Integrated RF oscillators and LO signal generation circuits

This thesis deals with fully integrated LC oscillators and local oscillator (LO) signal generation circuits. In communication systems a good-quality LO signal for up- and down-conversion in transmitters is needed. The LO signal needs to span the required frequency range and have good frequency stability and low phase noise. Furthermore, most modern systems require accurate quadrature (IQ) LO signals. This thesis tackles these challenges by presenting a detailed study of LC oscillators, monolithic elements for good-quality LC resonators, and circuits for IQ-signal generation and for frequency conversion, as well as many experimental circuits. Monolithic coils and variable capacitors are essential, and this thesis deals with good structures of these devices and their proper modeling. As experimental test devices, over forty monolithic inductors and thirty varactors have been implemented, measured and modeled. Actively synthesized reactive elements were studied as replacements for these passive devices. At first glance these circuits show promising characteristics, but closer noise and nonlinearity analysis reveals that these circuits suffer from high noise levels and a small dynamic range. Nine circuit implementations with various actively synthesized variable capacitors were done. Quadrature signal generation can be performed with three different methods, and these are analyzed in the thesis. Frequency conversion circuits are used for alleviating coupling problems or to expand the number of frequency bands covered. The thesis includes an analysis of single-sideband mixing, frequency dividers, and frequency multipliers, which are used to perform the four basic arithmetical operations for the frequency tone. Two design cases are presented. The first one is a single-sideband mixing method for the generation of WiMedia UWB LO-signals, and the second one is a frequency conversion unit for a digital period synthesizer. The last part of the thesis presents five research projects. In the first one a temperature-compensated GaAs MESFET VCO was developed. The second one deals with circuit and device development for an experimental-level BiCMOS process. A cable-modem RF tuner IC using a SiGe process was developed in the third project, and a CMOS flip-chip VCO module in the fourth one. Finally, two frequency synthesizers for UWB radios are presented

Receiver Front-Ends in CMOS with Ultra-Low Power Consumption

Historically, research on radio communication has focused on improving range and data rate. In the last decade, however, there has been an increasing demand for low power and low cost radios that can provide connectivity with small devices around us. They should be able to offer basic connectivity with a power consumption low enough to function extended periods of time on a single battery charge, or even energy scavenged from the surroundings. This work is focused on the design of ultra-low power receiver front-ends intended for a receiver operating in the 2.4GHz ISM band, having an active power consumption of 1mW and chip area of 1mm². Low power consumption and small size make it hard to achieve good sensitivity and tolerance to interference. This thesis starts with an introduction to the overall receiver specifications, low power radio and radio standards, front-end and LO generation architectures and building blocks, followed by the four included papers. Paper I demonstrates an inductorless front-end operating at 915MHz, including a frequency divider for quadrature LO generation. An LO generator operating at 2.4GHz is shown in Paper II, enabling a front-end operating above 2GHz. Papers III and IV contain circuits with combined front-end and LO generator operating at or above the full 2.45GHz target frequency. They use VCO and frequency divider topologies that offer efficient operation and low quadrature error. An efficient passive-mixer design with improved suppression of interference, enables an LNA-less design in Paper IV capable of operating without a SAW-filter

Advanced CMOS Integrated Circuit Design and Application

The recent development of various application systems and platforms, such as 5G, B5G, 6G, and IoT, is based on the advancement of CMOS integrated circuit (IC) technology that enables them to implement high-performance chipsets. In addition to development in the traditional fields of analog and digital integrated circuits, the development of CMOS IC design and application in high-power and high-frequency operations, which was previously thought to be possible only with compound semiconductor technology, is a core technology that drives rapid industrial development. This book aims to highlight advances in all aspects of CMOS integrated circuit design and applications without discriminating between different operating frequencies, output powers, and the analog/digital domains. Specific topics in the book include: Next-generation CMOS circuit design and application; CMOS RF/microwave/millimeter-wave/terahertz-wave integrated circuits and systems; CMOS integrated circuits specially used for wireless or wired systems and applications such as converters, sensors, interfaces, frequency synthesizers/generators/rectifiers, and so on; Algorithm and signal-processing methods to improve the performance of CMOS circuits and systems

A New and Efficient Method of Designing Low Noise Microwave Oscillators

Die Dimensionierung von Mikrowellen-Oszillatoren war und ist das Thema vieler Veröffentlichungen. Zu einem gewissen Grade wurden Oszillatoren primär aufgrund experimenteller Daten und Erfahrungen gebaut und deren Eigenschaften dann gemessen und die Daten veröffentlicht. Von der Anwenderseite her ist es jedoch wichtig und sinnvoll, dass man von einem Satz Spezifikationen ausgeht und dann eine Synthese-Prozedur hat, die zur erfolgreichen Schaltung führt. Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation wurde zunächst einmal die vorhandene internationale Literatur untersucht und dahin geprüft, welche Ansätze zum optimalen Design vorhanden sind. Hier werden die entsprechenden Literaturstellen aufgeführt und kommentiert. Einer der beliebtesten Oszillatorschaltungen ist die Colpitts-Schaltung. Diese wird im Rahmen der Dissertation genauer untersucht, wobei zunächst das Kleinsignalverhalten betrachtet wird und dann das Großsignalverhalten ausführlich dargestellt wird. Es werden Mikrowellen Bipolar-Transistoren verwendet, da sich deren Großsignalparameter stärker ändert als die von Feldeffekttransistoren. Es folgt sodann eine Darstellung des Rauschens innerhalb des Transistors. Der Kern der Arbeit stellt eine mathematische Analyse dar, die es gestattet, sowohl das Großsignalverhalten als auch das Rauschen des Oszillators zu berechnen, wobei erstmalig in der Literatur das Verhalten der Ausgangsleistung und des Rauschens des Oszillators genau betrachtet wird und für beides der beste Arbeitspunkt berechnet wurde. Um dieses zu unterstützen, wurden gleichzeitig verfügbare Resonatoren angesprochen und die Messung des Großsignalverhaltens des Transistors sowie die Messung des Phasenrauschens dargestellt. Nach der mathematischen Darstellung des Problems wurden eine Reihe von Oszillatoren nach dem Schema aufgebaut und vermessen. Es zeigt sich eine exzellente Übereinstimmung zwischen der Messung, der Synthese-Berechnung, die auch eine Analyse beinhaltet und einer vollen HB-Analyse mit einem kommerziellen Simulator. Insgesamt wurden drei Methode zur Rauschberechnung und Optimierung dargestellt. 1. Eine Erweiterung der Leeson-Formel mit exakter Berechnung aller notwendigen Parameter. 2. Die Berechnung des zur Entdämpfung notwendigen negativen Widerstandes des Oszillators im Zeitbereich unter Einbeziehung seines Rauschens. 3. Die Rausch-Berechnung des Oszillators mit allen Rauschbeiträgen des Oszillators als Regelschleifen-Problem. Die Arbeit wird abgerundet durch drei diskrete Beispiele im Anhang, bei denen die generelle Berechnung des Oszillators das Verhalten im Großsignalbereich und abschließend die Berechnung eines optimierten Oszillators mit allen parasitären Elementen durchgeführt wurde.How to design microwave oscillators has been and is the subject of many publications. To a certain degree oscillators had been designed based on experimental data and experiences and the resulting performance has been measured and published. The designer, however, considers it important and useful to start from a set of specifications and then applies a synthesis procedure, which leads to a successful circuit. Within the scope of this dissertation, the existing literature has been searched to find which successful and optimum design-procedures were published. The relevant literature is referenced and commented. One of the more favorable oscillator circuits is the Colpitts circuit. This dissertation takes a closer look at it, starting with a small signal performance and then the large signal performance is discussed in detail. Since the large signal parameters deviate further from the small signal parameters, microwave bipolar transistors are being used rather than field-effect transistors. Next is a discussion of the noise of a transistor. The core of the work is a mathematical analysis, which allows to calculate both large signal performance and noise performance whereby as a first the output power and the noise are simultaneously considered and the optimum bias point is found. In order to support this, various resonators are discussed. The measurement of large signal parameters of the transistor is shown and finally phase noise measurements are presented. Following the mathematical solution of the problem, various oscillators had been built following this procedure and were measured. There is an excellent agreement between measurement and this synthesis calculation, which also contains an analysis. An excellent agreement is also found using a HB-based commercial simulator. In total three methods to calculate the phase noise and obtain best performance are demonstrated. 1.An extension of the Leeson formula with exact calculation of all necessary parameters. 2.The calculation of the negative noisy resistance necessary to start oscillation is calculated in time domain. 3.Noise calculation of an oscillator including all noises as a loop problem. This work finishes by showing three discrete cases in the appendix. Here the oscillators general performance is calculated using large signal conditions and finally an optimized oscillator with all parasitic elements is shown

Design of frequency synthesizers for short range wireless transceivers

The rapid growth of the market for short-range wireless devices, with standards such as Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) being the most important, has created a need for highly integrated transceivers that target drastic power and area reduction while providing a high level of integration. The radio section of the devices designed to establish communications using these standards is the limiting factor for the power reduction efforts. A key building block in a transceiver is the frequency synthesizer, since it operates at the highest frequency of the system and consumes a very large portion of the total power in the radio. This dissertation presents the basic theory and a design methodology of frequency synthesizers targeted for short-range wireless applications. Three different examples of synthesizers are presented. First a frequency synthesizer integrated in a Bluetooth receiver fabricated in 0.35μm CMOS technology. The receiver uses a low-IF architecture to downconvert the incoming Bluetooth signal to 2MHz. The second synthesizer is integrated within a dual-mode receiver capable of processing signals of the Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b) standards. It is implemented in BiCMOS technology and operates the voltage controlled oscillator at twice the required frequency to generate quadrature signals through a divide-by-two circuit. A phase switching prescaler is featured in the synthesizer. A large capacitance is integrated on-chip using a capacitance multiplier circuit that provides a drastic area reduction while adding a negligible phase noise contribution. The third synthesizer is an extension of the second example. The operation range of the VCO is extended to cover a frequency band from 4.8GHz to 5.85GHz. By doing this, the synthesizer is capable of generating LO signals for Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11a, b and g standards. The quadrature output of the 5 - 6 GHz signal is generated through a first order RC - CR network with an automatic calibration loop. The loop uses a high frequency phase detector to measure the deviation from the 90° separation between the I and Q branches and implements an algorithm to minimize the phase errors between the I and Q branches and their differential counterparts

CMOS Signal Synthesizers for Emerging RF-to-Optical Applications

The need for clean and powerful signal generation is ubiquitous, with applications spanning the spectrum from RF to mm-Wave, to into and beyond the terahertz-gap. RF applications including mobile telephony and microprocessors have effectively harnessed mixed-signal integration in CMOS to realize robust on-chip signal sources calibrated against adverse ambient conditions. Combined with low cost and high yield, the CMOS component of hand-held devices costs a few cents per part per million parts. This low cost, and integrated digital processing, make CMOS an attractive option for applications like high-resolution imaging and ranging, and the emerging 5-G communication space. RADAR techniques when expanded to optical frequencies can enable micrometers of resolution for 3D imaging. These applications, however, impose upto 100x more exacting specifications on power and spectral purity at much higher frequencies than conventional RF synthesizers. This generation of applications will present unconventional challenges for transistor technologies - whether it is to squeeze performance in the conventionally used spectrum, already wrung dry, or signal generation and system design in the relatively emptier mm-Wave to sub-mmWave spectrum, much of the latter falling in the ``Terahertz Gap". Indeed, transistor scaling and innovative device physics leading to new transistor topologies have yielded higher cut-off frequencies in CMOS, though still lagging well behind SiGe and III-V semiconductors. To avoid multimodule solutions with functionality partitioned across different technologies, CMOS must be pushed out of its comfort zone, and technology scaling has to have accompanying breakthroughs in design approaches not only at the system but also at the block level. In this thesis, while not targeting a specific application, we seek to formulate the obstacles in synthesizing high frequency, high power and low noise signals in CMOS and construct a coherent design methodology to address them. Based on this, three novel prototypes to overcome the limiting factors in each case are presented. The first half of this thesis deals with high frequency signal synthesis and power generation in CMOS. Outside the range of frequencies where the transistor has gain, frequency generation necessitates harmonic extraction either as harmonic oscillators or as frequency multipliers. We augment the traditional maximum oscillation frequency metric (fmax), which only accounts for transistor losses, with passive component loss to derive an effective fmax metric. We then present a methodology for building oscillators at this fmax, the Maximum Gain Ring Oscillator. Next, we explore generating large signals beyond fmax through harmonic extraction in multipliers. Applying concepts of waveform shaping, we demonstrate a Power Mixer that engineers transistor nonlinearity by manipulating the amplitudes and relative phase shifts of different device nodes to maximize performance at a specific harmonic beyond device cut-off. The second half proposes a new architecture for an ultra-low noise phase-locked loop (PLL), the Reference-Sampling PLL. In conventional PLLs, a noisy buffer converts the slow, low-noise sine-wave reference signal to a jittery square-wave clock against which the phase of a noisy voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is corrected. We eliminate this reference buffer, and measure phase error by sampling the reference sine-wave with the 50x faster VCO waveform already available on chip, and selecting the relevant sample with voltage proportional to phase error. By avoiding the N-squared multiplication of the high-power reference buffer noise, and directly using voltage-mode phase error to control the VCO, we eliminate several noisy components in the controlling loop for ultra-low integrated jitter for a given power consumption. Further, isolation of the VCO tank from any varying load, unlike other contemporary divider-less PLL architectures, results in an architecture with record performance in the low-noise and low-spur space. We conclude with work that brings together concepts developed for clean, high-power signal generation towards a hybrid CMOS-Optical approach to Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) Light-Detection-And-Ranging (LIDAR). Cost-effective tunable lasers are temperature-sensitive and have nonlinear tuning profiles, rendering precise frequency modulations or 'chirps' untenable. Locking them to an electronic reference through an electro-optic PLL, and electronically calibrating the control signal for nonlinearity and ambient sensitivity, can make such chirps possible. Approaches that build on the body of advances in electrical PLLs to control the performance, and ease the specification on the design of optical systems are proposed. Eventually, we seek to leverage the twin advantages of silicon-intensive integration and low-cost high-yield towards developing a single-chip solution that uses on-chip signal processing and phased arrays to generate precise and robust chirps for an electronically-steerable fine LIDAR beam

Flexible Receivers in CMOS for Wireless Communication

Consumers are pushing for higher data rates to support more services that are introduced in mobile applications. As an example, a few years ago video-on-demand was only accessed through landlines, but today wireless devices are frequently used to stream video. To support this, more flexible network solutions have merged in 4G, introducing new technical problems to the mobile terminal. New techniques are thus needed, and this dissertation explores five different ideas for receiver front-ends, that are cost-efficient and flexible both in performance and operating frequency. All ideas have been implemented in chips fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology and verified by measurements. Paper I explores a voltage-mode receiver front-end where sub-threshold positive feedback transistors are introduced to increase the linearity in combination with a bootstrapped passive mixer. Paper II builds on the idea of 8-phase harmonic rejection, but simplifies it to a 6-phase solution that can reject noise and interferers at the 3rd order harmonic of the local oscillator frequency. This provides a good trade-off between the traditional quadrature mixer and the 8- phase harmonic rejection mixer. Furthermore, a very compact inductor-less low noise amplifier is introduced. Paper III investigates the use of global negative feedback in a receiver front-end, and also introduces an auxiliary path that can cancel noise from the main path. In paper IV, another global feedback based receiver front-end is designed, but with positive feedback instead of negative. By introducing global positive feedback, the resistance of the transistors in a passive mixer-first receiver front-end can be reduced to achieve a lower noise figure, while still maintaining input matching. Finally, paper V introduces a full receiver chain with a single-ended to differential LNA, current-mode downconversion mixers, and a baseband circuity that merges the functionalities of the transimpedance amplifier, channel-select filter, and analog-to-digital converter into one single power-efficient block