EECS 142

Lecture 9: Intercept Point, Gain Compression and

Blocking
Prof. Ali M. Niknejad
University of California, Berkeley
Copyright c 2005 by Ali M. Niknejad
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 1/29 p. 1/29
Gain Compression
V
i
V
o
dV
o
dV
i
V
i
V
o
dV
o
dV
i
The large signal input/output relation can display gain
compression or expansion. Physically, most amplier
experience gain compression for large signals.
The small-signal gain is related to the slope at a given
point. For the graph on the left, the gain decreases for
increasing amplitude.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 2/29 p. 2/29
1 dB Compression Point

V
o
V
i

V
i
P
o,1 dB
P
i,1 dB
Gain compression occurs because eventually the
output signal (voltage, current, power) limits, due to the
supply voltage or bias current.
If we plot the gain (log scale) as a function of the input
power, we identify the point where the gain has dropped
by 1 dB. This is the 1 dB compression point. Its a very
important number to keep in mind.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 3/29 p. 3/29
Apparent Gain
Recall that around a small deviation, the large signal
curve is described by a polynomial
s
o
= a
1
s
i
+ a
2
s
2
i
+ a
3
s
3
i
+
For an input s
i
= S
1
cos(
1
t), the cubic term generates
S
3
1
cos
3
(
1
t) = S
3
1
cos(
1
t)
1
2
(1 + cos(2
1
t))
= S
3
1
_
1
2
cos(
1
t) +
2
4
cos(
1
t) cos(2
1
t)
_
Recall that 2 cos a cos b = cos(a + b) + cos(a b)
= S
3
1
_
1
2
cos(
1
t) +
1
4
(cos(
1
t) + cos(3
1
t))
_
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 4/29 p. 4/29
Apparent Gain (cont)
Collecting terms
= S
3
1
_
3
4
cos(
1
t) +
1
4
cos(3
1
t)
_
The apparent gain of the system is therefor
G =
S
o,
1
S
i,
1
=
a
1
S
1
+
3
4
a
3
S
3
1
S
1
= a
1
+
3
4
a
3
S
2
1
= a
1
_
1 +
3
4
a
3
a
1
S
2
1
_
= G(S
1
)
If a
3
/a
1
< 0, the gain compresses with increasing
amplitude.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 5/29 p. 5/29
1-dB Compression Point
Lets nd the input level where the gain has dropped by
1 dB
20 log
_
1 +
3
4
a
3
a
1
S
2
1
_
= 1 dB
3
4
a
3
a
1
S
2
1
= 0.11
S
1
=

4
3

a
1
a
3

0.11 = IIP3 9.6 dB

The term in the square root is called the third-order
intercept point (see next few slides).
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 6/29 p. 6/29
Intercept Point IP
2
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
dBc
IP
2
P
in
(dBm)
P
out
(dBm)
IIP
2
OIP
2
dBc
10
20
10
F
u
n
d
2
n
d
The extrapolated point where IM
2
= 0 dBc is known as
the second order intercept point IP
2
.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 7/29 p. 7/29
Properties of Intercept Point IP
2
Since the second order IM distortion products increase
like s
2
i
, we expect that at some power level the distortion
products will overtake the fundamental signal.
The extrapolated point where the curves of the
fundamental signal and second order distortion product
signal meet is the Intercept Point (IP
2
).
At this point, then, by denition IM
2
= 0 dBc.
The input power level is known as IIP
2
, and the output
power when this occurs is the OIP
2
point.
Once the IP
2
point is known, the IM
2
at any other
power level can be calculated. Note that for a dB
back-off from the IP
2
point, the IM
2
improves dB for dB
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 8/29 p. 8/29
Intercept Point IP
3
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10
-30
-20
-10
0
10
dBc
IP
3
P
in
(dBm)
P
out
(dBm)
IIP
3
OIP
3
dBc
20
F
u
n
d
T
h
i
r
d
The extrapolated point where IM
3
= 0 dBc is known as
the third-order intercept point IP
3
.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 9/29 p. 9/29
Properties of Intercept Point IP
3
Since the third order IM distortion products increase like
s
3
i
, we expect that at some power level the distortion
products will overtake the fundamental signal.
The extrapolated point where the curves of the
fundamental signal and third order distortion product
signal meet is the Intercept Point (IP
3
).
At this point, then, by denition IM
3
= 0 dBc.
The input power level is known as IIP
3
, and the output
power when this occurs is the OIP
3
point.
Once the IP
3
point is known, the IM
3
at any other
power level can be calculated. Note that for a 10 dB
back-off from the IP
3
point, the IM
3
improves 20 dB.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 10/29 p. 10/29
Intercept Point Example
From the previous graph we see that our amplier has
an IIP
3
= 10 dBm.
Whats the IM
3
for an input power of P
in
= 20 dBm?
Since the IM
3
improves by 20 dB for every 10 dB
back-off, its clear that IM
3
= 20 dBc
Whats the IM
3
for an input power of P
in
= 110 dBm?
Since the IM
3
improves by 20 dB for every 10 dB
back-off, its clear that IM
3
= 200 dBc
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 11/29 p. 11/29
Calculated IIP2/IIP3
We can also calculate the IIP points directly from our
power series expansion. By denition, the IIP2 point
occurs when
IM
2
= 1 =
a
2
a
1
S
i
Solving for the input signal level
IIP
2
= S
i
=
a
1
a
2
In a like manner, we can calculate IIP
3
IM
3
= 1 =
3
4
a
3
a
1
S
2
i
IIP
3
= S
i
=

4
3

a
1
a
3

A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 12/29 p. 12/29

Blocker or Jammer
Signal
Interference
channel
LNA
Consider the input spectrum of a weak desired signal
and a blocker
S
i
= S
1
cos
1
t
. .
Blocker
+s
2
cos
2
t
. .
Desired
We shall show that in the presence of a strong
interferer, the gain of the system for the desired signal
is reduced. This is true even if the interference signal is
at a substantially difference frequency. We call this
interference signal a jammer.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 13/29 p. 13/29
Blocker (II)
Obviously, the linear terms do not create any kind of
desensitization. The second order terms, likewise,
generate second harmonic and intermodulation, but not
any fundamental signals.
In particular, the cubic term a
3
S
3
i
generates the jammer
desensitization term
S
3
i
= S
3
1
cos
3

1
t + s
3
2
cos
3

2
t + 3S
2
1
s
2
cos
2

1
t cos
2
t+
3s
2
1
S
2
cos
2

2
t cos
1
t
The rst two terms generate cubic and third harmonic.
The last two terms generate fundamental signals at
1
and
2
. The last term is much smaller, though, since
s
2
S
1
.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 14/29 p. 14/29
Blocker (III)
The blocker term is therefore given by
a
3
3S
2
1
s
2
1
2
cos
2
t
This term adds or subtracts from the desired signal.
Since a
3
< 0 for most systems (compressive
non-linearity), the effect of the blocker is to reduce the
gain
App Gain =
a
1
s
2
+ a
3
3
2
S
2
1
s
2
s
2
= a
1
+ a
3
3
2
S
2
1
= a
1
_
1 +
3
2
a
3
a
1
S
2
1
_
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 15/29 p. 15/29
Out of Band 3 dB Desensitization
Lets nd the blocker power necessary to desensitize
the amplier by 3 dB. Solving the above equation
20 log
_
1 +
3
2
a
3
a
1
S
2
1
_
= 3 dB
We nd that the blocker power is given by
P
OB
= P
1 dB
+ 1.2 dB
Its now clear that we should avoid operating our
amplier with any signals in the vicinity of P
1 dB
, since
gain reduction occurs if the signals are larger. At this
signal level there is also considerable intermodulation
distortion.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 16/29 p. 16/29
Series Inversion
Often its easier to nd a power series relation for the
input in terms of the output. In other words
S
i
= a
1
S
o
+ a
2
S
2
o
+ a
3
S
3
o
+
But we desire the inverse relation
S
o
= b
1
S
i
+ b
2
S
2
i
+ b
3
S
3
i
+
To nd the inverse relation, we can substitute the above
equation into the original equation and equate
coefcient of like powers.
S
i
= a
1
(b
1
S
i
+ b
2
S
2
i
+ b
3
S
3
i
+ ) + a
2
( )
2
+ a
3
( )
3
+
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 17/29 p. 17/29
Inversion (cont)
Equating linear terms, we nd, as expected, that
a
1
b
1
= 1, or b
1
= 1/a
1
.
Equating the square terms, we have
0 = a
1
b
2
+ a
2
b
2
1
b
2
=
a
2
b
2
1
a
1
=
a
2
a
3
1
Finally, equating the cubic terms we have
0 = a
1
b
3
+ a
2
2b
1
b
2
+ a
3
b
3
1
b
3
=
2a
2
2
a
5
1

a
3
a
4
1
Its interesting to note that if one power series does not
have cubic, a
3
0, the inverse series has cubic due to
the rst term above.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 18/29 p. 18/29
Cascade
IIP2
A
IIP3
A
IIP2
B
IIP3
B
IIP2
IIP3
G
A
V
G
A
P
Another common situation is that we cascade two
non-linear systems, as shown above. we have
y = f(x) = a
1
x + a
2
x
2
+ a
3
x
3
+
z = g(y) = b
1
y + b
2
y
2
+ b
3
y
3
+
Wed like to nd the overall relation
z = c
1
x + c
2
x
2
+ c
3
x
3
+
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 19/29 p. 19/29
Cascade Power Series
To nd c
1
, c
2
, , we simply substitute one power series
into the other and collect like powers.
The linear terms, as expected, are given by
c
1
= b
1
a
1
= a
1
b
1
The square terms are given by
c
2
= b
1
a
2
+ b
2
a
2
1
The rst term is simply the second order distortion
produced by the rst amplier and amplied by the
second amplier linear term. The second term is the
generation of second order by the second amplier.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 20/29 p. 20/29
Cascade Cubic
Finally, the cubic terms are given by
c
3
= b
1
a
3
+ b
2
2a
1
a
2
+ b
3
a
3
1
The rst and last term have a very clear origin. The
middle terms, though, are more interesting. They arise
due to second harmonic interaction. The second order
distortion of the rst amplier can interact with the linear
term through the second order non-linearity to produce
cubic distortion.
Even if both ampliers have negligible cubic,
a
3
= b
3
0, we see the overall amplier can generate
cubic through this mechanism.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 21/29 p. 21/29
Cascade Example
In the above amplier, we can decompose the
non-linearity as a cascade of two non-linearities, the G
m
non-linearity
i
d
= G
m1
v
in
+ G
m2
v
2
in
+ G
m3
v
3
in
+
And the output impedance non-linearity
v
o
= R
1
i
d
+ R
2
i
2
d
+ R
3
i
3
d
+
The output impedance can be a non-linear resistor load
(such as a current mirror) or simply the load of the
device itself, which has a non-linear component.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 22/29 p. 22/29
IIP2 Cascade
Commonly wed like to know the performance of a
cascade in terms of the overall IIP2. To do this, note
that IIP2 = c
1
/c
2
c
2
c
1
=
b
1
a
2
+ b
2
a
2
1
b
1
a
1
=
a
2
a
1
+
b
2
b
1
a
1
This leads to
1
IIP2
=
1
IIP2
A
+
a
1
IIP2
B
This is a very intuitive result, since it simply says that
we can input refer the IIP2 of the second amplier to
the input by the voltage gain of the rst amplier.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 23/29 p. 23/29
IIP2 Cascade Example
Example 1: Suppose the input ampliers of a cascade
has IIP2
A
= +0 dBm and a voltage gain of 20 dB. The
second amplier has IIP2
B
= +10 dBm.
The input referred IIP2
B
i
= 10 dBm20 dB = 10 dBm
This is a much smaller signal than the IIP2
A
, so clearly
the second amplier dominates the distortion. The
overall distortion is given by IIP2 12 dB.
Example 2: Now suppose IIP2
B
= +20 dBm. Since
IIP2
B
i
= 20 dBm20 dB = 0 dBm, we cannot assume
that either amplier dominates.
Using the formula, we see the actual IIP2 of the
cascade is a factor of 2 down, IIP2 = 3 dBm.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 24/29 p. 24/29
IIP3 Cascade
Using the same approach, lets start with
c
3
c
1
=
b
1
a
3
+ b
2
a
1
a
2
2 +b
3
a
3
1
b
a
a
1
=
_
a
3
a
1
+
b
3
b
1
a
2
1
+
b
2
b
1
2a
2
_
The last term, the second harmonic interaction term,
will be neglected for simplicity. Then we have
1
IIP3
2
=
1
IIP3
2
A
+
a
2
1
IIP3
2
B
Which shows that the IIP3 of the second amplier is
input referred by the voltage gain squared, or the power
gain.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 25/29 p. 25/29
LNA/Mixer Example
A common situation is an LNA and mixer cascade. The
mixer can be characterized as a non-linear block with a
given IIP2 and IIP3.
In the above example, the LNA has an
IIP3
A
= 10 dBm and a power gain of 20 dB. The mixer
has an IIP3
B
= 20 dBm.
If we input refer the mixer, we have
IIP3
B
i
= 20 dBm20 dB = 40 dBm.
The mixer will dominate the overall IIP3 of the system.
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 26/29 p. 26/29
Example: Disto in Long-Ch. MOS Amp
v
i
V
Q
I
D
= I
Q
+i
o
I
D
=
1
2
C
ox
W
L
(V
GS
V
T
)
2
i
o
+I
Q
=
1
2
C
ox
W
L
(V
Q
+v
i
V
T
)
2
Ignoring the output impedance we have
=
1
2
C
ox
W
L
_
(V
Q
V
T
)
2
+ v
2
i
+ 2v
i
(V
Q
V
T
)
_
= I
Q
..
dc
+C
ox
W
L
v
i
(V
Q
V
T
)
. .
linear
+
1
2
C
ox
W
L
v
2
i
. .
quadratic
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 27/29 p. 27/29
Ideal Square Law Device
An ideal square law device only generates 2nd order
distortion
i
o
= g
m
v
i
+
1
2
C
ox
W
L
v
2
i
a
1
= g
m
a
2
=
1
2
C
ox
W
L
=
1
2
g
m
V
Q
V
T
a
3
0
The harmonic distortion is given by
HD
2
=
1
2
a
2
a
1
v
i
=
1
4
g
m
V
Q
V
T
1
g
m
v
i
=
1
4
v
i
V
Q
V
T
HD
3
= 0
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 28/29 p. 28/29
Real MOSFET Device
0
200
400
600
Effective Field
M
o
b
i
l
i
t
y
Triode CLM DIBL SCBE
R
o
u
t
k

V
ds
(V)
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 1 2 3 4
The real MOSFET device generates higher order
distortion
The output impedance is non-linear. The mobility is
not a constant but a function of the vertical and
horizontal electric eld
We may also bias the device at moderate or weak
inversion, where the device behavior is more
exponential
There is also internal feedback
A. M. Niknejad University of California, Berkeley EECS 142 Lecture 9 p. 29/29 p. 29/29