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EE314:

CMOS RF Integrated Circuit Design

Introduction to Wireless Communication systems


Stanford University
Hamid Rategh

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Course Staff
„ Instructor: Dr. Hamid Rategh
‰ Email: hamid@smirc.stanford.edu

‰ Office Hours: MW 2:15-3:15PM @ CIS-126;

‰ Phone: 725-8313

„ TA: Mehdi Jahanbakht and Deji Akinwande


‰ Email: ta314@smirc.stanford.edu

‰ Office Hours @ Packard 106


„ Sunday 3:00 – 3:30 pm (for SCPD students only)
„ Sunday 3:30 – 5:00 pm
„ Thursday 5:00 – 6:00 pm
„ Course Administrator: June Wang
‰ Email: june@stanford.edu

‰ Office: CIS-203

‰ Phone: 725-3706

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TA announcements
„ Class URL is: http://eeclass.stanford.edu/ee314/
„ All students should register on class website to access handouts
and to stay in touch with any announcements from the instructor
or TA's
„ The bulletin board on the class website will be supported by the
TAs for exchange of information
„ For the SCPD OHs, (per encouragement from SCPD) we will be
experimenting with instant message chatting (instead of phone
calls) in an attempt to provide better TA OH support to more
SCPD students.
„ We will send instructions to the SCPD students in a few days.

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Course snapshot

„ Primary text
‰ “The Design of CMOS RF Integrated Circuits”, T.
Lee, Cambridge, 2004 (Second Edition)
„ Recommended text:
‰ “RF Microelectronics”, B. Razavi, Pearson
Education, 1997
„ Grading
‰ Homework 30%, Project 30%, Final 40%
„ Prerequisite: EE214
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Course Topics
„ Introduction to wireless communication systems
‰ Receiver architectures
„ Review of passive networks
‰ Available passives in IC
‰ RLC networks and tune circuits
‰ Impedance transformation techniques
‰ Transmission lines
„ Review of Distortion and circuit non-linearity
‰ IP3
‰ 1dB compression point
‰ AM to PM distortion
„ Noise
‰ Noise sources in passive and active circuits
‰ Classical noise theory

„ LNA design

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Course Topics (Cont.)
„ Mixers
‰ frequency conversion techniques

‰ Passive and active mixers

„ Oscillators
‰ Topologies (Ring, Colpitts, VCO, Quadrature, …)

‰ Phase noise

„ Frequency synthesizers and Phase-locked loops (PLL)


‰ Integer-N

‰ Fractional-N

„ Power Amplifiers
‰ Different classes of operation (A, B, C, D, …)

‰ Linearization techniques

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Block diagram of a wireless transceiver
Front-end
De-modulator
Receiver
Base-band
Duplexer/ LNA, Mixer, VCO, PLL,…
Signal
Switch
Processing
Front-end
Modulator
Transmitter
PA, mixer,…

„ In the transmit path, the base-band processor sends out the coded and
compressed digital bits, which are then modulated and up-converted to
the transmit frequency and finally amplified by the front-end module and
transmitted via antenna
„ In the receive path the received signal from the antenna is amplified
and down converted to either base-band or some other intermediate
frequencies before it is processed with the base-band signal processor
„ In this course we will be only looking at the front-end receiver and
transmitter

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Half-duplex systems
Front-end
Switch Receiver

Front-end
Transmitter

„ In a half-duplex system the transceiver either


transmits or receives at any given time
‰ Such as: Walki-talki, GSM
„ The antenna is switched between transmitter and
receiver
„ Typically antenna switches have 1-2dB insertion
loss and provide about 40dB of isolation between
the two ports

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Full-duplex systems
Front-end
Duplexer Receiver

Front-end
Transmitter

„ In a full duplex system the transceiver can transmit and receive


simultaneously
‰ Such as: WLAN, CDMA, WCDMA
„ How can we transmit and receive at the same time?
‰ Transmit at one frequency and receive at a different frequency
„ Duplexers are used to share the same antenna for transmit and
receive.
‰ The insertion loss of isolators is generally in the order of 1-2dB
‰ About 30-40dB isolation between the two ports

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Multiple access

„ From basic communication course:


‰ Different users (transmitters or receivers) share
the same medium (i.e., air) by:
„ Transmitting at different frequencies (i.e., frequency
division multiple access (FDMA))
„ Transmitting at different time slot (i.e., Time division
multiple access (TDMA))
„ Transmitting with a different code (i.e. code division
multiple access (CDMA))

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Multiple channels and channel selection
Undesired 60dB filter
channel

B f
„ In a typical wireless system, the frequency band is divided into
smaller divisions called “channel”
„ Consider a system with f=1.9GHz and B=1MHz
‰ Assume we intend to use a filter at the carrier frequency to select
the desired channel from the adjacent channel which is 60dB
stronger
‰ If we had to use a second order LC filter: the Q should be in
excess of 107 to attenuate the adjacent channel 10dB below the
desired channel
‰ Such a high Q is very difficult (if not impossible) to achieve even
with crystal/SAW filters at GHz frequencies.
„ How do we practically select the desired channel?

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Heterodyne Receiver

„ A typical heterodyne receiver


comprises of an optional front-end
amplifier two filters and a mixer for
frequency conversion.
ωmix = ω RF ± ω LO
„ If we select the IF to be the
difference of the LO and RF
frequencies then the receiver is
called superheterodyn

ω IF = ω RF − ω LO

„ The main reason for frequency conversion is to make channel selection feasible
with practical filters
‰ The required Q of the filter is inversely proportional to the center frequency
‰ If fIF=10MHz and fRF=2GHz, then the required Q for the channel select filter will 2 orders of
magnitude less when channel selection done at IF, instead of RF

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Image frequency in heterodyne receivers

ωLO

„ Consider a superheterodyne receiver.

ω IF = ω RF − ω LO ⇒ ω RF = ω LO ± ω IF

„ Therefore there are two input frequencies which down-convert to the same IF
frequency. One is the desired channel and the other is called “image frequency”

ω RF − ωimage = 2ω IF

„ Image reject filters are used to suppress the image frequency


„ From channel selection discussion we learned that the lower the IF the lower the
required Q of the filter. But is this also good for image rejection?

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Selection of IF frequency

„ A large IF frequency makes image rejection simple


and channel selection difficult
„ A Low IF frequency makes image rejection simple
and channels selection difficult
„ Is there a way to break this relationship?

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Heterodyne receiver with dual IF
IF1 IF2

„ IF2 < IF1


„ Channel selection is done in two stages
„ Therefore the requirements for each of the channel
select and image reject filters is relaxed
„ But now we need more filters.
‰ Filters are generally off-chip components and are not
desirable for fully integrated solutions

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Homodyne (zero IF) receiver

ω RF = ω LO ⇒ ω IF = 0 ⇒ ωimage = ω RF

„ In a homodyne receiver there is no image


frequency
‰ There is no need for image-reject filter
‰ Channel select filter is simply a low pass filter
„ Murphy says there is no free lunch! What is
the catch?
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Zero-IF receiver challenges

z Susceptibility to flicker noise


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Weaver image-reject receiver

vout = vin [cos(ω1t ) cos(ω2t ) − sin(ω1t ) sin(ω2t )] = vin cos[(ω1 + ω2 )t ]


„ If ω1+ ω2= ωRF then weaver receiver operates like a zero IF receiver and no
image reject filter is needed
„ Conversion to DC is done at the second stage where ω2<< ωRF and therefore LO
and interferer leakage is less of an issue
„ Unlike homodyne receiver the received signal is already amplified well above the
flicker noise level before converted to DC and therefore flicker noise is also less
of an issue in weaver receiver
„ The two filters are simple low pass filters to suppress ωRF+ ω1.Why do we need
to that?

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Reading material

„ Razavi: chapter 5

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