Analog IC Design ECE-484

(RF IC in Wireless Transceivers)

Khaled Sharaf
 Course Outline
1. Basic Concepts in RF System Building Block Design:
- Effects of Nonlinearity, Effects of Noise, Dynamic Range, Impedance Matching Networks

2. RF Transceiver Architectures: systems

- Band Select Filters & Channel Select Filters, Image Problem, Transmit/Receive Switching
- Direct-conversion Transmitters, Carrier Leakage, I/Q Up-converter Mismatch
- Single-conversion/Double-conversion Receiver, Direct-conversion Receiver, Low-IF Receiver.

3. Low Noise Amplifiers:

- Noise Figure calculation, Noise matching, Cascaded NF, Typical LNA Circuit analysis & design.
circuits
4. Mixers:
- Conversion Gain, Port-to-Port Feed-through, Single-Balanced and Double-Balanced Mixers
- Mixer Noise Figures, Image-reject mixers, Typical mixer Circuit analysis & design.

5. PLL Frequency Synthesizers:

- VCO Tuning range, Phase noise, PLL BW, PLL Lock time, PLL close-in phase noise.

6. Power Amplifiers:
- PAE, Output matching, Baluns, Driver and multi-stage PA, Power control, Polar modulation.

7. Technology and Integration Issues

 References
- B. Razavi, RF Microelectronics, Prentice-Hall, 2nd edition, 2011.

- J. Rogers and C. Plett, Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design, Artech House, 2003.

- Gu, Qizheng, RF System Design of Transceivers for Wireless Communications, Springer, 2006.

- IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) and IEEE Symposium Proceedings .

- Application Notes / Technical Briefs / White Papers.

Lecture Slides
Mainly adapted from:
-Razavi’s book slides
-RFIC course lectures of the following universities: Berkeley, MIT, UCSB, Texas A&M, Linkoping.
 RF Communication

TX: Drive antenna with RX: Sense small signal

high power level (amplify with low noise)
 Generic RF Transceiver

 Signals are upconverted/downconverted at TX/RX, by an oscillator controlled by a

Frequency Synthesizer
Multi-Mode Multi-Band RF Standards
Comparison of the Bluetooth, UWB, Zigbee, And Wi -Fi Protocols
Transceiver Architectures
Block diagram of a super-heterodyne full-duplxer transceiver
Block diagram of a direct-conversion full-duplxer transceiver
Block diagram of low IF receiver and super-heterodyne transmitter
Block diagram of band-pass sampling transceiver
Transceiver System Issues
Progress in Transceivers during Last 20 Yrs
Nokia Mobile NSM–3 Series Transceivers
Nokia Mobile NSM–3 Series Transceivers
Baseband Module
RF Modules
RF Front-end
Handset of a DECT Cordless Phone
Fujitsu 2G/3G/LTE Transceiver
Apple iPhone 6s Smartphone
PCB # 1 Display Side - Cellular
2013
2G Quad (850/900/1800/1900) & 3G Quad (850/900/1900/2100)
+
GPS / BT v3.1 / WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n) RF Transceiver
2G Quad (850/900/1800/1900)
&
3G Quad (850/900/1900/2100)
GPS Receiver
GPS Receiver Zoomed-in (1)
GPS Receiver Zoomed-in (2)
2G Quad (850/900/1800/1900) & 3G Quad (850/900/1900/2100) RF Front-end
 WiFi-Module IEEE802.11b/g/n

hybrid functionality adopting 88W8787 by Marvell

 AD9371 transceiver is the kind of IC needed to build 5G equipment

Analog Devices AD9371, a dual RF

transceiver that targets basestations,
small cells, and backhaul units.

In addition to the dual receivers and

transceivers, the chip also integrates
ADCs, frequency synthesizers, and
related DSP.

The tunable range is 300 MHz to 6

GHz. This device should be one good
solution to implementing large-scale
MIMO systems
This is a current, state-of-the-art RF front-end
architecture of a 4G smartphone showing
filters, switches, and amplifiers.
(Courtesy of Resonant)
 Tx-Rx Quad-Band Front-End Module

The module consists of a GSM850 / GSM900 PA block and a DCS1800 / PCS1900 PA block,
impedance-matching circuitry for 50 ohm input and output impedances, Tx harmonics filtering,
high linearity / low insertion loss RF switch, and a Power Amplifier Control (PAC) block.

The GaAs die, the CMOS die, the Switch die, and passive components are mounted on a multi-
layer laminate substrate. The assembly is encapsulated with plastic overmold.
Intel PMB5750 RF Transceiver
2019
RF IC in 10 GHz Spectrum
RF devices for DBS LNB
CMOS LNB
Two-Stage LNA of the LNB
The Single-Balanced Mixer with LO Buffer
Three-Stage IF Amplifier
CMOS LNB
RF IC in 60 GHz Spectrum
Evolution of Wireless Multimedia Services
CMOS 60GHz Two-Chip Wireless System WiGig IEEE802.11ad
SiGe 0.18 um BiCMOS
A 60 GHz, 802.11ad/WiGig-Compliant
Transceiver in 130 nmSiGe BiCMOS
The architecture of the fully-integrated 4x2 77GHz phased
array CMOS transceiver with integrated antennas
 CMOS fully-integrated 4x2 77GHz phased
array transceiver with integrated antennas
Silicon RF IC in 300 GHz Spectrum
Attenuation of EM Waves in the Air
 Typical THz Applications

• industrial inspection, and non-destructive evaluation

• defense and security
• imaging and spectroscopy for bio/medical diagnostics,
• information processing and computing
• electronics/information/broadband communications
ITRS 2008
Electromagnetic Spectrum Showing Millimeter/Terahertz Region
Evolution of data rate of wired communication and
wireless communication
 THz Wireless Link by Silicon CMOS Integrated Circuits
300-GHz CMOS transmitter module with built-in waveguide transition on a multilayered glass epoxy PCB.
IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium 2018.

A 105Gb/s 300GHz CMOS transmitter.

2017 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

A 219-266 GHz fully-integrated direct-conversion IQ receiver module in a SiGe HBT technology. European
Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference, October 2017.

A 416-mW 32-Gbit/s 300-GHz CMOS receiver.

IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency Integration Technology (RFIT), 2017.

A 32 Gbit/s 16QAM CMOS receiver in 300 GHz band.

IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS2017), 2017.

Wireless digital data transmission from a 300-GHz CMOS transmitter. Electron. Lett. 2016.

A 300 GHz CMOS transmitter with 32-QAM 17.5 Gb/s/ch capability over six channels.
IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits 2016.

A fully integrated 240-GHz direct-conversion quadrature transmitter and receiver chipset in SiGe technology.
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn. 2016.

300 GHz integrated heterodyne receiver and transmitter with on-chip fundamental local oscillator & mixers.
IEEE Trans. Terahertz Sci. Technol. 2015.