Key Specifications and Implementation of WCDMA Receiver
Bala Ramachandran, John Vasa, Aravind Loke
Conexant Systems Inc., 4311 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Abstract - Third-generation (3G) mobile systems present unique
challenges in the radio/analog front-end design of a cellular handset.
This paper presents key RF receiver requirements and
implementation challenges for a 3G Code Division Multiple Access
(WCDMA) system based on the Third Generation Partnership
Project (3GPP) specifications. Measured results of a WCDMA
receiver ASIC are presented for key receiver parameters.
INTRODUCTION
3GPP defines the key technical specifications of the WCDMA
system and this paper presents a detailed analysis of the radio
specifications per 3GPP 25.101 [I]. Per 3GPP, the following paired
bands of operation are defined for frequency division duplex (FDD)
mode of operation in 3” generation mobile systems:
Downlink (Base Station to Mobile): 21 10-2170 MHz
Uplink (Mobile to Base Station): 1920-1980 MHz
The channel bandwidth is 5 MHz and the channel raster is 200 kHz.
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
In a wideband CDMA system, all users can share the same
frequency and transmit at the same time. Interference between
different users is minimized by separation through unique
orthogonal codes. The downlink signal in WCDMA consists of
quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulated carrier where the I
and Q branches are spread to the chip rate by orthogonal variable
spreading code (OVSF) and subsequently scrambled by a complex
code. This data is band-limited with a root raised cosine (RRC)
Nyquist filter before up-conversion [2].
The composite down-link WCDMA channel consists of a
common pilot channel (CPICH), a common paging channel
(PCCPCH), sync channel (SCH), a paging indicator channel (PICH),
and the actual information bearing traffic channel also known as the
dedicated physical channel (DPCH). The remaining users sharing the
same frequency channel constitute orthogonal channel noise (OCNS)
[21.
Therefore, the composite signal from the base station 131 can be
mathematically represented as:
CPICH- E, PCCPCH- E, SCH- E , DPCH- Ec PICH- E ,
-t-+ +- +-
‘0: ‘Or ‘or ‘or ‘or
KEY RECEIVER SPECIFICATIONS
The key receiver RF specifications of the mobile per 3GPP
specification are outlined below:
Reference sensitivity level:
io,= -104.7 dBmN.84 MHz,
DPCH-Ec = -1 I7 dBd3.84 MHz
Maximum input level:
for= -25 dBd3.84 M z ,
DPCH-Ec/Ioor = -19 dB
0-7803-6412-0/0I/$10.0002001 IEEE.
Adjacent channel selectivity:
io,= -92.7 dBd3.84 MHz,
DPCH-Ec = -I 03 dBd3.84 MHz,
iooc(modulated)= -52 dBm at f5 MHz offset
Inter-modulation characteristics: Two interfering signals at I O
MHz (CW blocker) and 20 MHz (modulated blocker) offsets
are present at the input of the receiver, each being equal to 4 6
dBm and the desired signal, io,= -103.7 dBmN.84 MHz .
In-band blocking characteristics: Modulated blockers are at 10
MHz and 15 MHz offsets are present at the input of the receiver
and the desired signal, jsr= -103.7 dBd3.84 M z .
Out-of-band blocking characteristics: Continuous wave (CW)
blockers are specified according to the profile in Figure 2 and
the desired signal, for= -103.7 dB~d3.84MHz .
Reference Sensitivity Level
The reference sensitivity level sets the maximum tolerable
cascaded noise figure (NF) of the receiver. In WCDMA, the data to
be transmitted is spread over a wide bandwidth equal to the chip rate
(3.84 Mcps in this case), and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is
improved by the spreading ratio also known as the processing gain
(PG) of the system. The maximum tolerable noise IN allowed at the
1
receiver can be calculated from:
Chip Rate
[“;-E *
Eb Informatim Data Rate
DPCH- = (2)
Nt IOC
-
I0r
DPCH-Ec is the received strength of the traffic channel
(dedicated physical channel), i DT is the composite received signal
strength at the antenna and Iocis the maximum allowable noise plus
interference. The required DPCH E,/N, can be determined from the
modem performance under static propagation conditions using the
additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) as a source of interference.
OCNS- Ec From the 3GPP specification, to meet the bit error rate (BER) of lo”,
+-=I (1) the EJ” is determined as 7.38 dB. This includes the coding gain
‘or (U3 rate convolutional code for voice only) and baseband
implementation losses.
The processing gain equals 101og,,((3.84 x lo6)/ (12.2 x IO’)) =
24.98 dB for the reference 3GPP downlink channel. Therefore, the
maximum noise I_ can be calculated as:
I, (allowable) = -10.3 -t 25 - 106.7 - 7.38 = -99.4 dBd3.84 MHz
Hence, signal to noise ratio (SNR) to meet BER of lO.’is -7.3 dB
The total noise includes:
Thermal noise (kTB) in 3.84 MHz bandwidth (-108.05 dBm)
Noise figure (NF) of the receiver front end and
Transmitter (TX) noise floor in the receiver (U)band.
In a full duplex system like WCDMA, where the transmitter
and the receiver can be ON simultaneously, the transmitter noise
floor in receive band can potentially degrade the sensitivity. The
49
transmitter noise floor must be at-least 10 dB below thermal noise
(-1 18 dBm), so that the receiver sensitivity is not significantly
degraded. Typical available duplex filters reject the noise in
receive band by =45 dB, hence, receive band noise floor at the
power amplifier output must be -139 dBm/Hz or less. Hence,
Thermal Noise + NF(allowab1e) = -99.46dBd3.84 MHz (3)
Therefore, the maximum allowable noise figure (NF) of the
receiver chain is 8.59 dB. Accounting for front-end losses of 3.5
dB (typical duplex filter and band switch), cascaded NF of 5 dB is
tolerable at the LNA input.
Maximum Input Level
Depending on the distance of the mobile from the base station,
the received signal at the antenna can range from a minimum level of
-106.7 dBm to a maximum input level of -25 dBm. Therefore, the
minimum dynamic range requirement is 83 dB. The composite
downlink signal consists of multiple traffic channels (spread by
unique Walsh codes) in addition to the pilot, sync, and paging
channels. This composite signal has a high crest factor and this
implies that at i = -25 dBd3.84 MHz, the receiver needs to have
Or
sufficient headroom to avoid clipping and generating distortion. The
worst-case peak-to-average ratio (PAR) for 16 traffic channels is
estimated as 14dB and this needs to be accounted in the receiver
link budget. A simple scheme to avoid distortion is to bypass the
LNA at high signal strengths above sensitivity. This also reduces the
dynamic range requirements of the IF variable gain amplifier (VGA).
Adjacent Channel Selectivity
The adjacent channel selectivity defines the ability of the receiver
to reject an adjacent channel interferer. The interferer is at 5 MHz
offset and the received signal strength i o r = -92.7 dBd3.84 MHz.
Since the signal strength is higher than the sensitivity by =15 dB, the
thermal noise contribution from the front end is negligible. To meet
the BER requirement of lo”, the total noise allowable is 1%= -92.7 +
7.3 = -85.4 dBd3.84 MHz. Because the adjacent channel interferer
equals -52 dBd3.84 MHz, the minimum selectivity required is
=33 dB. In a classic super heterodyne realization of a receiver, this is
typically achieved with a combination of IF surface acoustic wave
(SAW) filter and analog base-band filtering.
Inter-Modulation Spurious Response Attenuation
The inter-modulation response attenuation is a measure of the
immunity of the mobile against interferers that produce a spurious
response within the channel bandwidth. This specification sets the
cascaded input referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) of the
receiver. Since, the desired signal is 3 dB above the sensitivity level,
the total noise allowable to meet a BER requirement of 10 equals I_
= -103.7 + 7.3 = -96.4 dBd3.84 MHz. This total noise includes the
thermal noise, noise figure of the receiver and the inter-modulation
‘distortion (IMD) noise. The thermal noise and the IMD noise are un-
correlated with each other and hence add in power. Hence, total IMD
noise allowable is calculated as:
IMD noise (allowable) = -99.4dBd3.84 MHz
(4)
In CDMA systems, since the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX)
can be ON simultaneously, the TX signal continuously leaks through
the duplex filter and is always present at the LNA input. The TX
signal has non-constant envelope because of band limiting and by
the process of cross-modulation transfers the amplitude variation to
the CW blocker at frequency offset w,. In case of WCDMA,
difference between o,and envelope frequency w, is greater than the
RX signal bandwidth of +/-2.5 MHz and hence, there is no
50
degradation in receiver SNR due to cross-modulation. In a classic
super-heterodyne receiver, the local oscillator (LO) phase noise is
down-converted to an intermediate frequency via reciprocal mixing
as shown in Figure 1. [4]. The in-band noise that results from the
mixing of the two tones with the local oscillator (LO) is assumed
negligible. To satisfy this criterion, the integrated phase noise at 10
MHz k2.5 MHz is required to be Phase noise (dBcMz)
= - (Blocker - desired signal + lOlog,,(BW) + margin + 3 - SNR)
= -129 dBcMz. It is assumed that both tones contribute equally to
the reciprocal mixing, hence, contribution from each is required to
be 3 dB below the total allowed and a margin of 10 dB is assumed.
Therefore, cascaded IIP3 of the receiver chain equals:
Cascaded IIP3=Tone+(Tone-IMD(allowable))/2=-19.23dBm (5)
WCDMACHANNEL-’ fi- 10 MHz
FREQUENCY (I)
Figure. 1. Reciprocal Mixing Effect due to blocker
In-Band Blocker at 10 and 15 MHz offsets
The in-band blocker specification determines the selectivity
available against blockers within the receiver bandwidth of 60 MHz.
The desired signal is at 3 dB above sensitivity and the modulated
blockers at 10 MHz offset and 15 MHz offset are -56 dBd3.84
MHz and 4 4 dBd3.84 MHz respectively. This specification
essentially sets the compression point of the receiver chain and
allowable Local Oscillator (LO) phase noise. LO phase-noise at 10
MHz k2.5 MHz is typically -129dBcMz to meet the IMD
specification and hence does not add to the total allowable noise.
The modulated blocker consists of multiple traffic channels along
with the pilot, sync, and paging channels. Therefore, the receiver
needs to have sufficient headroom to avoid clipping and generate
distortion. The worst-case PAR is 14 dB as discussed before and this
margin needs to be accounted in the receiver budget.
Out of Band ContinuousWave (CW) Blocker
In conventional cellular systems, the out-of-band blocker
determines the immunity of the receiver against interferers from
other systems. This govems the pre-select filter rejections as well as
dmensitizatiodblocking effects in the receiver. The LO phase noise
also contributes to this effect via reciprocal mixing. However,
because of the full duplex nature of WCDMA, the TX signal
continuously leaks through the duplex filter and is always present at
the LNA input. The TX leakage at the duplex spacing frequency
(190 MHz) can inter-modulate with the out-of-band CW blocker at
half the duplex spacing away (95 MHz) and generate in-band IMD
within the receiver bandwidth. This degrades the SNR and thus, the
LlVA and mixer IIP3 must be sufficiently high to meet this
specification.
 random access channel request (RACH) [l]. The tolerance of open
1 < f < 2025 2255 < f < 12750
loop power control range is ltr9 dB and includes the total variations
-15dBm -1 5 dBm of the passive and active elements in the transmitter and receiver.
-6 1 2025 < f < 2050 2230 < f < 2255 Therefore, the RSSI value needs to be estimated accurately.
-20
A quadrature demodulator then converts the output of the VGA
r? into analog in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) signals. A Voltage
-40
-
0
controlled oscillator (VCO) with a e 2 circuit is included in the ASIC
m
g -60 to generate the LO signal for the demodulator. The noise figure and
- IIP3 of each block in the chain are optimized to meet the system
:
3 -80 requirements per 3GPP specification.
2
-
3
::-100 MEASURED RESULTS
-120
- z z The block level specifications of each of the functional blocks are
0
N
0
N shown in Table 1 below. Typical losses are assumed for the duplexer,
RF SAW, and IF SAW filters. Some of the key RX ASIC parameters
evaluated include the cascaded noise figure, cascaded IIP3, and
Figure 2. Out-of Band Blockers for WCDMA dynamic range. The current consumption of the entire receiver front
end equals 42mA in the high gain, high linearity mode and 36mA in
For Class 111 terminals intended for voice/data applications, the the bypass mode of operation where the LNA is bypassed and thus
maximum TX power at the antenna is 24 dBm with an accuracy of switched out of the circuit. All cascaded measurements were
+1/-2 dB. Typical duplex filters isolate the TX signal by =49 dB, and performed at Vet= 3.0 V, Ta = 25' C, IF = 190 MHz and high side
thus, the TX signal hitting the LNA is -24 dBm. The out-of-band injection of the LO (2300 - 2360 MHz) with LO power = -10 dBm.
CW blocker is specified at a level of either 4 4 dBm, -30 dBm, or -
15 dBm, depending on the frequency of the blocker as shown in
Figure 2. The worst case occurs when the blocker frequency is 2025
MHz (-15 dBm). The blocker is attenuated -25 dB by the duplexer
. .. .. High Gain Mode - Bypass Mode

and hits the LNA at a level of =-40dBm. Since, the desired signal is 20

3 dB above sensitivity, the total noise allowable to meet BER of

equals 1%= -103.7 + 7.3 = -96.4 dBd3.84 MHz. This noise includes 15
thermal noise and noise figure contribution from the front end and -I
IMD noise due to the mixing of the CW blocker and TX signal. The g 10
thermal noise and IMD noise are un-correlated with each other and m
LT

hence add in power. Therefore,

5

Total IMD noise (allowable) = 199.4 d B d 3 . 8 4 MHz (6)

0
The allowable noise in the LNA equals (total IMD noise 2100 2110 2120 2130 2140 2150 2160 2170 2180
(allowable) - duplexer insertion loss (IL) - 6) = -107.9 dBm where Frequency (MHz)
the duplexer loss = 2.5 dB and 6 dB is assuming equal contribution
from the LNA and mixer. The IMD product generated increases 2 Figure 4. Cascaded Noise Figure of RX ASIC
dB for every dB increase in the CW blocker level and 1 dB for every
dB increase in the TX signal power. Therefore,

LNA IIP3 = Tone + (Tone - IMD (allowable) in LNA)L? (7)

= 1.95dBm 1 - - * ..High Gain Mode Bypass Mode I
15
The RF SAW filter between the LNA and the mixer rejects the TX
signal by 20 dB and the CW blocker by 12 dB. By a similar
10
approach, the required mixer IIP3 has been determined as -2 dBm.
e5
WCDMA RECEIVER ASIC s
0
em o
The receiver ASIC is an integrated super heterodyne receiver 3
designed for use in WCDMA applications. It incorporates all the 3 -5
active functional blocks required to implement a receiver as shown
in Figure 3.The duplexer is followed by an LNA that has two modes -10

of operation: high gain mode and Bypass mode. Following the LNA
is the RF SAW filter that rejects the image signal and the TX
leakage amplified by the LNA. The mixer converts the RF signal to 2100 2110 2120 2130 2140 2150 2160 2170 2180
Frequency (MHz)
an IF signal. An IF SAW filter then selects the desired user from all
the users present in the channel bandwidth. A VGA is used to
accommodate varying signal strengths at the antenna and to maintain Figure 5. Cascaded IIP3 of RX ASIC
a constant and sufficient signal level into the demodulator. This
necessitates a continuous analog VGA with a minimum of 90dB
dynamic range. Further, as a part of open loop power control, the
received wide-band power is estimated from the signal strength
(RSSI) and is used to set the transmitter power during the initial

51
 Table 1 . RX ASIC Block Level Specifications
Vcc=2.?V - -Vcc=3.OV - . - -vcc- = 3.3 v
60 LNA RF MIXER IF VGA Units
50 SAW‘ SAW‘ +IlQ
40 16 -2.5 9 -9 54 dB
30
20
3 33 0 33 -50 dBm
5 10

s o 1. External to RX ASIC
-10

-20
-30
-40

-50

I
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
ControlVoltage (Volts)
~

Figure 6. VGA Gain vs. Control Voltage

WCDMA IF FILTER

Pl

Figure 3. Block Diagram 01‘ WCDMA RX ASIC

SUMMARY REFERENCES

The key RF specifications and implementation challenges in a [I] 3G TS 25.101 V3.3.1 (2000-06), Technical Specification,
WCDMA system based on 3GPP specifications are analyzed and 3‘d Generation Partnership Project, UE Radio
corresponding receiver requirements are derived. The functional Transmission and Reception (FDD), (Release 99).
block specifications and measured performance results of a super
heterodyne receiver ASIC are presented. The current [2] 3G TS 25.213 V3.1.1 (1999-12), Technical Specification,
consumption for the entire RX ASIC is very low in the high gain 31d Generation Partnership Project, UE Spreading and
mode and further reduced in the bypass mode enabling increased Modulation (FDD).
“standby time”.
[3] 3G TR 25.942 V2.1.3 (2000-03), Technical Report, 3d
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Generation Partnership Project, RF System Scenarios,
(Release 99).
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to
Bipul Agarwal, Keith Rampmeier and Brian Daly for their [4] Behzad Razavi, RF Microelectronics, Prentice Hall Series
contribution towards this project. in Mobile Communications, 1998.

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