Radio Frequency Digital To Analog Converters

The network latency in fifth generation mobile technology (5G) will be around one millisecond which is much lower than in 4G technology. This significantly faster response time together with higher information capacity and ultra-reliable communication in 5G technology will pave the way for future innovations in a smart and connected society. This new 5G network should be built on a reasonable wireless infrastructure and 5G radio base-stations that can be vastly deployed. That is, while the electrical specification of a radio base-station in 5G should be met in order to have the network functioning, the size, weight and power consumption of the radio system should be optimized to be able to commercially deploy these radios in a huge network. As the number of antenna elements increases in massive multiple-input multiple-output based radios such as in 5G, designing true multi-band base-station radios, with efficient physical size, power consumption and cost in emerging cellular bands especially in mid-bands (frequencies up to 10~GHz), is becoming a challenge. This demands a hard integration of radio components; particularly the radio's digital application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with high-performance energy-efficient multi-band data converters. In this dissertation radio frequency digital-to-analog converter (RF DAC) and semi-digital finite-impulse response (FIR) filter digital-to-analog converter has been studied. Different techniques are used in these structures to improve the transmitter's overall performance. In the RF DAC part, a radio frequency digital-to-analog converter solution is presented, which is capable of monolithic integration into today's digital ASIC due to its digital-in-nature architecture, while fulfills the stringent requirements of cellular network radio base station linearity and bandwidth. A voltage-mode conversion method is used as output stage, and configurable mixing logic is employed in the data path to create a higher frequency lobe and utilize the output signal in the first or the second Nyquist zone and hence achieving output frequencies up to the sample rate. In the semi-digital FIR part, optimization problem formulation for semi-digital FIR digital-to-analog converter is investigated. Magnitude and energy metrics with variable coefficient precision are defined for cascaded digital Sigma-Delta modulators, semi-digital FIR filter, and Sinc roll-off frequency response of the DAC. A set of analog metrics as hardware cost is also defined to be included in semi-digital FIR DAC optimization problem formulation. It is shown that hardware cost of the semi-digital FIR DAC, can be reduced by introducing flexible coefficient precision in filter optimization while the semi-digital FIR DAC is not over-designed either. Different use cases are selected to demonstrate the optimization problem formulations. A combination of magnitude metric, energy metric, coefficient precision and analog metric are used in different use cases of the optimization problem formulation and solved to find out the optimum set of analog FIR taps. Moreover, a direct digital-to-RF converter (DRFC) is presented in this thesis where a semi-digital FIR topology utilizes voltage-mode RF DAC cells to synthesize spectrally clean signals at RF frequencies. Due to its digital-in-nature design, the DRFC benefits from technology scaling and can be monolithically integrated into advance digital VLSI systems. A fourth-order single-bit quantizer bandpass digital Sigma-Delta modulator is used preceding the DRFC, resulting in a high in-band signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The out-of-band spectrally-shaped quantization noise is attenuated by an embedded semi-digital FIR filter. The RF output frequencies are synthesized by a configurable voltage-mode RF DAC solution with a high linearity performance. A compensation technique to cancel the code-dependent supply current variation in voltage-mode RF DAC for radio frequency direct digital frequency synthesizer is also presented in this dissertation and is studied analytically. The voltage-mode RF DAC and the compensation technique are mathematically modeled and system-level simulation is performed to support the analytical discussion.

With the proliferation of wireless networks, there is a need for more compact, low-cost, power efficient transmitters that are capable of supporting the various communication standards, including Bluetooth, WLAN, GSM/EDGE, WCDMA and 4G of 3GPP cellular. This book describes a novel idea of RF digital-to-analog converters (RFDAC) and demonstrates how they can realize all-digital, fully-integrated RF transmitters that support all the current multi-mode and multi-band communication standards. With this book the reader will: Understand the challenges of realizing a universal CMOS RF transmitter Recognize the design issues and the advantages and disadvantages related to analog and digital transmitter architectures Master designing an RF transmitter from system level modeling techniques down to circuit designs and their related layout know-hows Grasp digital polar and I/Q calibration techniques as well as the digital predistortion approaches Learn how to generate appropriate digital I/Q baseband signals in order to apply them to the test chip and measure the RF-DAC performance. Highlights the benefits and implementation challenges of software-defined transmitters using CMOS technology Includes various types of analog and digital RF transmitter architectures for wireless applications Presents an all-digital polar RFDAC transmitter architecture and describes in detail its implementation Presents a new all-digital I/Q RFDAC transmitter architecture and its implementation Provides comprehensive design techniques from system level to circuit level Introduces several digital predistortion techniques which can be used in RF transmitters Describes the entire flow of system modeling, circuit simulation, layout techniques and the measurement process

This book contains the revised contributions of the 18 tutorial speakers at the tenth AACD 2001 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, April 24-26. The conference was organized by Marcel Pelgrom, Philips Research Eindhoven, and Ed van Tuijl, Philips Research Eindhoven and Twente University, Enschede, the Netherlands. The program committee consisted of: Johan Huijsing, Delft University of Technology Arthur van Roermund, Eindhoven University of Technology Michiel Steyaert, Catholic University of Leuven The program was concentrated around three main topics in analog circuit design. Each of these topics has been covered by six papers. The three main topics are: Scalable Analog Circuit Design High-Speed D/A Converters RF Power Amplifiers Other topics covered before in this series: 2000 High-Speed Analog-to-Digital Converters Mixed Signal Design PLL’s and Synthesizers 1999 XDSL and other Communication Systems RF MOST Models Integrated Filters and Oscillators 1998 1-Volt- Electronics Mixed-Mode Systems Low-Noise and RF Power Amplifiers for Telecommunication vii viii 1997 RF A-D Converters Sensor and Actuator Interfaces Low-Noise Oscillators, PLL’s and Synthesizers 1996 RF CMOS Circuit Design Bandpass Sigma Delta and other Converters Translinear Circuits 1995 Low-Noise, Low-Power, Low-Voltage Mixed Mode with CAD Trials Voltage, Current and Time References 1994 Low-Power Low Voltage Integrated Filters Smart power 1993 Mixed-Mode A/D Design Sensor Interfaces Communications Circuits 1992 Op Amps ADC’s Analog CAD We hope to serve the analog design community with these series of books and plan to continue this series in the future. Johan H.

Based on the popular Artech House classic, Digital Communication Systems Engineering with Software-Defined Radio, this book provides a practical approach to quickly learning the software-defined radio (SDR) concepts needed for work in the field. This up-to-date volume guides readers on how to quickly prototype wireless designs using SDR for real-world testing and experimentation. This book explores advanced wireless communication techniques such as OFDM, LTE, WLA, and hardware targeting. Readers will gain an understanding of the core concepts behind wireless hardware, such as the radio frequency front-end, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, as well as various processing technologies. Moreover, this volume includes chapters on timing estimation, matched filtering, frame synchronization message decoding, and source coding. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is explained and details about HDL code generation and deployment are provided. The book concludes with coverage of the WLAN toolbox with OFDM beacon reception and the LTE toolbox with downlink reception. Multiple case studies are provided throughout the book. Both MATLAB and Simulink source code are included to assist readers with their projects in the field.

Advances in Analog and RF IC Design for Wireless Communication Systems gives technical introductions to the latest and most significant topics in the area of circuit design of analog/RF ICs for wireless communication systems, emphasizing wireless infrastructure rather than handsets. The book ranges from very high performance circuits for complex wireless infrastructure systems to selected highly integrated systems for handsets and mobile devices. Coverage includes power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, modulators, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and even single-chip radios. This book offers a quick grasp of emerging research topics in RF integrated circuit design and their potential applications, with brief introductions to key topics followed by references to specialist papers for further reading. All of the chapters, compiled by editors well known in their field, have been authored by renowned experts in the subject. Each includes a complete introduction, followed by the relevant most significant and recent results on the topic at hand. This book gives researchers in industry and universities a quick grasp of the most important developments in analog and RF integrated circuit design. Emerging research topics in RF IC design and its potential application Case studies and practical implementation examples Covers fundamental building blocks of a cellular base station system and satellite infrastructure Insights from the experts on the design and the technology trade-offs, the challenges and open questions they often face References to specialist papers for further reading

This book discusses the trade-offs involved in designing direct RF digitization receivers for the radio frequency and digital signal processing domains. A system-level framework is developed, quantifying the relevant impairments of the signal processing chain, through a comprehensive system-level analysis. Special focus is given to noise analysis (thermal noise, quantization noise, saturation noise, signal-dependent noise), broadband non-linear distortion analysis, including the impact of the sampling strategy (low-pass, band-pass), analysis of time-interleaved ADC channel mismatches, sampling clock purity and digital channel selection. The system-level framework described is applied to the design of a cable multi-channel RF direct digitization receiver. An optimum RF signal conditioning, and some algorithms (automatic gain control loop, RF front-end amplitude equalization control loop) are used to relax the requirements of a 2.7GHz 11-bit ADC. A two-chip implementation is presented, using BiCMOS and 65nm CMOS processes, together with the block and system-level measurement results. Readers will benefit from the techniques presented, which are highly competitive, both in terms of cost and RF performance, while drastically reducing power consumption.

Improving the performance of existing technologies has always been a focal practice in the development of computational systems. However, as circuitry is becoming more complex, conventional techniques are becoming outdated and new research methodologies are being implemented by designers. Performance Optimization Techniques in Analog, Mix-Signal, and Radio-Frequency Circuit Design features recent advances in the engineering of integrated systems with prominence placed on methods for maximizing the functionality of these systems. This book emphasizes prospective trends in the field and is an essential reference source for researchers, practitioners, engineers, and technology designers interested in emerging research and techniques in the performance optimization of different circuit designs.