Analysis of Non-Idealities on CMOS Passive Mixers

In the current state of the art, WiFi-alike standards require achieving a high Image Rejection Ratio (IRR) while having low power consumption. Thus, quadrature structures based on passive ring mixers offer an attractive and widely used solution, as they can achieve a high IRR while being a passive block. However, it is not easy for the designer to know when a simple quadrature scheme is enough and when they should aim for a double quadrature structure approach, as the latter can improve the performance at the cost of requiring more area and complexity. This study focuses on the IRR, which crucially depends on the symmetry between the I and Q branches. Non-idealities (component mismatches, parasitics, etc.) will degrade the ideal balance by affecting the mixer and/or following/previous stages. This paper analyses the effect of imbalances, providing the constraints for obtaining a 40 dB IRR in the case of a conversion from a one-hundred-megahertz signal to the five-gigahertz range (upconversion) and vice versa (downconversion) for simple and double quadrature schemes. All simulations were carried out with complete device models from 65 nm standard CMOS technology and also a post-layout Monte Carlo analysis was included for mismatch analysis. The final section includes guidelines to help designers choose the most adequate scheme for each case

Microwave resonant sensors

Microwave resonant sensors use the spectral characterisation of a resonator to make high sensitivity measurements of material electromagnetic properties at GHz frequencies. They have been applied to a wide range of industrial and scientific measurements, and used to study a diversity of physical phenomena. Recently, a number of challenging dynamic applications have been developed that require very high speed and high performance, such as kinetic inductance detectors and scanning microwave microscopes. Others, such as sensors for miniaturised fluidic systems and non-invasive blood glucose sensors, also require low system cost and small footprint. This thesis investigates new and improved techniques for implementing microwave resonant sensor systems, aiming to enhance their suitability for such demanding tasks. This was achieved through several original contributions: new insights into coupling, dynamics, and statistical properties of sensors; a hardware implementation of a realtime multitone readout system; and the development of efficient signal processing algorithms for the extraction of sensor measurements from resonator response data. The performance of this improved sensor system was verified through a number of novel measurements, achieving a higher sampling rate than the best available technology yet with equivalent accuracy and precision. At the same time, these experiments revealed unforeseen applications in liquid metrology and precision microwave heating of miniature flow systems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Microwave resonant sensors

Microwave resonant sensors use the spectral characterisation of a resonator to make high sensitivity measurements of material electromagnetic properties at GHz frequencies. They have been applied to a wide range of industrial and scientific measurements, and used to study a diversity of physical phenomena. Recently, a number of challenging dynamic applications have been developed that require very high speed and high performance, such as kinetic inductance detectors and scanning microwave microscopes. Others, such as sensors for miniaturised fluidic systems and non-invasive blood glucose sensors, also require low system cost and small footprint. This thesis investigates new and improved techniques for implementing microwave resonant sensor systems, aiming to enhance their suitability for such demanding tasks. This was achieved through several original contributions: new insights into coupling, dynamics, and statistical properties of sensors; a hardware implementation of a realtime multitone readout system; and the development of efficient signal processing algorithms for the extraction of sensor measurements from resonator response data. The performance of this improved sensor system was verified through a number of novel measurements, achieving a higher sampling rate than the best available technology yet with equivalent accuracy and precision. At the same time, these experiments revealed unforeseen applications in liquid metrology and precision microwave heating of miniature flow systems

Dirty RF Signal Processing for Mitigation of Receiver Front-end Non-linearity

Moderne drahtlose Kommunikationssysteme stellen hohe und teilweise gegensätzliche Anforderungen an die Hardware der Funkmodule, wie z.B. niedriger Energieverbrauch, große Bandbreite und hohe Linearität. Die Gewährleistung einer ausreichenden Linearität ist, neben anderen analogen Parametern, eine Herausforderung im praktischen Design der Funkmodule. Der Fokus der Dissertation liegt auf breitbandigen HF-Frontends für Software-konfigurierbare Funkmodule, die seit einigen Jahren kommerziell verfügbar sind. Die praktischen Herausforderungen und Grenzen solcher flexiblen Funkmodule offenbaren sich vor allem im realen Experiment. Eines der Hauptprobleme ist die Sicherstellung einer ausreichenden analogen Performanz über einen weiten Frequenzbereich. Aus einer Vielzahl an analogen Störeffekten behandelt die Arbeit die Analyse und Minderung von Nichtlinearitäten in Empfängern mit direkt-umsetzender Architektur. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei Signalverarbeitungsstrategien zur Minderung nichtlinear verursachter Interferenz - ein Algorithmus, der besser unter "Dirty RF"-Techniken bekannt ist. Ein digitales Verfahren nach der Vorwärtskopplung wird durch intensive Simulationen, Messungen und Implementierung in realer Hardware verifiziert. Um die Lücken zwischen Theorie und praktischer Anwendbarkeit zu schließen und das Verfahren in reale Funkmodule zu integrieren, werden verschiedene Untersuchungen durchgeführt. Hierzu wird ein erweitertes Verhaltensmodell entwickelt, das die Struktur direkt-umsetzender Empfänger am besten nachbildet und damit alle Verzerrungen im HF- und Basisband erfasst. Darüber hinaus wird die Leistungsfähigkeit des Algorithmus unter realen Funkkanal-Bedingungen untersucht. Zusätzlich folgt die Vorstellung einer ressourceneffizienten Echtzeit-Implementierung des Verfahrens auf einem FPGA. Abschließend diskutiert die Arbeit verschiedene Anwendungsfelder, darunter spektrales Sensing, robuster GSM-Empfang und GSM-basiertes Passivradar. Es wird gezeigt, dass nichtlineare Verzerrungen erfolgreich in der digitalen Domäne gemindert werden können, wodurch die Bitfehlerrate gestörter modulierter Signale sinkt und der Anteil nichtlinear verursachter Interferenz minimiert wird. Schließlich kann durch das Verfahren die effektive Linearität des HF-Frontends stark erhöht werden. Damit wird der zuverlässige Betrieb eines einfachen Funkmoduls unter dem Einfluss der Empfängernichtlinearität möglich. Aufgrund des flexiblen Designs ist der Algorithmus für breitbandige Empfänger universal einsetzbar und ist nicht auf Software-konfigurierbare Funkmodule beschränkt.Today's wireless communication systems place high requirements on the radio's hardware that are largely mutually exclusive, such as low power consumption, wide bandwidth, and high linearity. Achieving a sufficient linearity, among other analogue characteristics, is a challenging issue in practical transceiver design. The focus of this thesis is on wideband receiver RF front-ends for software defined radio technology, which became commercially available in the recent years. Practical challenges and limitations are being revealed in real-world experiments with these radios. One of the main problems is to ensure a sufficient RF performance of the front-end over a wide bandwidth. The thesis covers the analysis and mitigation of receiver non-linearity of typical direct-conversion receiver architectures, among other RF impairments. The main focus is on DSP-based algorithms for mitigating non-linearly induced interference, an approach also known as "Dirty RF" signal processing techniques. The conceived digital feedforward mitigation algorithm is verified through extensive simulations, RF measurements, and implementation in real hardware. Various studies are carried out that bridge the gap between theory and practical applicability of this approach, especially with the aim of integrating that technique into real devices. To this end, an advanced baseband behavioural model is developed that matches to direct-conversion receiver architectures as close as possible, and thus considers all generated distortions at RF and baseband. In addition, the algorithm's performance is verified under challenging fading conditions. Moreover, the thesis presents a resource-efficient real-time implementation of the proposed solution on an FPGA. Finally, different use cases are covered in the thesis that includes spectrum monitoring or sensing, GSM downlink reception, and GSM-based passive radar. It is shown that non-linear distortions can be successfully mitigated at system level in the digital domain, thereby decreasing the bit error rate of distorted modulated signals and reducing the amount of non-linearly induced interference. Finally, the effective linearity of the front-end is increased substantially. Thus, the proper operation of a low-cost radio under presence of receiver non-linearity is possible. Due to the flexible design, the algorithm is generally applicable for wideband receivers and is not restricted to software defined radios

Study of solid-state integrated microwave circuits Scientific report no. 1, 15 Sep. - 14 Dec. 1965

Solid state microwave devices applied to integrated circuit

Advanced Trends in Wireless Communications

Physical limitations on wireless communication channels impose huge challenges to reliable communication. Bandwidth limitations, propagation loss, noise and interference make the wireless channel a narrow pipe that does not readily accommodate rapid flow of data. Thus, researches aim to design systems that are suitable to operate in such channels, in order to have high performance quality of service. Also, the mobility of the communication systems requires further investigations to reduce the complexity and the power consumption of the receiver. This book aims to provide highlights of the current research in the field of wireless communications. The subjects discussed are very valuable to communication researchers rather than researchers in the wireless related areas. The book chapters cover a wide range of wireless communication topics

Spatially Distributed Interferometric Receiver for 5G Wireless Communications and Sensing Applications

RÉSUMÉ Les systèmes de télécommunications sans fils ont connu une révolution et un succès sans précédent dans l’histoire humaine, et ce depuis l’introduction de la première génération des réseaux mobiles au début des années 1980. Alors que ce premier standard de communication était essentiellement basé sur des méthodes de modulation analogique du signal, ce qui ne permettait que la transmission de la voix, les générations des systèmes de télécommunications qui ont succédé depuis le deuxième standard mondial GSM, se sont basées sur la transmission numérique qui représente une plateforme universelle pour le traitement des données de toute sorte (voix, donnés texte, vidéos haute définition, etc, ). En effet, le traitement numérique du signal qui a débuté avec les premiers travaux sur la théorie de l’information, aux laboratoires Bell aux États-Unis vers la fin des années quarante du siècle passé, constitue le noyau dur de tous les standards de communication, y-compris la cinquième génération des réseaux 5G, dont la date d’entrée au marché mondial est prévue vers le début de l’année prochaine 2020. En effet, les réseaux de communications sans fils actuels, avec au sommet de la pyramide le standard 4G-LTE, ne peuvent pas répondre aux attentes des utilisateurs et des entreprises en termes de débit de transmission de données qui ne cesse d’augmenter d’une façon exponentielle, et pouvant atteindre les 40 Exabytes par mois vers 2020. De plus, la naissance du concept de l’internet des objets (IoT) qui consiste en l’interconnexion d’un très grand nombre de mini-capteurs sans fils qui vont gérer des milliers, voire des millions d’activités des toutes sortes, tels que l’aide à la conduite des voitures dans les routes, le contrôle des températures et des feux dans les régions forestières, la transmission des données médicales des patients en temps réel vers les centres hospitaliers, etc. Dans le but de répondre aux besoins actuels et futurs, la venue de la cinquième génération des réseaux des communications 5G est devenue urgente plus que jamais. En effet, ce nouveau standard ne sera pas une amélioration incrémentale de la 4G-LTE, mais sera plutôt toute une nouvelle plateforme intelligente offrant des débits de données allant jusqu'à plusieurs gigabits par seconde, avec un temps de latence ne dépassant pas 1 milliseconde dans le but d’assurer une qualité de service sans égal.----------ABSTRACT Wireless communication systems are one of the most famous success stories in the field of engineering in modern era. In fact, the birth of the first generation of mobile communications goes back to the early 1980’s. This first standard was based on analog modulation with the aim of transmitting only voice signals. And with the progress made in signal processing techniques and the large-scale productions of digital integrated circuits, the second generations of wireless communications was introduced in the nineties of the last century. Since then, a new standard for wireless mobile systems has been introduced every ten years or so, with ever increasing data rates, lower latency and better quality of service, thanks to the adoption of sophisticated modulation schemes and robust error correcting codes, in conjunction with improved hardware capabilities over the years. The magic progress in wireless technologies is strongly related to the magnificent research work pioneered by Claude Shannon on information theory in 1948 at Bell-labs, in combination with continuous research efforts conducted by millions of brilliant minds worldwide. However, the current wireless generation of wireless systems 4G-LTE is unable to follow the explosion of wireless traffic, which is trigged by the exponential demand for higher data rates, which would create monthly traffic of about 40 Exabytes by 2020. Moreover, the birth of Internet of Things (IoT) concept is a driving force towards the emergence of a huge platform of billions of interconnected devices and sensors, used to control and monitor an ever-increasing number of applications (forests fire detection, intelligent cars, real-time health monitoring for sick and old people , etc.). As a matter of fact, the upcoming of the fifth generation (5G) of wireless mobile networks has become a very urgent necessity in order to meet the widely-discussed system requirements in terms of capacity, latency and quality of service. Consequently, elements of the physical layer must be redrawn and reorganized in order to avoid the prohibited cost of network deployment and power consumption of billions of interconnected devices