ECE 265A – Winter 2019

Lecture 14
Receiver Architecture (1)

Vincent Leung

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 1

 Outline

 Band-select and Channel-select filters

o Receiver frequency translation
 Basic Heterodyne Receivers
o Image problem
o Sensitivity vs. selectivity
o Dual-conversion Rx
 Modern Heterodyne Rx
o Zero Second-IF: quadrature down-conversion
o Sliding-IF

Ref: Razavi text: page 155 – 178

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 2

 Channel select filter at RF

 As discussed before, cellular system is narrowband

o Signal bandwidth (180kHz to ~40MHz) is small compared to the
carrier frequency (1GHz to 6GHz). – “e.g., ”

 Transmitters must avoid their “leakage” to adjacent channels (ACPR)

 Receivers must be able to reject strong interferences (adjacent or
OOB), and detect small signals
 Can RF bandpass filters (BPF) solve these issues? NO!
o The required is too high*, and the filter must also be tunable as
channel frequency changes. “Channel selection filter at RF” is
impractical.

Transmitter Receiver

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 * To provide enough rejection, the filter Q could reach millions!! 3
 Band-select Filter

 RF Filter is relaxed to “band-select”* (but not doing “channel-select”)

 For example, “PCS” GSM RX = 1930-1990 MHz
o
o To provide a flat passband and sufficient rejection of OOB signals
(which are the strongest**), let’s say the required filter Q = 1000.
This can be accomplished through (passive) SAW filters.
 Channel-select filter should be applied at a more convenient (much
lower, or down-converted) frequency – next page
o All stages before channel-select filter must be sufficiently linear to
deal with the in-band jammers
OOB OOB
(band-select only)

* Conceptually, the “duplexer” (in a FDD system) is

performing this band-select filter function
** See Lecture 13, page 15
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 (frequency axis not drawn to scale) 4
 Loss of Band-Select Filter

 On a receiver
o As the band-select filter exists before the gain stages (LNA), its loss
directly translates to higher system NF, dB-per-dB (per Friis’
expression).
o Therefore, the band-select filter loss has a detrimental effects to the
receiver sensitivity (Lecture 6).
 On a transmitter
o The loss of the filter wastes the power of the PA
o For example, on a 1W ( ) PA, 1dB loss means
~200mW (20%) is dissipated within the filter.
o This is more current consumption than the entire receiver*!

* For the receiver power consumption, see

the table on page 9, Lecture 11.
If the “max. gain peak battery current” is
~50mA, and battery voltage is 3.3V, the
receiver power consumption is 165 mW.
(lossy) (lossy)
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 5
 Downconversion in Rx

 Channel-select filtering is easier if the center frequency (known as

intermediate frequency, “IF”) is much lower. For instance,
o
 This is accomplished by mixing the RF signal with an LO (local
oscillator) signal, such that
o
o where “IF” is the intermediate frequency
 When ( ), the receiver is called “heterodyne”.
Otherwise, it is called “homodyne” or “direct-conversion”.
 Typically, the LO frequency is programmable (with respect to the
channel location, by a PLL), so that the center-frequency of channel
select filter can be fixed.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 6

 Basic Heterodyne Receiver

 The frequency down-conversion can be understood as analog

“multiplication in the time-domain”
o

 The second term can be easily removed by low-pass filter

 Note that:
 The above operation can also be understood as “convolution in the
frequency-domain”.

−𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒊𝒏

𝑨𝒊𝒏 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕

+ 𝝓𝒊𝒏 𝒕
−𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝝎𝑳𝑶

−𝝎𝒊𝒏 − 𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝟎 𝝎𝒊𝒏 + 𝝎𝑳𝑶

−𝝎𝒊𝒏 + 𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝝎𝒊𝒏 − 𝝎𝑳𝑶
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 7
 Image Problem

 Mathematically,
 That means the mixer will also down-convert an undesired signal
(known as “image”, at ) to the same IF frequency.
o
o
o *Note that, the +/- sign, or the definitions of desired and image
signals, are interchangeable.
 This is potentially an interference problem (if equal or stronger jammers
exist at )  desired signal will be severely corrupted
o “Image-rejection” is therefore needed before the mixer
* One can also write:
• 𝜔 = 𝜔 − 2𝜔
• 𝜔 = 2𝜔 − 𝜔

“image” “desired”
𝝎𝑰𝑭 𝝎𝑰𝑭

𝑰𝑭 𝒊𝒎 𝑳𝑶 𝒊𝒏
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 8
 Image Problem (detailed)

 In general, the mixer output is given by:

o
( )
o
( )

 After lowpass filtering, only the following two terms remain:

( ) ( )
o
 If we assume (as shown in the figure below)
( ) ( )
o
 The two components will overlap (downconverted to the same freq), if
o
o

𝝎𝒊𝒎 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒙𝒎𝒊𝒙

𝒙𝑰𝑭
𝝎𝑰𝑭

𝝎𝑳𝑶
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 9
 Downconversion Examples (1 of 3)

 Case (1): Low-side injection

(LO freq is below the desired channel)

 Impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:
+𝝎𝑳𝑶 −𝝎𝑳𝑶  Signal at to (+ve freq)
𝟐 𝟐 𝑳𝑶
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (+ve freq)

 Similarly, impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:

 Signal at 𝟐 to 𝟐 𝑳𝑶 (-ve freq)
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (-ve freq)

Note that the freq axis is not “drawn to scale” (like 2 pages ago).
Try not to get confused by remembering that 𝜔 , 𝜔 and 𝜔 are
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 all at closely spaced high (RF) frequencies. 10
 Downconversion Examples (2 of 3)

 Case (2): High-side injection

(LO freq is above the desired channel)

 Impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:
+𝝎𝑳𝑶 −𝝎𝑳𝑶  Signal at 𝟐 to 𝟐 𝑳𝑶 (-ve freq)
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (-ve freq)

 Similarly, impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:

 Signal at 𝟐 to 𝟐 𝑳𝑶 (+ve freq)
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (+ve freq)
−𝝎𝟐 + 𝝎𝑳𝑶

−𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝑳𝑶
𝝎𝟏 − 𝝎𝑳𝑶

𝝎𝟐 − 𝝎𝑳𝑶

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 11

 Downconversion Example (3 of 3)

 Case (3): High/ Low-side injection?

depends on which of or is
 Specifically, the desired channel

 Impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:
 Signal at 𝟐 to 𝟐 𝑳𝑶 (+ve freq)
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (-ve freq)

 Similarly, impulse at 𝑳𝑶 shifts:

−𝝎𝟐 + 𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝝎𝟐 − 𝝎𝑳𝑶  Signal at to (-ve freq)
𝟐 𝟐 𝑳𝑶
 Signal at 𝟏 to 𝟏 𝑳𝑶 (+ve freq)

The two signals at and completely overlap each other

at the IF output. They are images of each other.
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 12
 Example (3) – a closer look
𝒇𝑩𝑾𝟏 𝒇𝑩𝑾𝟐
 When
at RF

𝒇𝟏 𝒇𝑳𝑶 𝒇𝟐

at IF
(or dc)

𝒇𝑳𝑶 − 𝒇𝟏 𝒇𝟐 − 𝒇𝑳𝑶
−𝝎𝑳𝑶
+𝝎𝑳𝑶 No overlap when:
• 𝑓 −𝑓 + <𝑓 −𝑓 −

𝒇𝑩𝑾𝟏 𝒇𝑩𝑾𝟐

at RF 𝒇𝑳𝑶 > 𝒇𝑳𝑶

𝒇𝟏 𝒇𝑳𝑶 𝒇𝟐

at IF
(or dc)

𝒇𝑳𝑶 − 𝒇𝟏 𝒇𝟐 − 𝒇𝑳𝑶

The two down-converted spectra “touch” when:

• 𝑓 −𝑓 + <𝑓 −𝑓 −
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 13
 Image Rejection

 The image problem can be solved by putting a filter (image-reject filter)

in front of the mixer.
 The filter should:
o have small loss in the desired band, but
o provides large attenuation at the image band
 The filter design will be easier if is big (see illustration of next page)
 The filter is typically put after the LNA, primarily for noise concern (Friis’)
o Implemented in (off-chip) SAW (to achieve the required selectivity)
o Off-chip means additional pads/ balls (area)
o LNA needs to drive 50Ω (complicated and power-hungry design)

“High-side injection”

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 14

 Image Rejection vs. Channel Selection

 Selection of  tradeoff
 aka “sensitivity” vs. “selectivity”

 To improve image rejection*, one wants: High IF

(* Thus better sensitivity)

 To improve channel selection**, one wants: Low IF

Filter has less rejection
for closer image

** Given the same Q, the low-freq filter

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 exhibits sharper rejection characteristic 15
(Thus better selectivity)
 Dual Conversion (Heterodyne) Rx

 If the trade-off between sensitivity and selectivity becomes

insurmountable, one may resort to two (or multiple) stages of down-
conversion
o Partial channel selection at progressively lower center frequencies
relax the Q requirement of each filter* (❶ and ❷)

❶ ❷

1. Let’s follow the signal chain. To start, the band-select filter rejects out-
of-band blockers and provides a little image rejection

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 * Note that since the channel select filters are fixed, 𝜔 is
16
made variable (channel-dependent)
 Dual Conversion Rx (2 of 3)

2. After LNA and image-reject filtering* (C), the first mixer (MX1) translates
the spectrum to first IF (D) Minor point:
BPF2
Image BPF3 see the spectrum
*BPF2 will have similar is flipped (due to
passband as BPF1, but (rejected)
high-side injection)
it will have much sharper
cutoff (more rejection, and
higher passband loss)
𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟏 𝝎 𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟏
𝑳𝑶𝟏

3. BPF3 performs partial channel selection (E). It relaxes the linearity

requirement of MX2, which translates the spectrum to second IF (F)
Jammers attenuated

𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟏 𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟐
𝝎𝑳𝑶𝟐
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 17
 Dual Conversion Rx (3 of 3)

4. BPF4 suppresses interferences to sufficiently low levels (G), for final channel
selection. IF amplifier scales the signal (to fit into the ADC dynamic range)

𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟐

 An optimum design scales both the NF and IP3 of each stage according to
the total gain preceding that stages. Roughly speaking:
 “1dB of (broadband) gain in front tightens IP3 spec by 1dB”
 Therefore, “every dB of gain requires 1dB of pre-filtering” – see next page

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 18

 Linearity Discussion

 In a cascade of stages,
o NF is most critical in the front end;
o Linearity is the most critical in the back end.
 If there is no filtering in front of the IF amplifier, and there are 40dB of
gain* from A to G, (as denoted by the figure below)
o IIP3 for the IF amplifier must be at least 40dB higher than that of
LNA, which is difficult:
𝟏 𝟏 𝜶𝟐𝟏
o (Recall cascaded IIP3 from Lecture 8, page 14)
𝑨𝟐𝑰𝑰𝑷𝟑,𝒔𝒚𝒔 𝑨𝟐𝑰𝑰𝑷𝟑,𝟏 𝑨𝟐𝑰𝑰𝑷𝟑,𝟐

 In order not to increase the IIP3 spec for IF amplifier, need to attenuate
(filter) the blockers by 40dB.
IIP3,LNA = -10dBm
Require:
IIP3,IFamp
> +30dBm

40dB gain

* Say, the LNA provides 20dB of gain, and each (active) mixer
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 provides another 10dB. 19
 Second-Image Problem

 Apparently, the second mixer (MX2) could introduce image problem (like
MX1 does):

1st image

2nd image

 Assuming high-side injection (as shown), the second image is at*:

o
o )
 The channel select filter (BPF3) needs to reject this second-image.
* Apparently, results will be different for high/ low-side injection.
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 Just do the simple arithmetic to derive the solution. 20
 Mixing Spurs

 Mixing (down-conversion) is always accomplished by switching (with a

square-wave LO), even though the LO signal applied to the mixer is a
sinusoid.
o Therefore, we shall consider multiplication operations at all (usually
odd*) harmonics of LO.
 Specifically, using figure below, interferences with that satisfy the
following equation will corrupt the desired signal at (integer ):
o
image Mixing spurs….

𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎 𝟑𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝟓𝝎𝑳𝑶

𝑳𝑶

 For dual conversion Rx, we can extend this result and write:
o
o … it is a mess!
* Even harmonics will cancel when the LO and mixer are
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 perfectly symmetrical. (To be discussed in details. Stay tuned.) 21
 Mixer spur examples

How does the 3 mixer spurs corrupt the desired signal at 2.4GHz?
 Jammer 1 ( , , GHz)
o GHz
 Jammer 2 ( , , GHz)
o GHz
 Jammer 3 ( , , GHz)
o GHz
 There are infinite number of combinations –
o Fortunately, the higher the order, the less detrimental they are.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 22

 Modern Heterodyne (Zero Second-IF)

 To avoid the secondary image problem (thus to eliminate BPF3), most

modern heterodyne Rx employs zero second IF (dc):
o  (dc)
 However, the image is the (other half of the) signal itself.
o Most of today’s modulation schemes (QPSK, QAM etc.) exhibit
asymmetric spectra around the carrier frequency.
o When the two different spectral halves overlap, corruption occurs.
o Fortunately, this self-image problem can be readily solved.

Overlapping
asymmetric half
spectra  signal
is corrupted:

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 23

 Side: Sym. vs. Asymmetric Spectrums

 Symmetrically-modulated signals
o AM signal is generated by mixing a real baseband signal with a
carrier – A symmetric baseband spectrum is up-converted to .
o Modulated spectra carry exactly the same information on both sides
of the carrier.
 Asymmetrically-modulated signals
o FM signal can be generated by a VCO. As baseband signal goes
higher (or lower), the VCO frequency increases (or decrease).
o FM signal has different information above and below the carrier
frequency.
o Most digital modulations (FSK, BPSK, QPSK, GMSK, QAM) exhibit
asymmetric spectrums around their carrier frequencies.

FM signal

AM signal

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 24

 Quadrature Downconversion

 Quadrature downconversion is employed to avoid self-corruption.

o RF signal is mixed with the
“quadrature phases of LO ( )”
o The resulting baseband outputs, , and , can together
re-construct the original information.
 Look at the “in-phase” baseband signal (note: ):
o

o After LPF, ,

 Similarly, the “quadrature” baseband signal (after LPF):

o ,

 Although , and , exhibit identical spectra, they are separated in

phase and can reconstruct the original info. 𝑩𝑩,𝑰

Ref: Razavi text, page 174 𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝒕)

(Here, I have put a –ve sign to 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜔 𝑡) 𝒊𝒏
It doesn’t matter.) This is “coherent detection” −𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝒕)
discussed in Lecture 13. 𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕 + 𝝓(𝒕)
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 𝑩𝑩,𝑸 25
 Quadrature downconversion (cont’d)

o ,

o ,

 The amplitude modulation is given by:

( )
o , , , or , ,

 The phase modulation is given by:

, ( ) , ( )
o , or
, ( ) , ( )
 Despite that the I/Q baseband spectra are “self-corrupted by its own
image”, there is no loss of information.
o We can still find out and that
constitute the original,
asymmetrical spectrum. 𝑩𝑩,𝑰

𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝒕)
𝒊𝒏
−𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝝎𝑳𝑶 𝒕)
𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕 + 𝝓(𝒕)
𝑩𝑩,𝑸
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 26
 Modern Heterodyne Rx

 While passive RF filters (BPF2, BPF3) relieve lots of image/ blocker

issues, they are undesirable (from a Rx architecture’s point of view):
o Bulky and costly
o “Off-chip” – (a) Receiver IC needs to have bumps/ pads, which
consume lots of silicon area. (b) Circuits (such as the LNA output
and MX1 input) must be designed to have a 50Ω interface.
 Without them, one must:
o Make sure the image band is relatively “interference-free”, or
o Design a “narrowband” LNA (by matching, LC load etc.)
 However, the designer is now free to optimize LNA/ MX1 interface (for
noise/ linearity) without worrying about matching to 50Ω.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 27

 Modern Heterodyne Rx: (1)

 “Highly integrated” heterodyne receiver:

o Avoid image-reject and channel-select filters around the first mixer
o Employ zero-second-IF (quadrature 2nd mixer)

C
A B

D
*

𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟏 f
𝝎𝑳𝑶𝟏
Make sure interference (image)
is sufficiently rejected by BPF
C D

𝝎𝑰𝑭𝟏 f 𝟎 f

* With a different freq plan (𝜔 ) as that of page 17 (Fig. C), the jammer is no
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 28
longer considered as an image
 Modern Heterodyne Rx: (2) Sliding IF

 For architecture and circuit simplicity, only one oscillator (synthesizer)

should be used:
 Second LO is generated by dividing down the first LO, usually by 2N (*):
o Div-2  4 phases (0o, 90o, 180o, 270o)
o Div-4  8 phases (0o, 45o, 90o, 135o, 180o, 225o, 270o, 315o)
 For zero second-IF, the LO frequency is given by::

o ; Sliding-IF
(div2 example)

fIF

= 2/3·fin

= fIF

=0

* While non power-of-2 divider is quite doable, yet such sliding-IF

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 Rx is uncommon. Do you see why? 29
 Properties of Sliding IF Rx (1 of 3)

 For the sliding-IF Rx, the IF is channel-dependent (thus its name):

o
o For the conventional heterodyne Rx (of page 17), the IF is fixed
 For the sliding-IF Rx, the IF filter (if any), is quite wide band. See:

o , ; , , ;

o For the conventional heterodyne,

Sliding-IF (div2 example)
the fractional IF BW is very
small (narrowband BPF3
must do channel selection):
o ,

* Here, we define the “fractional bandwidth” as

𝐵𝑊 = . This definition is basically the
“inverse of Q” discussed in Lecture 1.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 30

 Properties of Sliding IF Rx (2 of 3)

 If the RF signal band is between , the LO1 of the sliding-IF

receiver is located (assuming a div-2 architecture)
 For the lower-most channel at , the image is at:
o
 For the uppermost channel at , the image is at:
o

 So the image band is between , which is narrower than the

RF signal band (quite interestingly)*.

* This doesn’t mean the image channel is

narrower. Assuming the channel width is
∆𝑓, the LO1 step would equal 2/3*∆𝑓, and
the consecutive image channels have an
overlap of ∆𝑓/3.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 31

 Properties of Sliding IF Rx (3 of 3)

 There is performance trade-off when choosing the divider ratio.

Consider the div-2 and div-4 examples:

DIV fLO1 fLO2 = fIF

𝟐 𝟏
2 𝒇𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏
𝟑 𝟑
𝟒 𝟏
4 𝒇𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏
𝟓 𝟓

 Higher divider ratio

o Pros: More accurate quadrature generation, since LO2 is at a
lower frequency, thus better I/Q matching
o Cons: Smaller image spacing, more difficult rejection to
interferences and noise**

 ** Mixer spur and “noise image folding” (DSB vs. SSB) will be presented
next – stay tuned!

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 32