos ( 2 f ( t ) + ( t ))

qAmplitude modulafon : A(t) depends upon message m(t)
qPhase modulafon: (t) depends upon message m(t)
qFrequency modulafon: f(t) depends upon message m(t)

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Modula0on Eciency
STX (t) = A ( t ) cos ( 2 f ( t ) + ( t ))
qSensifvity: Increasing informafon rate in modulafon signal can make it more sensifve to
noise and distorfon.
Increasing
number of
levels

qBandwidth eciency: Bandwidth occupied by modulated carrier for given baseband data rate.
Represented in bits/Hz; Spectrum is very valuable. Would also like to share spectrum among
mulfple users in fme and frequency domain.

qPower eciency: Power consumpfon is normally dominated by power consumpfon of
transmiser. Power amplier eciency depends upon modulafon signal type and linearity
requirements.

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Standards, Channels, Bands

qSpectrum allocated by FCC in the US and other governmental bodies in Europe and Asia.

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Standards, Channels, Bands

qExample: GSM (Global System for Mobile Communicafons; Groupe Spcial Mobile):

q25MHz band: 125 200KHz channels: 8 user per channel (Time domain Duplexed: TDD): total
number of users: 1000

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Band Selec0on at RF

q Channel select at RF in receiver requires really high-Q lters that are tunable.
q Possible to asenuate out-of-band blockers at RF. However, increasing asenuafon out-of-
band also leads to higher inserfon loss in desired band which aects output power and
receiver noise.
q All blocks that precede channel-select ltering must be suciently linear.
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Band Selec0on at RF Impact of TX Leakage

q Full-duplex systems have TX and RX operafng

simultaneously (at dierent frequencies).
q TX leakage can saturate receiver.
q Some systems might include bandpass ltering
ayer LNA as well to suppress interferers.
q Tradeo between linearity and noise

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Impact of Blockers: Example from GSM

qDicult to lter out interferers that are very close to the desired signal in the frequency domain.
qCan do some band select ltering, but channel select ltering is really dicult.
qWill require frequency tuning at RF.
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Basic Heterodyne Architecture

Ain cos ( int ) ALO cos ( LOt )

ALO Ain
cos (( in LO ) t ) + cos (( in + LO ) t )
2
A A
= LO in cos ( IF t )
2
=

q Constant IF: LO frequency is changed with ne steps to ensure desired band is converted to
xed IF frequency.
q Constant LO: IF lter is tuned to select band.
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Receiver Architectures

Mixer First

LNA First

q Mixer-rst architecture is typically high noise

q Low noise amplier added up front to lower noise.
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Fourier Representa0on of Mixing

Time domain

Frequency Domain

s (t )

S( f )

j 2 f LOt

( f fLO )

s ( t ) e j 2 fLOt S ( f fLO )

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Fourier Representa0on of Mixing

Time domain

Frequency Domain

s (t )

S( f )

cos ( 2 fLO t )

=
s ( t ) e j 2 fLOt
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( f fLO ) +
0.5

( f + fLO )

=
S ( f fLO )
0.5

+S
f
+
f
(
)

LO
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High-Side LO

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Image Signal
q Desired Signal

in = LO + IF
Ain cos ( int + ( t )) ALO cos ( LOt )

ALO Ain
=
cos (( in LO ) t + ( t )) + cos (( in + LO ) t + ( t ))
2
ALO Ain
=
cos ( IF t + ( t ))
2

i mage = LO IF = 2 LO IN

q Image Signal

Aimage cos imaget + image ( t ) ALO cos ( LOt )

( ((

((

ALO Aimage
cos image LO t + image ( t ) + cos image + LO t + image ( t )
2
A A
= LO image cos IF t + image ( t )
2
=

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))

Image Signal

image RF

LO

IF

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Image-Reject Filtering

q Easier to lter the image if there is wide frequency spacing between image and input frequency.
q This implies higher IF frequency which means building a good channel select lter is hard.

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Dual-IF Receiver

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Spurs from LO

image,m,n + m LO,1 + n LO,2 = in LO,1 LO,2

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Zero Second IF

q The signal at second IF is its own image in this case spurs cannot downconvert interferer onto
the zero IF output.
q However, if the signal is not symmetric, the spectrum of the IF output will be corrupted.
q Solufon: Quadrature downconversion!

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Quadrature Downconversion

x BB,I ( t ) = sIF ( t ) cos ( IF t )

x BB,Q ( t ) = sIF ( t ) sin ( IF t )

x BB,I ( t ) + jx BB,Q ( t ) = sIF ( t ) cos ( IF t ) + jsIF ( t ) sin ( IF t ) = sIF ( t ) e j IFt

Similarly, x BB,I ( t ) jx BB,Q ( t ) = sIF ( t ) e j IFt

LO

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j IF t

IF

e j IF t

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Sliding-IF Receivers
q Dual IF requires two LO frequencies; quadrature requires 0 and 90 phases Simplify by
generafng them from one synthesizer. However, now IF is not xed.

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Sliding IF: IF and LO range

fLO 3 fLO
fLO +
=
= fRF
2
2
2 fRF
fRF
fLO =
; fIF =
3
3

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Direct-Conversion Architecture

q Single-step downconversion with only one frequency that has to be generated

q Zero IF with Quadrature downconversion alleviates image rejecfon issues; LO spur issues
avoided as well.
q Minimum number of circuits and components.
q Can do channel select at baseband.

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ECE 621: Arun Natarajan 2015