Audio Gain Setting in TETRA 800 MHz Radio

Kenny Lee
R&D Electrical Group Motorola, CGISS Penang, Malaysia Emad: Kennv.Lee@motorola.com
Abstract - This paper looks into the audio gain line-up of TETRA 800 MHz radios. The focus h on the design of each gain block io both transmit and receive audio paths. It should be noted that the designs described in this paper are implemented based on DIMETRA-Pm system requirements and recommendations provided by ETSI. In addition, transducer charncterizations were taken into consideration in implementing the audio gain line-up that we see today.

. . . Once the modes of operation are defined and understood,

.
transducers can then he evaluated and characterized properly according to the various modes. It is these characterizations of transducer together with the system requirements (i.e., radio and network requirements) that help us in setting the appropriate gain of each block in both transmit and receive audio paths.
11. DESIGN OF TETRA 800 MHz RADIO

..

I. TETRA 800 MHz RADIO MODES OF OPERATIONS

TRANSMIT AUDIO PATH As mentioned previously, characterization of the microphone together with the housing of the radio is a cmcial task insdeterminingthe transmit audio path gain lineup. During. the development stage of TETRA, the mechanical team in Motorola, Penang has exhaustively determined the ffequency response of TETRA internal microphone for the various modes mentioned above. It should be note that the piece part is a pick up from iDENTM. The results are as shown in the table below.
TABLE 1. MICROPHONE SENSITIVITY FOR VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATlON
Microphone Sensitivity 4dBV7Fa at I kHz 36.5 dB SLR 49.33 dB SLR

Audio gain lineup design activities are crucial in every radio designed and produced by. Motorola. This ensures total customer satisfaction in terms of audio quality, such as overall loudness and intelligibility. This is more .so for mission critical radios such as TETRA radios. ' Before we describe TETRA audio gain line-up design activities, it is appropriate to explain various TETRA .radio modes of operation. This is because the gain of each block, especially the PGA in GCAP 111 IC that will he described later in the paper, is dependent on the radio's mode of operation in which the user is in. There are basically three modes of operation and they are: Dispatch mode Handset interconnect mode Speakerphone interconnect mode Distance between radio's microphone and user's mouth varies with these modes of operation. This implies that the acoustical energy ffom the user's speech detected at the microphone varies too. Since the level of the electrical input signal to the microphone preamplifier is dependent on the acoustical energy of the speech, the modes of operation determine the input signal level to the radio. Thus, the preamplifier of the radio should accommodate for different electrical input signal levels.

Mode Dispatch Handset Speakerphone

TABLE 11.
Mode Dkpatch

DIMETRA-PTM REQUIREMENTS OF VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATIONS

DIMETRA-P- Requirements -20 dBm0 8 dF3 SLR 13 dB SLR

As with transmit audio path described in previous paragraph, the different modes of operation should also be taken into consideration when setting the gain of each block in receive audio path. This is because the dispatch mode and speakerphone interconnect mode require high audio output level while the audio output level of the handset intercounect mode is IOW.

Handset
Speakerphone

Using information from the two tables above, an engineer will be able to determine tbe required overall gain of TETRA transmit audio path. For example, the microphone sensitivity is 4 4 dBVlPa at 1 kHz while the signal at the DIMETRA-P" terminals is specified at -20

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dBmO for dispatch mode. Therefore, the overall gain of transmit au&o path in' dispatch mode should' he approximately +2 1.O dB. In contrast to the dispatch mode, the interconnect mode gain computation, as recommended in the ITU-T, requires' that the transmit audio path be considered as loss instead of gain stage. For instance, the microphone sensitivity is 36.5 dB and the signal at the DIMETRA-PTM terminals is specified at 8 dB in handset interconnect mode. Thus, the overall gain of the transmit audio path is 28.5 dB and it can be computed with the equation below. , .
i

Mcrophone Semifwi@+(-Gam Block)= DIMETfL- P

(1)

The minus sign in the equation above represents loss. Thus, the gain computation of various modes of operation is summarized in the table below.

TABLE 111.

GAIN ANALYSIS OF TETRA TRANSMIT AUDIO PATH '

..

. --.
- + .

Now that we have determined the overall gain of TETRA transmit audio path (i.e., Gain 'Block in TABLE Ill), focus is'now on the design of each block, which is the topic of discussion in thefollowing sections of this paper.' . A.

tranjmitting the PCM data to. the input of the PSTN network, the data is specified to be 775.0 mV,j at 0 dBmO reference.. Thus, a CODEC gain of 7.156 dB is introduced and it is computed as shown below:

TETRA Transmit Audio Path CODEC Gain

CODEC Gorn=ZO.log

(2)

The CODEC gain is determined by the flow of PCM data from the nortable radio to the innut of the PSTN r network as illustrated in the Fig. 1. From this diagram, we can see that the PCM data at the input of CODEC is specified to be 340.0 mV-, at 0 dBmO reference. AAer

.IIWW*L..d

.!

'

Note: The SLR evaluation setup is applicable to botii external and intemal micmphonei

, .
Figure I . Standard setup for evduariDg SLR

. .
Since the MIC TUNElACELPlDSP block shown in TABLE Ill is .kepi at 0 dB in TETRA, the subsequent section will describe the gain computation of microphone nreamalifier. and PGA. In addition. we .will also look into . hicrophone loading factor that is also part of .TETRA transmit audio path. , , .
~~

B.,

Microphone Loading Factor Conhiburion i o

TETRA Transmit Audio Poth Overall Gain

Microphone loading factor is the first block in transmit audio path shown in TABLE 1 1 This is a gain or loss 1.

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introduced into the system when the microphone preamplifier input resistance is seen by the microphone. To compute the contributions of TETRA microphone loading factor, we first need to examine the microphone, its biasing circuit, and microphone preamplifier circuit as shown below Fig. 2. By simplifying the microphone and its biasing circuit using Thevenin equivalent circuit, we can then determine .the output signal level of the equivalent circuit (i.e., input signal to the preamplifier) for a given input of that equivalent circuit. With this information, we can then compute the microphone loading factor contribution to the overall gain of TETRA transmit audio path.

approximately -2.35 dB to transmit audio path overall gain. Thus, TETRA gain analysis is as shown in TABLE IV below.

C.

Microphone Preamplifier and PGA Gain Sei fings

From-TABLE IV, the only thing remains in transmit audio path that requires OUT attention is the gain settings of the microphone preamplifier and PGA. The combine gain of these two blocks are as shown in this table for the various modes of operation described earlier. It should be noted that the PGA range is from a minimum gain of -7 dB to maximum gain of +24 dB. In TABLE IV, the speakerphone mode requires the highest gain if compared to the other modes. To cater for the tolerance of the microphone and other circuits, a +I-3 dB variation should be considered in the design. Thus, the maximum PGA setting should not exceed +20 dB. The other constraint lies in the microphone preamplifier stage that is due to dynamic-range at the input. As with all mission critical radios, TETRA users are expected to shout into the radio. This results in a large peak audio signal at the input and consequently audio clipping is seen at the output of the preamplifier. To minimize audio clipping, the preamplifier gain is set so that enough gain is provided at this stage to sufficiently amplifier low input audio signals while not compromising the audio quality due to high input audio signals. This accommodates usage of radio in both noisy and quiet environment. Thus, the headroom analysis explains in the next paragraph helps us in determining the microphone preamplifier gain. However, before we examine the headroom, it is appropriate to define the level of soft, nominal, and loud speech as shown below:

Soft speech: 75 dBSPL

Nominal speech: 95 dBSPL
Figure 2: Thevenin equivalent circuit of the microphone biasing circuit

Loud speech: 115 dBSPL

From the analysis of the equivalent circuit, it is found that the microphone loading factor contributes
TABLE IV. DETAIL GAIN SUMMARY OF THE MICROPHONE LOADING, CODEC, AND MIC TUNEIACELPIDSP

Microphone Sensitivity USAGE

MODE Dispatch

Gain Block Mic

-2.35 -2.35 -2.35
+16.1

-44dBVlPa
Q IKHz

dB) 7.156 7.156

7.156

DSPgain
0
0 0

P -20dBm0
8dB SLR 13dB SLR

Handset Speakerphone

36.5dB SLR 49.3348 SLR

+23.6

+31.5

The headroom analysis is done as shown below taking the following into consideration:

Microphone preamplifier rail-to-rail supply voltage

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Input signal level of the microphone preamplifier in mV, that corresponds to, 115 dBSPL (i.e., loud speech) Headroom required for 115 dElSPL

preamp/qzr goin = 20. I ( ; y ~ - J ) - H e m i o o m o

~

(3)

For TETRA radio, the supply for the microphone preamplifier is 2.775 V that is provided by one of the regulators from GCAP. 111. The differential input signal of the preamplifier at 115 dBSPL is 34.3 m V , . Also, the headroom for loud speech was determined to he 14 dB for TETRA radios. With all these information, we can compute the gain of the preamplifier for loud speech as shown in equation (3):

This gives us a .microphone preamplifier gain of approximately 14.7 dB. The headroom analysis of the so& and nominal speech is summarized below:

TABLE V. HEADROOM A N h Y S I S AT THE OUTPUT OF MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER

DISPATCH MODE

Although the preamplitier gain setting shown above will never take care of the full speech dynamics of a loud talker, headroom,of 14 dB .is acceptable and should not impair speech. intelligibility significantly. Now that we have determined the preamplifier gain, the PGA gain can then he

set accordingly to accommodate the various modes as shown below.

PGA Gain

USAGE

(-7 to +24dB.

Reauired

The PGA gain settings were finalized through measurements of ten radios to cater for variations in comvonent tolerance. These settings are as shown below.

As can be seen from the TABLE VII, theoretical values of the PGA settings obtained fiom the analysis of the transmit audio .path are quite close to the actual values implemented in TETRA 800 MHz portable radios.

In addition to these measurements, transmit audio path frequency response for various modes were measured. From this evaluation, we found that there was no need for equalization since the responses fitted well within their respective mask.

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TABLE VII. FINALIZED PGA GAIN SETI?NGS FOR VARIOUS MODES

Handsel Speakerphone

917

9 19

111.

DESIGN OF TETRA 800 MHz RADIO RECEIVE AUDIO PATH

From transmit audio path, we now focus on the design of receive audio path. As with the transmit path, characterization of the transducers, such as earpiece and speaker, is required before the gain analysis is done. The mechanical team in Motorola, Penang was involved in this activity during the development of TETRA. The following are contributions from the mechanical team: Receive loudness rating (RLR) and frequency response of TETRA earpiece TETRA speaker receive loudness rating and frequency response From TETRA earpiece frequency response (without equalization), the acoustic engineer found that equalization

was required in order to meet the frequency response mask because the response without equalization peaks in the region of 2 M z . Apart from that, it should be noted that TETRA earpiece RLR is -3.1 dB. In the case^ of speakerphone mode, we use an RLR of 15.1 dB for the design of receive audio path that is described in the subsequent sections of this paper. It should be noted that ETSI EN 300 903 recommends that a correction loss of -14 dB should be added to the RLR obtained for speakerphone mode to determine the binaural RLR. For dispatch mode, the average SPL from 300 Hz to 3 kHz is 86.47 dBSPL while it is 87.7 dBSPL at 1 kHz tone. With this information, an engineer can design the gain blocks for TETRA receive audio path. To assist us in this task, lets examine the table below.

TABLE VIII. TETRKECEIVE AUDIO PATH GAIN ANALYSIS

Handsel

I
~~

I
-16dBmO
~~~

__

Nom. Max.
Min.

I I 1

-5.1 9.9 -21.1

-3.1 RLR
~

i 2 -13 18
2

Speakerphone _ _ _ _ _ -1BdBmO I ~

___

Nom. Ma. Min.

I I I

17.1

15.1 RLR
~

N4
18

-2.9

The specifications seen in the last column for handset interconnect mode and speakerphone interconnect mode are obtained from ETSI EN 300 903 while the soecifications for dispatch mode are obtained from TETRA fRD and ITU-T Rec p.360. Similar t o . the analysis of transmit. audio path in interconnect mode, the analysis of the gain blocks in receive audio path is easier if the receive path is considered as loss instead of gain stage.

A.

TETRA Receive Audio Path CODEC Gain

To determine the receive audio path CODEC gain, we need to consider the flow of PCM data from network to the portable radio. At the PSTN network, the signal level is specified to be 775 mV, at 0 dBqO reference while the signal seen by the radio at 0 dBmO reference is specified to be 500 m , V. This is depicted in the diagram below.

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Note: The RLR evaluation sehp is applicable to both internal and external speakers
Figure 3: Standard setup for RLR evaluation

From the diagram above, it is clear that there is a loss when signal flows from PSTN network to EBTS and transmitted over the air wave to the portable radio. This loss is computed as shown in the equation below.

Since DSP-MUUACELP block in TETRA is set at 0 dB: the loss computed is indicated as a loss contributed by the CODEC block. B.

. .
CODEC. Gain = 20. log
(4)

PGA and Amplifier Gain

From information gathered in the previous sections, we can compute the combine PGA and amplifier gain. This is presented in the table below.

TABLE IX. COMBINED PGA AND AUDIO PA GAIN

Speakerphone

I I

-16dBmO

-3.8

I I

Nom. Max.

20.9

Min.

1 I

, .

15.1 RLR

0.9

2 I N A 1 18

It should be noted that receive audio path uses two audio PA, one for high audio output during dispatch mode and speakerphone interconnect mode while the other is for low audio output during handset interconnect mode. An external audio PA is required for high audio output. The audio PA used in TETRA for high audio output is Philips TDA8547TS while IOW audio output uses an amplifier within GCAP 111 IC. Thus, the gain analysis is separated into to two sections.

set at 6 dB. Thus, the receive PGA settings for handset interconnect mode are.as shown in TABLE X. As noted in the GCAP 111 IC Detailed Technical Specification Rev. 2.05, the receive PGA gain increments in 3 dB/step. Therefore, to fine tune the overall receive audio path gain in order to meet the RLR specifications, we set the DSP gain as required.

Amplifier Design for Low Audio Output The amplifier design in TETRA for low audio output was implemented to prevent speech clipping. Therefore, the gain was set to: always operatein the linear region. With this taken into consideration, the low audio amplifier gain is
1.

Amplifer Design for High Audio Ourput In contrast to the amplifier design for low audio output, the amplifier gain for high audio output was implemented with a 7 dB overdrive in TETRA. Ideally, an engineer would implement a 0 dB overdrive to ensure that the design of an audioPA operates in the linear region. However, a 0 dB overdrive may not provide the loudness expected by most customers.
ii.

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TABLE X. PGA AND DSP GAIN SETTING WITH LOW AUDIO AMPLIFIER GAIN SET AT 6 dB

With 7 dB overdrive, the TETRA audio PA gain is set to about 22 dB. Putting this gain into the gain line-up analysis chart yields the appropriate PGA required for both the

dispatch mode and speakerphone interconnect mode. This is illustrated below.

TABLE XI. PGA AND DSP GAIN SETKNG WITH AUDIO AMPLIFIER GAIN SET AT 22 dB: (A) SPEAKERPHONE INTERCONNEC MODE (A) :T DISPATCH MODE

The above analysis provided us a guide in designing each gain block in receive audio path. The finalized values of the PGA gain were obtained after evaluating ten radios. This caters for component tolerance variations. The actual values of the PGA gain for various modes of operations are as shown in TABLE XI1 below.

In addition, we also measured the actual frequency response of all three modes of operation considered in this paper after the values of the receive audio path have been finalized. All the responses fitted into the frequency mask. It should be noted that equalization was implemented in the dispatch mode.

As can be seen from this table, the values obtained from the analysis and design of receive audio path are quite close to the actual values with minor variations.

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TABLE XI1. FINALIZED PGA SETlWG FOR TETRA RECEIVE AUDIO PATH IN VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATION

Speakerphone

I Nominal I I .Maximum 1 I fdinimum I

. .
1

-!Ll
-15.1

IV.: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION(S)

There are several things to be noted here in the audio design implemented on TETRA 800 MHz portable radio. As mentioned above, the microphone preamplifier was designto have a gain of 14.7 dB,but due to the preamplifier design requirements noted in GCAP I11 IC Detailed Technical Specification Rev. 2.05 and the paits available in the productionline, we changed the preamplifier gain to 15.2 dB. Another concern is the 7 dB overdrjve implemented in the audio PA design. , Is the 7 dB. overdrive suficient to

provide the loudness required or is the overdrive degrading the audio quality? Thus, we need examine this area in more detail. REFERENCES
[I:I FT Fa% TETRA ConI~ollerClosing Repoa Rev. 0.0.February,
2002

.[2J

Keony Lee, Weekly Repart, July, 2001 and August, 2002

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. AU other product or semce names are the property of their respective owners. 0 Motorola, Inc. 2003

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