Design and analysis of 0.9 and 2.3-GHz concurrent dual-band CMOS LNA for mobile communication

A complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) dual-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) for 2G/3G/4G mobile communications is presented. It operates at 0.9 and 2.3 GHz of frequencies. The dual-band operation is achieved by adding a modified notch-filtering path in the wideband LNA. The modified notch-filtering path does not require additional power to cancel the signals of the stop band frequency. The impact of the filtering path in the proposed LNA is analyzed. Improved results are observed in dual bands of frequency. Sustainability of the LNA under process corner variation and temperature variation are examined, and it is found to be suitable for the application. The proposed LNA is designed at 90-nm technology in Cadence Virtuoso with 0.5 and 0.6-V supply. The post-layout simulation shows 22 dB of gain (S₂₁), 2 dB of Noise Figure (NF), and −5.5 dBm of IIP3 at the high band. In the low band, 24 dB of S₂₁, 2.7 dB of NF, and −6.65 dBm of IIP3 are reached. The circuit consumes 5.2 mW of power and 0.0918 mm² of area. The efficiency of the LNA is estimated by the figure of merit, and comparable results are secured in the proposed work.     

Microwave Properties of Mn Doped (Ba1 - x,Srx)TiO3Thin Films for Tunable Phase Shifter

Ferroelectric Mn doped Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ (Mn-BST) films with/without BaTiO₃ (BT) buffer layer have been grown on (001) MgO substrates by a pulsed laser deposition to investigate electrical tunability at microwave frequencies. Structural properties and surface morphologies of the films were investigated using an X-ray diffractometer and a scanning electron microscope, respectively. Microwave dielectric properties of Mn-BST thin films with BT buffer were studied for reduction of dielectric loss and improvement of electrical tunability. Distributed analog phase shifters have been designed and fabricated on Mn-BST films with/without BT buffer layer to understand microwave dielectric properties. The differential phase shift of the phase shifter fabricated on Mn-BST film was 22° at 10 GHz with 80 V of applied dc bias voltage. In comparison, phase shifter fabricated on Mn-BST/BT multilayers exhibit 41° of differential phase shift at the same condition. This suggests that a BT buffer layer is for microwave tunable device applications. The phase shifter fabricated on Mn-BST/BT multilayers exhibit a low insertion loss (S₂₁) of ?1.1 dB, and a low return loss (S₁₁) of ?14 dB with a bias voltage of 80 V.     

Reflection-Type Ferroelectric Phase Shifter With Defected Ground Structure

In order to obtain a low-loss ferroelectric phase shifter, we were designed and fabricated the reflection-type ferroelectric phase shifter with the defected ground structure (DGS) resonators. The ferroelectric phase shifter is consisted of a 3-dB 90° branch-line hybrid coupler and terminated reflective circuit with tunable ferroelectric DGS resonator which can provide a high Q resonator characteristic at high frequencies. The design parameters of equivalent circuit for the tunable DGS resonator are derived by circuit analysis method and three-dimensional full wave finite element method. At 13.5 GHz, the fabricated phase shifter exhibited an insertion loss of better than 3.4 dB.     

Printed dual-band base station antenna for GSM/DCS/PCS/UMTS and LTE applications with dual polarization

A new design of the dual-band and dual-polarized base station antennas for supporting the mobile communication systems operating at the GSM/DCS/PCS/UMTS and LTE frequency bands is presented. A wide input impedance matching bandwidth is achieved due to a trident-shaped feeding technique. Two printed dipoles, which are located perpendicularly to each other and fed by stepped-microstrip lines, establish the proposed antenna. In addition, by locating a low-profile cavity-backed structure, as a metal reflector under the antenna, bidirectional radiations of the dipoles are switched to unidirectional radiations with an increase in the gain of the antenna. Measurement results indicate that the proposed antenna is suitable for base station applications at the operating frequencies of 800/900/1800/1900/2300 MHz. The isolation is better than 20 dB, and peak gains of 10.08 and 9.96 dBi are attained at port-1 and port-2, respectively. Furthermore, the HPBWs of the antenna in H-plane is more than 61° for each port. The overall dimension of the antenna is 168 × 168 mm², which is mounted upon a 222 × 222 mm² cavity-backed structure with a depth of 42 mm.     

Harmonic fold back reduction at the N‐path filters

In this paper, a method is proposed to reduce harmonic fold back (HFB) problem of N‐path filters, without increasing the input reference clock (f_CLK ) frequency. The HFB at the N‐path filter is analyzed, and simple expressions are extracted to model this problem. Using the results of the analysis, an M‐of‐N‐path filter has been proposed that behaves like an M × N‐path filter in terms of HFB problem; however, the f_CLK frequency of this structure is the same as an N‐path filter. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed idea, a 3‐of‐4‐path filter is designed, and its characteristics are compared with 4‐path and 12‐path filters by simulation. Impacts of different non‐idealities like clock‐phase error, mismatch, and parasitic capacitance are investigated. The transistor‐level implementation of this filter is performed in 0.18 µm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The simulation results show that the filter has the pass‐band gain of 17 dB, tuning range of 0.2–1.2 GHz, −3 dB bandwidth of 25 MHz, quality factor of 8–48, 18 dB out‐of‐band rejection, 16 dB rejection of the third harmonic of switching frequency (f_s ), and the noise figure of 4.35 dB (using ideal G_m cells) and 6.95 dB (for practical G_m cells). The strongest harmonic folding to the filter pass‐band occurs around 11f_s with the attenuation of 23.8 dB. Each G_m cell draws about 12.4 mA from 1.8 V supply, and the out‐of‐band IIP3 and P _{1 dB,CP} are 17 and 4 dBm, respectively. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐performance CMOS CCII

A CMOS second generation Current Conveyor (CCII) is presented which is based on a novel voltage follower with a symmetric two‐gain‐stage topology. Simulations on a 0.8 μm design employing a 3.3 V power supply show a 0.03 per cent low‐frequency voltage gain error, a THD better than ?70 dB for a 1 V_p?p 100 kHz input signal, and reduced offset. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

360°低插损小型化反射式移相器设计

针对第5代移动通信大规模多输入多输出(massive MIMO)和无线回传系统中移相阵列的应用需求,本文对反射式移相器(RTPS)的模型拓扑进行了对比分析,提出了四元件双可调(FEDA)负载拓扑的设计方法和相位变换的调整方式,研究了移相步进和插入损耗的影响因素,采用数字变容管(DTC)进行RTPS的调谐设计。实验结果表明,在4.4～5.0 GHz全频段范围内实测移相范围大于360°,移相步进小于12°,插入损耗小于1.8 dB,尺寸仅为10 mm×8 mm,兼具低插损、小型化、大带宽、高精度、易控制等优点。     

High‐tuning‐range CMOS band‐pass IF filter based on a low‐Q cascaded biquad optimization technique

A design procedure for high‐order continuous‐time intermediate‐frequency band‐pass filters based on the cascade of low‐Q biquadratic cells is presented. The approach is well suited for integrated‐circuit fabrication, as it takes into account the maximum capacitance spread dictated by the available technology and maximum acceptable sensitivity to component variations. A trade‐off between noise and maximum linear range is also met. A novel, wide‐tuning‐range transconductor topology is also described. Based on these results, a 10‐pole band‐pass filter for a code division multiple‐access satellite receiver has been designed and tested. The filter provides tunable center frequency (f₀) from 10 to 70 MHz and exhibits a 28‐MHz bandwidth around f₀ = 70 MHz with more than 39‐dB attenuation at f₀/2 and 2f₀. Third‐order harmonic rejection is higher than 60 dB for a 1‐Vpp 70‐MHz input, and equivalent output noise is lower than 1 mV_rms. The circuit is fabricated in a 0.25‐µm complementary metal oxide semiconductor process, and the core consumes 12 mA from a 2.5‐V supply, offering the best current/pole ratio figure. The die area resulted to be 0.9 × 1.1 mm². Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A front‐end receiver with a dual cross‐coupling technique for MICS applications

This paper presents a front‐end receiver with a dual cross‐couple technique for Medical Implant Communication Services M applications, using a standard complementary metal‐oxide semiconductor process. A lower‐power design is achieved using a resistive feedback, g_m‐boosting technique along with a current reuse topology in the receiver's transconductance stage. In addition, a dual cross‐coupling configuration applied at the input stage increases overall gain performance and reduces power consumption. The measured power dissipation of the low‐noise amplifier is only 0.51 mW. The conversion gain of the receiver is 19.74 dB, while the radio frequency and local oscillator frequencies are respectively 403.5 and 393.5 MHz, and the LO power is 0 dBm. The chip exhibits excellent isolation below −70 dB from LO to intermediate frequency and LO to radio frequency. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

360-μW 4.1-dB NF CMOS MedRadio receiver RF front-end with current-reuse Q-boosted resistive feedback LNA for biomedical IoT applications

In this paper, a low-power low-noise complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) receiver RF front-end (RFFE) that employs a current-reuse Q-boosted resistive feedback low-noise amplifier (RFLNA) is proposed for 401 to 406 MHz medical device radio-communication service band IoT applications. By employing a series RLC input matching network, the proposed RFLNA has the advantages of both the conventional RFLNA and the inductively degenerated common-source LNA without using large on-chip spiral inductors at the sources of the main transistors. The proposed active mixer utilizes a current-reuse transconductor, in which a p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor performs a current-bleeding function to reduce direct current (DC) and flicker noise in the switching stage of the active mixer. The proposed receiver RFFE is implemented in a 65-nm CMOS process and achieves a voltage gain of 30.9 dB, noise figure of 4.1 dB, S11 of less than −10 dB, and IIP3 of −22.9 dBm. It operates at a supply voltage of 1 V with bias currents of 360 μA. The active die area is 0.4 mm × 0.35 mm.     

A Tunable Active Phase Shifter Using a Thin Film Ferroelectric Capacitor

This paper describes an active phase shifter with a large amount of variable phase. We propose a design that has second-order all-pass network characteristics and that uses a tunable ferroelectric capacitor. The transmitted phase is changed by varying the capacitance of a ferroelectric capacitor. A computer simulation is presented that shows that the network, even with markedly non-ideal transistors, can provide a true all-pass response over the frequency band of interest (100 MHz–400 MHz). These simulated results demonstrate an analog tunability of about 200° with a gain variation of about 3 dB at 300 MHz—when using a Ba_0.96Ca_0.04Ti_0.84Zr_0.16O₃ (BCTZ) capacitor with a tunability of 2:1. The simulation performed at 300 MHz because the physical layout of the real life circuit will be done mostly with the discrete components. As the self resonance frequency of most of the discrete components lies in the few hundreds of MHz range, our preferred frequency is a practical one to deal with. The simulation also predicts a flat band gain of approximately 10 dB with ± 2 dB of gain ripple.     

RC models of a constant phase element

The paper describes models of a constant‐phase element consisting of passive R and C components. The models offer any input impedance argument (phase) between ?90° and 0° over a selectable frequency band covering several decades. The design procedure makes it possible to choose values of average phase, phase ripple, frequency bandwidth, and total number of R and C elements. The model can cover three frequency decades with as few as five resistors and five capacitors. The models can be used for practical realization of fractional analog differentiators and integrators, fractional oscillators, chaotic networks or for analog simulation of fractional control systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CHARACTERIZATION OF FERROELECTRIC FILMS UP TO 60 Ghz: APPLICATION TO PHASE SHIFTERS

ABSTRACT

Paraelectric Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ films 0.3 μm thick have been deposited by sol-gel on c-axis sapphire substrates. They have been investigated from 1 kHz to 60 GHz using coplanar waveguide transmission lines and interdigitated capacitors. The dielectric constant ε_r is around 300 and the loss tangent is 0.16 at 50 GHz. The tunability is constant with frequency with a mean value of 42%. Analog phase shifters were subsequently fabricated. A 180° phase shift was obtained at 60 GHz with a 17 V bias. The maximum value of phase shift per decibel of insertion losses (at 0 V) is 13°/dB at 30 GHz with a bias of 30 V.     

A 2- to 12-GHz 65-nm transmit/receive CMOS DP8T switching matrix for ultra-wideband antenna arrays

An ultra-wideband 2- to 12-GHz transmit/receive (T/R) double-pole–eight-throw (DP8T) switching matrix is developed with a 65-nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process for a radar-based breast cancer detection system. The measured average insertion losses are 5.2, 7, and 10.6 dB at 2, 6, and 12 GHz, respectively, with input and output matching bandwidths of 2 to 12 GHz and a third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of 31 dBm at 8 GHz. The power consumption is less than 1 mW for a 1.2-V power supply. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported DP8T CMOS switching matrix to replace the conventional mechanical switch to control a portable radar antenna.     

Duo triangle-shaped rectangular microstrip-fed patch antennas input and output parameters investigation

Conventional rectangular microstrip-fed patch antennas are initially investigated numerically within the frequency band 2.0 to 2.8 GHz for Wi-Fi applications. In order to enhance the input parameters of the underlying antennas, three prototypes are designed. A split is diagonally loaded on a conventional radiating patch to achieve a duo triangle-shaped microstrip-fed patch antenna in the first step. The conducting ground plane of the conventional and the duo triangle-shaped patches is modified to design the microstrip-fed monopole and duo triangle-shaped monopole antennas in the second and third steps, respectively, within the frequency band of 2.0 to 7.0 GHz. Concepts of voltage and current waves as well as classical electrostatics approach solutions are used to, respectively, investigate the return loss bandwidth and the electric field radiation pattern of the proposed antennas. Numerical simulations show some relevant antenna performances such as a triple-band, a −10-dB return loss bandwidth of 29% , a gain of 7.5 dB, and a calculated half power beam width of 120^° in E-plane.     

Analysis and design of an integrated RF energy harvester for ultra low-power environments

Radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting must cope with the limited availability and high variability of the energy source. In this paper, the available RF power in three typical environments (urban, semi-urban, and rural) is investigated. Measurements show that in the surveyed urban and semi-urban environments, an average input power above −22 and −29 dBm, respectively, is available in the [700, 1,000] MHz band. A mathematical model of the interface between the RF rectifier and the DC-DC converter is provided. The analysis demonstrates that the energy can be efficiently transferred to the external accumulator coupling the rectifier with a strobed, input control DC-DC converter. Based on the measurements and the analysis, an RF harvester architecture has been designed in 65 nm Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology to operate over the [−40, 85]^oC temperature and the [1.1, 2.5] V battery voltage ranges. The input control strategy adopted for the converter allows the adaptation of the harvester to the available RF power and enables a real maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Post-layout simulation of the harvester, recharging a large capacitor, precharged at 2 V, at 950 MHz of input frequency returned a 33.4% peak efficiency with an input power of 15 μW (−18 dBm). The minimum input power leading to a positive energy balance is −30 dBm with an output voltage of 1.1 V.     

Thin film BaxSr1-xTiO3 ku- and k-band phase shifters grown on MgO substrates

Abstract

We report measurements of gold circuits fabricated on four Ba_xSr_1-xTiO₃ ferroelectric films doped with 1% Mn grown on MgO substrates by laser ablation. Low frequency (1 MHz) measurements of σ_T and tanδ on interdigital capacitors are compared with high frequency measurements of phase shift and insertion loss on coupled microstrip phase shifters patterned onto the same films. The variation in temperature of both high and low frequency device parameters is compared. Annealed with amorphous buffer layer and unannealed films are compared. Room temperature figures of merit of phase shift per insertion loss of up to 58.4°/dB at 18 GHz and 400 V dc bias were measured.     

Design of triple‐band antenna using S‐shaped patch fed by cross strip line for WLAN and WiMAX applications

This paper presents a simple triple‐band S‐shaped patch antenna fed by a cross strip line for both WLAN and WiMAX applications. It is operated at the triple bands of 2.4 and 5.2 GHz for WLAN and 3.5 GHz for WiMAX. The antenna, designed on an FR4 substrate with a thickness of 1.6 mm and relative permittivity of 4.4, is fed by a 50‐Ω microstrip line, and is of size 25 × 35 mm. The simulated and measured results of |S₁₁|, gains, and radiation patterns are presented. The measured results show that the triple‐band antenna achieves a broad operating bandwidth of 2.36–2.54, 3.27–3.69, and 5.16–5.48 GHz for a 10‐dB return loss (i.e. |S₁₁|<−10 dB). The gains of the antenna measured at 2.4, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz frequencies are 1.87, 1.95, and 3.82, respectively. The radiation pattern of the antenna is omnidirectional. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A large dynamic range voltage controlled attenuator with improved linearity-in-dB for ultrasound applications

A large dynamic range (DR) and high linearity-in-dB voltage controlled attenuator (VCAT) for ultrasound applications was presented. Continuous tunable VCAT implemented with Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) transistors used as shunt devices was proposed in this work, and the linearity-in-dB performance was analyzed in detail. Nonlinearity of the shunt transistors operated in different regions resulted in poor linearity-in-dB attenuation of the VCAT, which was undesirable in an ultrasonic receiver system. An effective linearity-in-dB improvement scheme was then proposed. The full scale range of the input control voltage was divided into N intervals with a same equal-length by uniformly distributed voltage values. At these division voltages, the attenuation gains were corrected to be the ideal ones by the tracing and comparing circuits. In this way, the non-linearity-in-dB was limited to the intervals between the two adjacent corrected attenuation gains, and the overall linearity of the VCAT was improved greatly. Measurement results showed that the dynamic range of the proposed attenuator was 36-dB, and the gain errors were in a range from − 1.22 to − 0.55 dB. The noise figures (NF) at the commonly used ultrasonic frequencies was below 6-dB, and the S11 was better than − 10 dB over the input range of the control voltage.     

A high output power and low phase noise GaN HEMT VCO with array of switchable inductors

This paper presents cross‐coupled voltage‐controlled oscillators (VCOs) involving array of switchable inductors (i.e., N  = 1 and N  = 2 switchable inductors) and implemented using gallium‐nitride high electron mobility transistors on Si substrate technology for worldwide interoperability for microwave access applications. Band selection and coarse frequency tuning were achieved using the array of switchable inductors, whereas fine tuning was controlled using varactors. Two bands were obtained using the one‐stage switchable inductor VCO operating in the ranges 3.41–3.57 GHz and 3.85–3.94 GHz. The VCO output power (P_out) was 21.8 dBm at 3.57 GHz from a 10‐V power supply. Four continuous bands were obtained using the two‐stage switchable inductors VCO operating in the range of 3.16–3.4, 3.25–3.64, 3.48–3.71 and 3.64–3.9 GHz, respectively. An additional band was generated by fine‐tuning the inductance through mutual coupling between the transmission line and one of the inductors. The proposed two‐stage switchable inductors VCO provided a 21% tuning range at frequencies ranging with a control voltage ranging from 12 to 20 V, a low phase noise of −123 dBc/Hz at a 1‐MHz offset from a 3.3‐GHz carrier and a P_out of 21 dBm at 3.5 GHz from a 10‐V power supply. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.