Monolithic MEMS filter banks on RFSOI front-end module

This work is the first demonstration of a monolithic multiband RF front-end module (RF-FEM), integrating MEMS Lamb-wave filters and switches on 200mm RF silicon-on-insulator (RFSOI) foundry technology. Multiple MEMS filters with photolithography-defined frequencies coexist with RF components in the same wafer. This technology enables vertical integration of RF-FEM components for more compact System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures. The resulting RF-FEMs will then integrate in the same process multi-frequency filter banks, low noise amplifiers (LNAs), and switches, with a footprint reduction up to 50% compared to system-in-package (SiP) modules. The SoC architecture also simplifies the design of interconnection lines and impedance matching networks

Full Duplex CMOS Transceiver with On-Chip Self-Interference Cancelation

abstract: The demand for the higher data rate in the wireless telecommunication is increasing rapidly. Providing higher data rate in cellular telecommunication systems is limited because of the limited physical resources such as telecommunication frequency channels. Besides, interference with the other users and self-interference signal in the receiver are the other challenges in increasing the bandwidth of the wireless telecommunication system. Full duplex wireless communication transmits and receives at the same time and the same frequency which was assumed impossible in the conventional wireless communication systems. Full duplex wireless communication, compared to the conventional wireless communication, doubles the channel efficiency and bandwidth. In addition, full duplex wireless communication system simplifies the reusing of the radio resources in small cells to eliminate the backhaul problem and simplifies the management of the spectrum. Finally, the full duplex telecommunication system reduces the costs of future wireless communication systems. The main challenge in the full duplex wireless is the self-interference signal at the receiver which is very large compared to the receiver noise floor and it degrades the receiver performance significantly. In this dissertation, different techniques for the antenna interface and self-interference cancellation are proposed for the wireless full duplex transceiver. These techniques are designed and implemented on CMOS technology. The measurement results show that the full duplex wireless is possible for the short range and cellular wireless communication systems.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Engineering 201

A Narrowband Multi-Channel 2.4 GHz MEMS-Based Transceiver

This paper presents a new radio architecture targeting RF transceivers for WSN, WBAN, and biomedical applications. The high miniaturization required by such applications is achieved thanks to the combination of high-Q MEMS devices, such as RF BAW resonators and filters and low frequency silicon resonators, together with a low-power RF IC. This requires a dedicated radio architecture accounting for the advantages and limitations of the MEMS devices. The paper presents such an architecture together with the design of some ultra-low-power and MEMS-specific circuits. The new radio is validated by the demonstration of RX and TX functionalities. The synthesizer, based on a low phase noise BAW DCO and a variable IF LO obtained by fractional division from the RF carrier, achieves a phase noise of - 113 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz. It can intermittently be locked to a low frequency reference (e.g. 32 kHz XTAL or thermally compensated silicon resonator) to correct for the BAW aging and thermal drift thanks to an ADPLL where the lock state can be memorized for nearly immediate settling after returning from an idle period. A sensitivity of - 87 dBm is obtained in receive at 100 kbps for a global power consumption of 6 mA. The transmitter demonstrates a high data rate quasi-direct 1-point modulation capability with the generation of a -4 dBm, 1 Mbps, GFSK signal with an overall current of 20 mA

Design of a 2.4 Ghz BAW-Based CMOS Transmitter

In recent years, bulk acoustic wave resonators (BAW) in combination with RF circuits have shown a big potential in achieving the low-power consumption and miniaturization level required to address wireless sensor nodes (WSN) applications. A lot of work has been focused on the receiver side, by integrating BAW resonators with low noise amplifiers (LNA) and in frequency synthesis with the design of BAW-based local oscillators, most of them working at fixed frequency due to their limited tuning range. At the architectural level, this has forced the implementation of several single channel transceivers. This thesis aims at exploring the use of BAW resonators in the transmitter, proposing an architecture capable of taking full advantage of them. The main objective is to develop a transmitter for WSN multi-channel applications able to cover the whole 2.4 GHz ISM band and enable the compatibility with wide-spread standards like Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy. Typical transmissions should thus range from low data rates (typically tens of kb/s) to medium data rates (1 Mb/s), with FSK and GFSK modulation schemes, should be centered on any of the channels provided by these standards and cover a maximum transmission range of some tens of meters. To achieve these targets and circumvent the limited tuning range of the BAW oscillator, an up-conversion transmitter using wide IF is used. The typical spurs problems related to this transmitter architecture are addressed by using a combined suppression based on SSB mixing and selective amplification. The latter is achieved by cointegration of a high efficiency power amplifier with BAW resonators, which allows performing spurs filtering while preserving the efficiency. In particular the selective amplifier is designed by including in the PA analysis the BAW resonator parameters, which allows integrating the BAW filter into the passive network loading the amplifier, participating in the drain voltage shaping. Finally, the frequency synthesis section uses a fractional division plus LC PLL filtering and further integer division to generate the IF signals and exploit the very-low BAW oscillator phase noise. The transmitter has been integrated in a 0.18 µm standard digital CMOS technology. It allows addressing the whole 80 MHz wide 2.4 GHz ISM band. The unmodulated RF frequency carrier demonstrates a very-low phase noise of –136 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The IF spurs are maintained lower than –48 dBc, satisfying the international regulations for output power up to 10 dBm without the use of any quadrature error compensation in the transmitter. This is achieved thanks to the rejection provided by the SSB mixer and the selective amplifier, which can reach drain efficiency of up to 24% with integrated inductances, including the insertion losses of the BAW filter. The transmitter consumes 35.3 mA at the maximum power of 5.4 dBm under 1.6 V (1.2 V for the PA), while transmitting a 1 Mb/s GFSK signal and complying with both Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy relative and absolute spectrum requirements

Architecture for ultra-low power multi-channel transmitters for Body Area Networks using RF resonators

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-103).Body Area Networks (BANs) are gaining prominence for their use in medical and sports monitoring. This thesis develops the specifications of a ultra-low power 2.4GHz transmitter for use in a Body Area Networks, taking advantage of the asymmetric energy constraints on the sensor node and the basestation. The specifications include low transmit output powers, around -10dBm, low startup time, simple modulation schemes of OOK, FSK and BPSK and high datarates of 1Mbps. An architecture that is suited for the unique requirements of transmitters in these BANs is developed. RF Resonators, and in particular Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators (FBARs) are explored as carrier frequency generators since they provide stable frequencies without the need for PLLs. The frequency of oscillation is directly modulated to generate FSK. Since these oscillators have low tuning range, the architecture uses multiple resonators to define the center frequencies of the multiple channels. A scalable scheme that uses a resonant buffer is developed to multiplex the oscillators' outputs to the Power Amplifier (PA). The buffer is also capable of generating BPSK signals. Finally a PA optimized for efficiently delivering the low output powers required in BANs is developed. A tunable matching network in the PA also enables pulse-shaping for spectrally efficient modulation. A prototype transmitter supporting 3 FBAR-oscillator channels in the 2.4GHz ISM band was designed in a 65nm CMOS process. It operates from a 0.7V supply for the RF portion and 1V for the digital section. The transmitter achieves 1Mbps FSK, up to 10Mbps for OOK and BPSK without pulse shaping and 1Mbps for OOK and BPSK with pulse shaping. The power amplifier has an efficiency of up to 43% and outputs between -15dBm and -7.5dBm onto a 50Q antenna. Overall, the transmitter achieves an efficiency of upto 26% and energy per bit of 483pJ/bit at 1Mbps.by Arun Paidimarri.S.M

Integrinių analoginių filtrų belaidžio ryšio sistemoms kūrimas

Disertacijoje nagrinėjami konfigūruojami analoginiai filtrai su savaiminio derinimo grandynais, jų projektavimo ir įgyvendinimo būdai, kurie pritaikomi integrinių grandynų gamybos technologijoms. Iškeliama ir įrodoma hipotezė, teigianti, kad savaiminio derinimo grandynų taikymas įgalina gauti integrinių analoginių aktyviųjų rezistorių kondensatorių (RC) filtrų parametrus reikalau¬jamu tikslumu. Darbo tikslas – sukurti savaiminio derinimo grandynus, skirtus konfigūruojamų integrinių analoginių aktyviųjų RC filtrų parametrų gavybai reikalaujamu tikslumu. Darbe išspręsti uždaviniai: ištirtos integrinių analoginių aktyviųjų RC filtrų struktūros ir sukurti jų derinimo grandynų modeliai, pasiūlytas integrinių analoginių aktyviųjų RC filtrų derinimo matricų projektavimo būdas, sukurtas ir ištirtas konfigūruojamas integrinis analoginis aktyvusis RC filtras su diskrečiu ir tolydžiu savaiminio derinimo grandynais. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, trys skyriai, bendrosios išvados, naudotos literatū¬ros ir autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai ir penki priedai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, aprašomas tyrimų objektas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašoma tyrimų metodika, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai, disertacijos struktūra. Pirmame skyriuje apžvelgiamos integrinių analoginių filtrų struktūros, pagrindiniai parametrai bei įvardijamos parametrų verčių svyravimo priežastys, analizuojamos savaiminio derinimosi grandynų struktūros ir jų veikimo principai. Skyriaus pabaigoje, remiantis atlikta analize ir sudarytomis išvadomis suformuluojami disertacijos uždaviniai. Antrajame skyriuje sudaroma konfigūruojamo integrinio analoginio filtro struktūra, skirta programine įranga valdomam radijui, sudaromi diskretaus ir tolydaus derinimo matricų modeliai, juos sudarančių elementų verčių parinkimo algoritmai, atliekami modelių ir algoritmų kompiuteriniai skaičiavimai. Trečiajame skyriuje, pasinaudojus sukurtais modeliais ir algoritmais, suprojektuojamas filtras su diskrečiu ir tolydžių savaiminio derinimo grandynais, naudojant eksperimentinius ir kompiuterinius skaičiavimo metodus atliekamas suprojektuotų diskrečiai ir tolydžiai valdomų integrinių analoginių RC filtrų parametrų bei jų savaiminio derinimo grandynų tyrimas. Disertacijos tema yra atspausdinti 7 moksliniai straipsniai: du – mokslo žurnaluose, įtrauktuose į Thomson Reuters Web of Science duomenų bazę, vienas – tarptautinių konferencijų medžiagoje, įtrauktoje į Thomson Reuters Proceedings duomenų bazę, keturi – mokslo žurnaluose, referuojamose kitose tarptautinėse duomenų bazėse. Disertacijoje atliktų tyrimų rezultatai buvo pristatyti septyniose mokslinėse konferencijose Lietuvoje ir užsienyje