Compensation technique for nonlinear distortion in RF circuits for multi-standard wireless systems

Recent technological advances in the RF and wireless industry has led to the design requirement of more sophisticated devices which can meet stringent specifications of bandwidth, data rate and throughput. These devices are required to be extremely sensitive and hence any external interference from other systems can severely affect the device and the output. This thesis introduces the existing problem in nonlinear components in a multi-standard wireless system due to interfering signals and suggests potential solution to the problem. Advances in RF and wireless systems with emerging new communication standards have made reconfigurablility and tunability a very viable option. RF transceivers are optimised for multi-standard operation, where one band of frequency can act as an interfering signal to the other band. Due to the presence of nonlinear circuits in the transceiver chains such as power amplifiers, reconfigurable and tunable filters and modulators, these interfering signals produce nonlinear distortion products which can deform the output signal considerably. Hence it becomes necessary to block these interfering signals using special components. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse and experimentally verify the nonlinear distortions in various RF circuits such as reconfigurable and tunable filters and devise ways to minimize the overall nonlinear distortion in the presence of other interfering signals. Reconfigurbality and tunablity in filters can be achieved using components such as varactor diodes, PIN diodes and optical switches. Nonlinear distortions in such components are measured using different signals and results noted. The compensation method developed to minimize nonlinear distortions in RF circuits caused due to interfering signals is explored thoroughly in this thesis. Compensation method used involves the design of novel microstrip bandstop filters which can block the interfering signals and hence give a clean output spectrum at the final stage. Recent years have seen the emergence of electronic band gap technology which has “band gap” properties meaning that a bandstop response is seen within particular range of frequency. This concept was utilised in the design of several novel bandstop filters using defected microstrip structure. Novel tunable bandstop filters has been introduced in order to block the unwanted signal. Fixed single-band and dual-band filters using DMS were fabricated with excellent achieved results. These filters were further extended to tunable structures. A dual-band tunable filter with miniaturized size was developed and designed. The designed filters were further used in the compensation technique where different scenarios showing the effect of interfering signals in wireless transceiver were described. Mathematical analysis proved the validation of the use of a bandstop filter as an inter-stage component. Distortion improvements of around 10dB have been experimentally verified using a power amplifier as device under test. Further experimental verification was carried out with a transmitter which included reconfigurable RF filters and power amplifier where an improvement of 15dB was achieved

Interleavers

The chapter describes principles, analysis, design, properties, and implementations of optical frequency (or wavelength) interleavers. The emphasis is on finite impulse response devices based on cascaded Mach-Zehnder-type filter elements with carefully designed coupling ratios, the so-called resonant couplers. Another important class that is discussed is the infinite impulse response type, based on e.g. Fabry-Perot, Gires-Tournois, or ring resonators

Miniaturised and reconfigurable planar filters for ultra-wideband applications

An increasing demand for electromagnetic spectrum has resulted from the emergence of feature-rich and faster throughputs wireless applications. This necessitates the developments of dynamic reconfigurable or multifunctional systems to better exploit the existing spectrum. Future wireless devices will be expected to communicate over several bands with various other devices in order to fine tune the services they provide to the user. Each band may require a separate RF transceiver and such modern wireless multi-band multi-mode communication systems call for high performance, highly integrated compact modules. Since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the unlicensed frequency band 3.1-10.6 GHz for ultra-wideband (UWB) commercial communications, the development race for commercialising UWB technology has seen a dramatic increase around the world. The aim of this research is to develop reconfigurable planar microwave filters for ultrawideband applications. The project investigates some key design issues of reconfigurable filters, which are being observed constantly in the latest development and realisation of microwave filters. Both analytical and numerical methods are performed to construct a realistic and functional design. Two different types of frequency reconfigurability are investigated in this thesis: discrete (e.g. PIN diode, Optical switch) and continuous (e.g. varactor diode). Using the equivalent circuits and considering the direct coupled filter structure in most cases, several topologies with attractive features are developed for future communication systems. The proposed works may be broadly categorised into three sections as follows. The first section explores a square ring shape close loop resonator along with an opencircuited stub in the symmetry plane. To realise a reconfigurable frequency states within the same spectrum, an innovative approach is developed for this case. An optical or photoconductive switch, comprised of a silicon die activated using near infrared light is investigated as a substitute of PIN diode and performances are evaluated to compare the feasibilities. In addition, a in-band interference rejection technique via externally coupled Tshape resonator is shown. However, it is observed that both structures achieve significant size reductions by utilising the inner part of the resonators. To improve the filter selectivity, a convenient design approach generating a pair of transmission zeros between both passband edges and a single zero in the stop band for harmonic suppression is discussed in the second section. Moreover, the development of notched rejection bands are studied and several novel methods to create a single and multiple notched bands employing the square ring shape structure are proposed. On inspection, it is found that the notch structure can be implemented without deteriorating the filter performances. The discussions are supplemented with detailed design examples which are accompanied by theoretical, simulated and experimental results in order to illustrate the filter development process and showcase practical filter performance. The third section reveals a novel highly compact planar dual-mode resonator with sharp rejections characteristics for UWB applications. A bandwidth reconfiguring technique is demonstrated by splitting its even-mode resonance. Filter structure with the dual-mode resonator is shown to have a relatively wide tuning range, significantly low insertion loss and a constant selectivity along with frequency variations in comparison to similar published works. Finally, the earlier dual-mode structure are modified to realise a dual wideband behaviour. A detail analysis with comprehensive design procedures is outlined and a solution for controlling the frequency bandwidths independently according to the application interest is provided. In line with the previous section, experimental verification is presented to support and supplement the discussions

Liquid Metal-Enabled Filtering Switches and Switchplexers

The via-pad-slot (VPS) structure, as the switchable element, has been used to demonstrate a single-pole-triple-throw (SPTT) filtering switch and a switchplexer. The VPS can be flexibily switched using liquid metal (LM) or high dielectric constant materials to either cover or uncover the slot. Since the LM only moves on the surface of the VPS and the substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW), the implementation and actuation of the LM is simple and does not cause excessive loss on the device. In the switchplexer design, all channels can be switched on and off to form filters or multiplexers of various channel combinations. Additional transmission zeros (TZs) can be generated by the loaded, partially switched-off channel. The generation of the TZs was discussed and analyzed using coupling matrix approach. The demonstrated &lt;italic&gt;X&lt;/italic&gt;-band (9.56&amp;#x2013;10.44 GHz) cross-shaped SPTT fifth-order filtering switch exhibits a suppression level of better than 40 dB at 8 and 12 GHz, an insertion loss (IL) of 1.55 dB at 10 GHz, and an isolation level of 58 dB at 10 GHz. The &lt;italic&gt;X&lt;/italic&gt;-band switchplexer operates at three frequency bands, e.g., 11.08&amp;#x2013;11.55 GHz, 10.61&amp;#x2013;10.99 GHz, and 9.76&amp;#x2013;10.33 GHz. The LM-enabled VPS-based switchable element can be integrated with other multifunctional circuits and systems for channel control and reconfiguration.</p

A novel circularly polarized filtering antenna with high out‐of‐band radiation rejection level

In this paper, a circularly polarized filtering antenna with high out‐of‐band radiation rejection level is proposed. The entire design consists of a patch and a filtering feeding network, which are connected by metallic pins. First, a high‐selectivity filtering power divider is constructed utilizing two shunted bandpass filter. Next, a 90° phase difference could be realized by adjusting the length of the two outputs of the power divider. The measured transmission coefficient of the feeding network is 6.3 dB at 2 GHz. The measured axial ratio is below 3 dB within the operating band of the proposed antenna, which represents the effectiveness of the proposed feeding network. In addition, the obvious radiation nulls can be found from the antenna measurement because of the transmission zeros introducing by the filtering power divider. The measured gain is 5.73 dB at 2 GHz and decreases dramatically in stopband. Specially, the measured gain is −30 and −41 dB at 1.95 and 2.06 GHz. The proposed antenna has an excellent filtering characteristic compared with those without the filtering feeding network. To sum up, the proposed antenna and filtering power divider are promising in the modern wireless communication systems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140028/1/mop30929.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140028/2/mop30929_am.pd

Low-loss narrowband filtering switch based on coaxial resonators

© 2013 IEEE. In this paper, a narrowband filtering switch with low loss and high selectivity is presented based on coaxial resonators for the first time. PIN diodes mounted on the printed circuit boards are embedded into a coaxial filter to enable ON and OFF states. In the ON-state, the PIN diodes are turned OFF, which do not introduce the loss and affect the linearity. Two transmission zeros are generated by a novel feeding structure, which improves the skirt selectivity. In the OFF-state, the PIN diodes are turned on. Then, lumped capacitors are loaded to the coaxial resonators so that the resonant frequencies of the resonators are changed. The passband at the operating frequency cannot be formed, resulting in high isolation. For demonstration, the coaxial-resonator-based filtering switch is designed and fabricated. Good agreement between simulated and measured results verifies the proposed ideas. Comparison with other reported filtering switches is given. The proposed filtering switch shows the advantages of high Q-factor, relatively compact size, and wide stopband responses, which is attractive in wireless systems

Band-pass Filter with Harmonics Suppression Capability

This paper presents a Band-pass Filter (BPF) with a very wide suppressions band. The filter design is based on a modified U-shaped slot. Two pair of U-shaped slots is used to ensure that the filter can suppress the unwanted frequencies up to 4th harmonics. In order to achieve sharp skirt, two transmission zeroes are created near the passband area. Additional transmission zeroes are introduced to deepen the stopband area. Therefore, the passband range starts from 1.3 to 3.3 GHz and the stopband range from 3.3 GHz up to 9 GHz are achieved. The filter performances are verified through simulated and measured results

Development of tunable and miniature microwave filters for modern wireless communications

Due to the increasing demand for new wireless services and applications, the high level of integration and the coexistence of multi-standard (MS) or multi-band operations into a single device are becoming defining trends in designing microwave filters. This has driven considerable technological advances in reconfigurable/tunable and miniaturized filters. More specifically, reconfigurable/tunable filters that tune to different frequency bands instead of classical filter banks have great potential to significantly reduce the system size and complexity; while reducing the filter size becomes essential to achieve the highest degree of integration density in compact and portable wireless devices. In the light of this scenario, the objective of this dissertation is to develop the new design technologies, concepts and filtering configurations for tunable microstrip filters and compact passive microwave filters. To this aim, this dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part (Part I) focuses on the designs of novel varactor-tuned microstrip filters with advanced performances. In this aspect, new topologies for realizing tunable lowpass and highpass filters are firstly developed. State-of-the-art performances, including wide tuning range, high selectivity with multiple transmission zeros, low insertion loss and compact size for all the tuning states are obtained in both of these filters. Secondly, two novel classes of tunable bandpass filters are presented. One of them is designed based on varactor-loaded parallel-coupled microstrip lines (PCML) and short-circuited stubs, which allows the lower passband edge together with two transmission zeros located around the lower passband skirt to be reconfigured separately. While the other tunable bandpass filter is constructed by the combination of tunable bandpass and lowpass filters, featuring both centre frequency and bandwidth tunabilities, as well as high selectivity with abundant transmission zeros. Furthermore, a new concept of tunable lossy filter is demonstrated, which attempts to achieve an equivalent high-Q tunable performance by using low-Q resonators. This concept makes the presented tunable combline filter interesting for some frequency-agile applications in which the low in-band loss variation and high selectivity are much desired while the absolute insertion loss can be a tradeoff. The second part (Part II) is devoted to the design of miniaturized passive microwave filters with improved characteristics. For this, the concept of artificial right-handed and left-handed transmission lines are applied to the signal interference filtering topology, which results in a compact circuit size and good out-of-band performance. In particular, for a further size reduction, such filter is implemented in the forms of multilayered structure by using liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology. Additionally, another two types of miniaturized bandpass filters using stepped impedance resonators are demonstrated, which are implemented based on different fabrication processes (i.e. LCP bonded multilayer PCB technology and a standard planar PCB technology). Among their main features, the compact size, wide passband, broad stopband with multiple transmission zeros and circuit simplicity are highlighted. For all the proposed design techniques and filtering structures, exhaustive theoretical analyses are done, and design equations and guide rules are provided. Furthermore, all the proposed schemes and/or ideas have been experimentally validated through the design, implementation and measurement of different filters. The fabrication processes of multilayer technology utilized: liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) bonded multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) technology, are also demonstrated for reference. All of the results achieved in this dissertation make the proposed filters very attractive for their use in modern wireless communication systems

Design and optimization of a new compact 2.4 GHz-bandpass filter using DGS technique and U-shaped resonators for WLAN applications

The objective of this work is the study, the design and the optimization of an innovative structure of a network of coupled copper metal lines deposited on the upper surface of a R04003 type substrate of height 0.813 with a ground deformed by slots (DGS). This structure is designed in an optimal configuration for use in the design of narrowband bandpass filter for wireless communication systems (WLAN), the aim of use the defected ground structure is to remove the unwanted harmonics in the rejection band, the simulation results obtained from this structure using CST software show a very high selectivity of the designed filter, a very low level of losses (less than-0.45 dB) with a size overall size of 43.5x34.3 mm