RFIC

It is RFIC course notes in Persian language (Farsi) which includes: History of Wireless Systems - Noise Figure (NF) - Nonlinearity - RF Transceiver Architectures - RF Standards - Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) - Mixer - Oscillator - Phase Locked Loop (PLL) - Synthesizer - Power Amplifier (PA).

See:
http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.11677.36320

In this paper, a 4.2–5.4 GHz, −Gm LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) for IEEE 802.11a standard is presented. The circuit is designed with AMS 0.35 μm SiGe BiCMOS process that includes high-speed SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs). According to post-layout simulation results, phase noise is −110.7 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 5.4 GHz carrier frequency and −113.4 dBc/Hz from 4.2 GHz carrier frequency. A linear, 1200 MHz tuning range is obtained from the simulations, utilizing accumulation-mode varactors. Phase noise was also found to be relatively low because of taking advantage of differential tuning concept. Output power of the fundamental frequency changes between 4.8 dBm and 5.5 dBm depending on the tuning voltage. Based on the simulation results, the circuit draws 2 mA without buffers and 14.5 mA from 2.5 V supply including buffer circuits leading to a total power dissipation of 36.25 mW. The circuit layout occupies an area of 0.6 mm2 on Si substrate, including DC and RF pads. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.

Gândită din perspectiva conceptuală a teoriei circuitelor, lucrarea se focalizează cu precădere pe calculul impedanţelor de intrare ale inductanţelor simulate implementate în tehnologie CMOS.
Primul capitol este o abordare detaliată a conceptului de girator
(ideal), întrebările propuse considerându–se suficiente pentru
înţelegerea acestui concept.
Capitolul 2 face trecerea de la partea conceptuală, pur teoretică a
giratorului, la cea de circuit, abordându–se etajele elementare utilizate
la implementările practice cu girator.
Capitolul 3 este o trecere în revistă, de dorit una exhaustivă, a
inductanţelor active implementate cu un singur tranzistor MOS.
Capitolul 4 este un review al topologiilor de inductanţe active
implementate cu două tranzistoare, constituind esenţa prezentului
material.
Capitolul 5 este dedicat inductanţelor active implementate cu
trei tranzistoare, având o întindere mult mai redusă decât capitolul
anterior.
Materialul propus oferă un background suficient pe direcţia inductanţelor active, pentru aplicaţiile RF, conţinând totodată o bibliografie relevantă pentru domeniul abordat.

The goal is to illustrate new errors about using the figures-of-merit NF and IIP, by investigating an AGC-less microwatt ultrawideband gm-boosted CMOS RF system with noise/distortion cancellation. The system composed of limiter and LNA is designed for 0.3–10.7 GHz at 1.8 V. Thanks to the limiter, the impact of noises and distortions is cancelled and the LNA acts linear without any saturation or block, as well as, it becomes AGC-less. Additionally, achievements prove that NF and IIP sometimes can be accompanied by error, hence engineers must always consider all aspects of a system together during their evaluations. Although this work is not experimental, it applies different methods such as “Regenerating”, “Comparing Calculations with Simulations” and “Monte Carlo” to demonstrate the reliability of achievements for applying in a SAW-less RFIC.

{{{{{ Keywords: RFIC, Limiter, Ultrawideband (UWB), Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), SAW-less, AGC-less, Microwatt, Noise and Distortion Cancellation, gm-Boosting, T‐Match, π‐Match, CMOS, Figure-of-Merit, Noise Figure (NF) Error, Input Intercept Point (IIP) Error, IET Communications, Wiley, Shahab Shahrabadi }}}}}

See:
https://doi.org/10.1049/cmu2.12308

During this study, various narrowband single-ended inductive source degenerated Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) for GSM and S-band low earth orbit (LEO) space applications have been designed, simulated and compared using Mietec CMOS 0.7 μm process and the Cadence/BSIM3v3. To get more realistic results, parasitic effects due to layout have been calculated and added to the simulations. Also, considering the inductive source degenerative topology, most of the attention is given on the modeling of planar spiral inductor by lumped element circuits. Moreover to decrease the substrate effects, the inductors have been surrounded by grounded guard rings and have patterned ground shield (PGS) under them. The simulation results of LNA including the parasitic effects indicate a forward gain of 9 dB with noise figure of 4.5 dB while drawing 18 mW from+3 V supply at 2210 MHz. The area occupied is 1.8 mm×1.6 mm with pads, 1.3 mm×1.2 mm without pads.

Is presented in this paper a new Ultra Wide Band (UWB) transmitter circuit design to a small Vivaldi antenna for remote acquisition of vital signals through telemetry by microwaves. Recently, interest in research on generation and transmission of UWB pulses has increased, especially for application in the remote sensing of heartbeat signals (e.g. of an operator of a drilling rig in an industrial oil plant off-shore) and the measurement of respiration rate (e.g. of the crew of an aircraft. This technique consists of a transmitter (this work) and a receiver for perform telemetry for estimating the vital signs though detection of the movements of heart and lung. The system consists of a second Gaussian Pulse Generator (PG) circuit installed on a Vivaldi planar antenna. The circuit was designed using 180nm Mosis-IBM process and the planar antenna array was designed with copper and RO3206 substrate. Spice simulations show the generation of pulses with 156,6mVpp amplitudes and 200ps width, and a central frequency of 6GHz. The dynamic energy consumption is around 0.7pJ and average power consumption of 3mW per pulse using 2V power supply at pulse repetition rate (PRR) of 100MHz. The electromagnetic simulations show the Main Lobe with an average magnitude of 5.1dBi at 6GHz, and a beam angular width of the 138º x 62º.

Here it is proposed a conceptual model for geographic location of points in two dimensions, by the use of triangulation. The triangulation method here described operates on an Ultra-wideband (UWB) Timed-array module with center frequency of 4GHz. The technique consists in two arrays of planar antennas located at predetermined points, which serve as receptor for new portable UWB transmitter equipped with an omnidirectional planar antenna. The relative coordinates are then computed using proposed mathematical models. The transmitter circuit was designed using 180nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) – IBM (7WL_5LM_MA) process and the planar antennas were designed on FR-4 substrate. Post-Layout Spice circuit simulations show the generation of pulses with 94.5mVpp amplitudes and 514ps width. The consumption is around 677µW per pulse using a 1.8V power supply at 100MHz pulse repetition rate (PRR). 3D electromagnetic simulations were performed using CST Microwave Studio 2011, with an accuracy of less than 0.1m.

... The circuit consists of a flip-chip assembly of a BAW Solidly Mounted Resonator (SMR) die on the top of a BiCMOS 0.25µm chip. The potentialities of such filter architecture has been tested for the WCDMA standard. ... The Butterworth Van Dyke (BVD) electrical model (Fig. ...

A finite impulse response (FIR) equalizer utilizing 0.18 mum SiGe BiCMOS provides unparalleled performance as a building block for analog electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) applications. A new track-and-hold (T/H) topology improves on the existing performance limitations of the switched emitter follower (SEF) architecture. The new T/H achieves extended dynamic range, for higher input bandwidths, at lower power consumption. The FIR circuit has been included as a building block in the implementation of an analog EDC IC that is the world's first demonstration of 10.7 Gbit/s error free operation over 400 km of uncompensated SMF fiber.

As process nodes continue to shrink to improve transistor density and performance, it is causing an increase in resistance of interconnects. At higher voltages devices speed up even more, causing interconnect to become the frequency limiter. Relatively in every node the interconnect delays continue to increase. In High Speed designs timing optimization is done across several modes to coverage design for multiple PVT points. With growing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous driving, the need for high speed designs to be reliable and dependable at extreme conditions of high voltage and temperature continues to increase. Due to this the path profile across multiple PVT have changed with special focus on high voltage due to interconnect dominance. While most tools are capable of multi corner optimization, the increase in number of modes has challenges and more enhancements are needed to address interconnect. One such area is Interconnect scaling with repeater optimization at Section and Full chip levels. While previous papers have looked at several techniques to improve timing and slope for a given corner [1], [2], [3], this paper describes a formula to design the repeater solution to optimize delay scaling across different corners such as High Voltage and Typical Voltage to maximize performance.

In this paper, a miniature, multi-functional Si-based packaging technology which can reduce the size and cost and increase the performance of a wide range of millimeter wave systems is proposed. High density capacitors, low temperature coefficient resistors, high-Q inductors, low-loss transmission lines, filters and antennas can all be built within the Si package using standard semiconductor fabrication methods with very high manufacturing precision compared to conventional packaging technologies. Fine pitch metal bumps can be used to attach RF IC's and other components, while bonding can provide hermetic sealing where required. Vias through the Si package eliminates inductive bond wires and minimize parasitics at millimeter wave frequencies. By integrating both antenna and an RF IC in one single package, all high frequency signals are confined within the package and only baseband signals connected to the external package.

The importance of optical technology is reflected by it being one of Malaysia's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Strategic Research Areas. Analogous to the silicon chip, the impetus now is to achieve multi functionalities via high density integrated optical devices, with processing rates that are orders of magnitude faster compared to their electronics counterparts. These optical devices are generally based on light guiding channels in a multi-layer refractive index planar structure. They include optically passive structures/devices such as charmel waveguides and multiplexers as well as active ones, such as planar waveguide lasers and amplifiers. They have wide ranging applications, from communications to sensing as well as defence.

The dependence of erbium-doped fiber amplifier performance on amplifier self-saturation is studied experimentally by tuning the pump wavelength over a 5-nm band centered at 980 nm. Gain and noise figure are degraded at the peak pump absorption wavelength, which shows the strongest effect of amplifier self-saturation. It is shown experimentally that tuning the pump wavelength away from the peak pump absorption provides 1–2 dB improvement in pump-to-signal conversion. The effect of amplifier self-saturation is also dependent on the signal wavelength where high gain and noise figure penalties are obtained at the 1530-nm ( ± 5 nm) band.

Wideband multiwavelength Brillouin-Erbium fiber laser (BEFL) utilizing a linear cavity is presented, highlighting the usage of higher Brillouin and lower erbium doped-fiber pump powers to achieve higher lasing spectral bandwidth. A tuning range of 60 nm has been obtained from 1525 to 1585 nm. The dependency of the Stokes signal tuning range on the laser's pumping power is also elaborated. The wide tuning range of the proposed BEFL has potential in dense wavelength division multiplexing communication systems.

This paper presents a new beamforming transmitter, Ultra Wide Band (UWB) pulse generator for contactless radar monitoring applications of vital signals. The system consists of a programmable delay circuit (PDC or τ), UWB pulse generator circuit and an array of Vivaldi planar antennas. Also, a new CMOS PDC controller is developed in order to provide pulse beamforming. The circuit was designed using 0.18μm CMOS process and the planar antenna array was designed with copper and FR-4 substrate. Spice circuit simulations show the generation of pulses with 136mVpp amplitudes and 350ps width. The generated pulse spectrum complies with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum mask in the 6-10GHz range. The dynamic energy consumption is around 0.4pJ per pulse using 2V power supply at pulse repetition rate (PRR) of 100MHz. Electromagnetic simulations using CST MW 2010 shows the Main Lobe with an average magnitude of 12dBi, 30° × 32° angular width, and a beam steering between -15° and +25° for θ, and between -20° and +20° for the φ angles. This system can be applied to human monitoring in hospitals, ports and airports, industrial plants - like refineries and oil platforms - and military units as well.

The research on the design of receiver front-ends for very high data-rate communication in the 60 GHz band in nanoscale Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies is going on for some time now. Although a multitude of 60 GHz front-ends have been published in recent years, they are not consequently optimized for low power consumption. Thus, these front-ends dissipate too much power for battery-powered applications like handheld devices, mobile phones, and wireless sensor networks. This article describes the design of a direct conversion receiver front-end that addresses the issue of power consumption, while at the same time permitting low cost (due to area minimization by the use of spiral inductors). It is implemented in a 65 nm CMOS technology. The realized front-end achieves a record power consumption of only 43 mW including low-noise amplifier (LNA), mixer, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a local oscillator (LO) buffer, and a baseband buffer (without this ...

Here it is proposed a conceptual model for geographic location of points in two dimensions, by the use of triangulation. The triangulation method here described operates on an Ultra-wideband (UWB) Timed-array module with center frequency of 4GHz. The technique consists in two arrays of planar antennas located at predetermined points, which serve as receptor for new portable UWB transmitter equipped with an omnidirectional planar antenna. The relative coordinates are then computed using proposed mathematical models. The transmitter circuit was designed using 180nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) – IBM (7WL_5LM_MA) process and the planar antennas were designed on FR-4 substrate. Post-Layout Spice circuit simulations show the generation of pulses with 94.5mVpp amplitudes and 514ps width. The consumption is around 677µW per pulse using a 1.8V power supply at 100MHz pulse repetition rate (PRR). 3D electromagnetic simulations were performed using CST Microwave Studio 2011, ...

In this paper, we propose a simple approach for achieving multiwavelength tunable Brillouin-Erbium fiber lasers utilizing fiber loop mirror technique. The impact of Brillouin gain contributed by the change of single-mode fiber length on the number of channels is explained. A low threshold operation of 3.5, 4 and 8 mW is achieved at 25, 8.8 and 1.9 km respectively. Simultaneous oscillation of 20, 21 and 35 channels with equally channel spacing of 0.088 nm is obtained at the optimum Brillouin pump power and Brillouin pump wavelength for 1.9, 8.8 and 25 km respectively.

... Shinwon Kang, Jun-Chau Chien, and Ali M. Niknejad ... As the LC VCO frequency increases up to 100GHz, the Q of accumulation-mode MOS (AMOS) varactors is significantly degraded and goes down to 3~4 in this process [6], but the Q of inductors increases. ...

Liquid crystal-based integrated optical devices offer the potential for high speed and dynamically tunable optical switches in modern telecommunications networks. Here, electrically tunable devices have major advantages over their thermal counterparts, with superior response times and low operating voltages (~100V). Our approach to achieving such devices is to fabricate planar optical waveguides with integrated Bragg gratings via direct UV writing1 into silica-on-silicon samples with evanescent field coupling into a liquid crystal overlay through an etched window (Fig. 1(a)). Such electrically tunable devices work on the principle of shifting the Bragg wavelength by modifying the effective index of a waveguide in a multilayer substrate. Electrically controlled liquid crystal birefringence modifies the waveguide effective index, producing a Bragg wavelength shift. In our early samples, Merck 18523 nematic liquid crystal is used as it has a compatible refractive index to silica (n=1.49 at λ=1550nm). Homeotropic alignment of the liquid crystal is provided by application of a surfactant layer.

We demonstrate a continuous wave tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator in a Fabry-Perot cavity consisting of a 500-m highly nonlinear fiber. In this work, the pump propagates in both directions together with the signal, thus making full use of its parametric gain. The resultant laser peak power is uneven across the wavelength range of interest due to wavelength-dependent phase modulation by the single-mode fiber sections in the cavity. This can be solved by filtering the idler spectral component from the oscillating cavity.

In this work, we present an alternative approach in which a groove is cut using a polishing saw blade to give a vertical, high optical quality trench. Optical waveguides are then UV written to allow evanescent lateral access of the mode to a fluid placed in the trench. This seemingly subtle change in geometry provides greatly increased flexibility to tailor the interaction between the optical mode and the surrounding material, by, for example, changing the mode size and the allowing couplers or tapers to be used.

We demonstrate a simplified algorithm to manifest the contribution of amplified spontaneous emission in variable gain-flattened Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The detected signal power at the input and output ports of EDFA comprises of both signal and noise. The generated amplified spontaneous emission from EDFA cannot be differentiated by photodetector which leads to underestimation of the targeted gain value. This gain penalty must be taken into consideration in order to obtain the accurate gain level. By taking the average gain penalty within the dynamic gain range, the targeted output power is set higher than the desired level. Thus, the errors are significantly reduced to less than 0.15 dB from 15 dB to 30 dB desired gain values.