A 92-MHz 13-bit IF digitizer using optimized SC integrators in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

A feedforward compensation scheme with no Miller capacitors is proposed to overcome the bandwidth limitations of traditional Miller compensation schemes. The technique has been used in the design of an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with a dc gain of 80 dB, gain bandwidth of 1.4 GHz, phase margin of 62/spl deg/, and 2 ns settling time for 2-pF load capacitor in a standard 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The OTA's current consumption is 4.6 mA. The OTA is used in the design of a fourth-order switched-capacitor bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator with a clock frequency of 92 MHz. It achieves a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 80 and 54 dB for 270-kHz (GSM) and 3.84-MHz (CDMA) bandwidths, respectively and consumes 19 mA of current from a /spl plusmn/1.25-V supply.     

An analog GFSK modulator in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS

An analog Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) modulator designed in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS consumes 600 /spl mu/A from a 3-V supply and realizes an analog implementation of the FM differential equation. The modulator operates at baseband and is intended for use in a direct-conversion Bluetooth transmitter. It achieves a frequency deviation of 160 kHz with better than /spl plusmn/3% accuracy. The modulator implements an amplitude control loop to achieve a well-defined output swing. The total output harmonic distortion is less than 1%.     

A 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS 2-GHz VCO in wafer-level package

This letter presents a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a high-Q inductor in a wafer-level package for the LC-resonator. The on-chip inductor is implemented using the redistribution metal layer of the wafer-level package (WLP), and therefore it is called a WLP inductor. Using the thick passivation and copper metallization, the WLP inductor has high quality-factor (Q-factor). A 2-nH inductor exhibits a Q-factor of 8 at 2 GHz. The center frequency of the VCO is 2.16 GHz with a tuning range of 385 MHz (18%). The minimum phase noise is measured to be -120.2 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 600 kHz. The dc power consumed by the VCO-core is 1.87 mW with a supply voltage of 1.7 V and a current of 1.1 mA. The output power with a 50-/spl Omega/ load is -12.5/spl plusmn/1.3 dBm throughout the whole tuning range. From the best of our knowledge, compared with recently published 2-GHz-band 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS VCOs in the literature, the VCO in this work shows the lowest power consumption and the best figure-of-merit.     

A 10.7-MHz CMOS SC radio IF filter using orthogonal hardwaremodulation

FM radio receivers require an IF filter for channel selection, customarily set at an IF center frequency of 10.7 MHz. Up until now, the limitations of integrated radio selectivity filters in terms of power dissipation, dynamic range, and cost are such that it is still required to use an external ceramic 10.7-MHz bandpass filter. This paper demonstrates a CMOS switched-capacitor IF filter that can be integrated with most of the rest of the FM receiver, eliminating external components and printed circuit board area. This is made possible through a combination of two techniques: orthogonal hardware modulation, and delta-charge redistribution. It exhibits a tightly controlled center frequency with a Q of 55 and also contains a programmable gain. The filter occupies an area of 0.7 mm² in a 0.6 μm CMOS process with poly-poly capacitors. The new filter requires only 16 mW of power, and this is offset by elimination of the power needed in current designs to drive off-chip filters     

A 285-MHz pipelined MAP decoder in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS

Presented in this paper is a pipelined 285-MHz maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoder IC. The 8.7-mm/sup 2/ IC is implemented in a 1.8-V 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology and consumes 330 mW at maximum frequency. The MAP decoder chip features a block-interleaved pipelined architecture, which enables the pipelining of the add-compare-select kernels. Measured results indicate that a turbo decoder based on the presented MAP decoder core can achieve: 1) a decoding throughput of 27.6 Mb/s with an energy-efficiency of 2.36 nJ/b/iter; 2) the highest clock frequency compared to existing 0.18-/spl mu/m designs with the smallest area; and 3) comparable throughput with an area reduction of 3-4.3/spl times/ with reference to a look-ahead based high-speed design (Radix-4 design), and a parallel architecture.     

A dual-mode 802.11b/bluetooth radio in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS

A fully integrated dual-mode CMOS transceiver tuned to 2.4 GHz consumes 65 mA in receive mode and 78 mA in transmit mode from a 3-V supply. The radio includes all the receive and transmit building blocks, such as frequency synthesizer, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and power amplifier, and is intended for use in 802.11b and Bluetooth applications. The Bluetooth receiver uses a low-IF architecture for higher level of integration and lower power consumption, while the 802.11b receiver is direct conversion. The receiver achieves a typical sensitivity of -88 dBm at 11 Mb/s for 802.11b, and -83 dBm for Bluetooth mode. The receiver minimum IIP3 is -8 dBm. Both transmitters use a direct-conversion architecture, and deliver a nominal output power of 0 dBm, with a power range of 20 dB in 2-dB steps.     

A 3-V, 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS Bluetooth receiver IC

A fully integrated CMOS low-IF Bluetooth receiver is presented. The receiver consists of a radio frequency (RF) front end, a phase-locked loop (PLL), an active complex filter, a Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) demodulator, and a frequency offset cancellation circuit. The highlights of the receiver include a low-power active complex filter with a nonconventional tuning scheme and a high-performance mixed-mode GFSK demodulator. The chip was fabricated on a 6.25-mm/sup 2/ die using TSMC 0.35-/spl mu/m standard CMOS process. -82 dBm sensitivity at 1e-3 bit error rate, -10 dBm IIP3, and 15 dB noise figure were achieved in the measurements. The receiver active current is about 65 mA from a 3-V power supply.     

A 17-mW transmitter and frequency synthesizer for 900-MHz GSM fully integrated in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS

A fractional-N phase-locked loop (PLL) serves as a Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK) transmitter and a receive frequency synthesizer for GSM. The entire transmitter/synthesizer is fully integrated in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS and consumes 17.4 and 12 mW from 2.5 V in the transmit and receive modes, respectively, including an on-chip voltage-controlled oscillator. The circuit meets GSM specifications on modulation accuracy in transmit mode, and measured phase noise from the closed-loop PLL is -148 dBc/Hz and -162 dBc/Hz, respectively, at 3- and 20-MHz offset. Worst case spur at 13-MHz offset is -77 dBc.     

A 2.5-V 57-MHz 15-tap SC bandpass interpolating filter with 320-MS/s output for DDFS system in 0.35-/spl mu/ hboxm CMOS

A switched-capacitor (SC) bandpass interpolating filter is proposed with the capability of achieving, simultaneously, channel selection and frequency up-translation, together with sampling rate increase, in a multirate configuration at high frequency. This filter has been designed for efficient use in a direct-digital frequency synthesis (DDFS) system with considerable rewards in terms of speed reduction of the digital core plus the digital-to-analog converter (DAC), as well as in the relaxation of the continuous-time (CT) smoothing filter order. It exhibits a 15-tap finite impulse response (FIR), with a bandpass frequency response centered at 57 MHz and a stop-band rejection higher than 45 dB. At the same time, it translates 22-24 MHz input signals at 80 MS/s, to the frequency range of 56-58 MHz in the output at 320 MS/s, allowing also a perfect operation at 400 MS/s, in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. To implement a specific multi-notch FIR function, the filter architecture will comprise an effective low-speed polyphase-based interpolation structure with autozeroing capability, high-speed SC circuitry with fast opamps, and also ultra-low timing-skew multiple phase generation in order to achieve high-performance operation at high frequency. The prototype ICs present a signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of 61 dB, with a dynamic range of 69 dB, for 1% THD, and 61 dB, for 1% IM3. It consumes 2 mm/sup 2/ of active silicon area, 120 mW (analog) and 16 mW (digital) power, with a single 2.5-V supply, which corresponds to 8.6 mW of analog power per zero.     

Dual-modulus 127/128 FOM enhanced prescaler design in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

The dual-modulus prescaler is a critical block in CMOS systems like high-speed frequency synthesizers. However, the design of high-moduli, high-speed, and low-power dual-modulus prescalers remains a challenge. To face the challenge, this paper introduces the idea of using transmission gates and pseudo-PMOS logic to realize the dual-modulus prescaler. The topology of the prescaler proposed is different from prior designs primarily in two ways: 1) it uses transmission gates in the critical path and 2) the D flip-flops (DFFs) used in the synchronous counter comprise pseudo-PMOS inverters and ratioed latches. A pseudo-PMOS logic-based DFF is introduced and used in the proposed prescaler design. Based on the proposed topology, a dual-modulus divide-by-127/128 prescaler is implemented in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. It consumes 4.8 mW from a 3-V supply. The measured phase noise is -143.4 dBc/Hz at 600 kHz. The silicon area required is only 0.06 mm/sup 2/. There are no flip flops or logic gates in the critical path. This topology is suitable for high-speed and high-moduli prescaler designs. It reduces: 1) design complexity; 2) power consumption; and 3) input loading. Measurement results are provided. An improvement in the figure of merit is shown.     

A 1.3-V 5-mW fully integrated tunable bandpass filter at 2.1 GHz in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS

A 2.1-GHz 1.3-V 5-mW fully integrated Q-enhancement LC bandpass biquad programmable in f/sub o/, Q, and peak gain is implemented in 0.35-/spl mu/m standard CMOS technology. The filter uses a resonator built with spiral inductors and inversion-mode pMOS capacitors that provide frequency tuning. The Q tuning is through an adjustable negative-conductance generator, whereas the peak gain is tuned through an input G/sub m/ stage. Noise and nonlinearity analyses presented demonstrate the design tradeoffs involved. Measured frequency tuning range around 2.1 GHz is 13%. Spiral inductors with Q/sub o/ of 2 at 2.1 GHz limit the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) at 31-34 dB within the frequency tuning range. Measurements show that the peak gain can be tuned within a range of around two octaves. The filter sinks 4 mA from a 1.3-V supply providing a Q of 40 at 2.19 GHz with a 1-dB compression point dynamic range of 35 dB. The circuit operates with supply voltages ranging from 1.2 to 3 V. The silicon area is 0.1 mm/sup 2/.     

A low-power oscillator mixer in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

A downconversion double-balanced oscillator mixer using 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology is proposed in this paper. This oscillator mixer consists of an individual mixer stacked on a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The stacked structure allows entire mixer current to be reused by the VCO cross-coupled pair to reduce the total current consumption of the individual VCO and mixer. Using individual supply voltages and eliminating the tail current source, the stacked topology requires 1.0-V low supply voltage. The oscillator mixer achieves a voltage conversion gain of 10.9 dB at 4.2-GHz RF frequency. The oscillator mixer exhibits a tuning range of 11.5% and a single-sideband noise figure of 14.5 dB. The dc power consumption is 0.2 mW for the mixer and 2.94 mW for the VCO. This oscillator mixer requires a lower supply voltage and achieves a higher operating frequency among recently reported Si-based self-oscillating mixers and mixer oscillators. The mixer in this oscillator mixer also achieves a low power consumption compared with recently reported low-power mixers.     

A 300-MHz quadrature direct digital synthesizer/mixer in 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS

A 300-MHz quadrature direct digital frequency synthesizer/complex mixer (QDDSM) chip is presented. With a 32-bit input frequency control word, the tuning resolution is 0.07 Hz at the operating frequency of 300 MHz. The 12-bit I and Q inputs and 13-bit I and Q outputs offer a spurious-free dynamic range of 90.3 dB. The tuning latency is 13 clock cycles, which corresponds to 43 ns at 300 MHz. The tuning bandwidth (half the operating frequency) is 150 MHz. The IC is realized in 0.25-/spl mu/m TSMC CMOS technology with 4180 standard library cells and occupies a core area of 0.36 mm/sup 2/. At 300 MHz, the power dissipation is less than 400 mW. A key feature of the design is the creation of conditionally negating multipliers.     

Millimeter-wave voltage-controlled oscillators in 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

This paper describes the design of CMOS millimeter-wave voltage controlled oscillators. Varactor, transistor, and inductor designs are optimized to reduce the parasitic capacitances. An investigation of tradeoff between quality factor and tuning range for MOS varactors at 24 GHz has shown that the polysilicon gate lengths between 0.18 and 0.24 /spl mu/m result both good quality factor (>12) and C/sub max//C/sub min/ ratio (/spl sim/3) in the 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS process used for the study. The components were utilized to realize a VCO operating around 60 GHz with a tuning range of 5.8 GHz. A 99-GHz VCO with a tuning range of 2.5 GHz, phase noise of -102.7 dBc/Hz at 10-MHz offset and power consumption of 7-15mW from a 1.5-V supply and a 105-GHz VCO are also demonstrated. This is the CMOS circuit with the highest fundamental operating frequency. The lumped element approach can be used even for VCOs operating near 100-GHz and it results a smaller circuit area.     

A 40-GHz frequency divider in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

An analysis of regenerative dividers predicts the required phase shift or selectivity for proper operation. A divider topology is introduced that employs resonance techniques by means of on-chip spiral inductors to tune out the device capacitances. Configured as two cascaded /spl divide/2 stages, the circuit achieves a frequency range of 2.3 GHz at 40 GHz while consuming 31 mW from a 2.5-V supply.     

Ultra low power 2.4-GHz 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS dual-modulus prescaler design

This letter presents the design and implementation of a dual-modulus (64/65) prescaler based upon the phase-switching technique. Low power consumption is achieved by using one dynamic flip-flop in the full-speed divide-by-four circuit and no power-hungry synchronizing circuits to tackle the glitch problem. The proposed design is fabricated using 0.35-/spl mu/m standard CMOS process and is measured to operate from 2.08-2.66GHz with power dissipation of less than 1mW.     

Optimized retrograde N-well for 1-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

Using experiment and simulation, transistors in a high-energy implanted N-well are designed for optimum device performance suitable for 1-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The effect of process parameters on device performance is obtained. Superior body effect, junction capacitance, punchthrough voltage, and subthreshold slope are achieved for 1-/spl mu/m n- and p-channel transistors. With shallow P/P+ epitaxial material, this retrograde N-well approach also provides latch-up immunity for high-density CMOS.     

A 70-MHz 8-bit/spl times/8-bit parallel pipelined multiplier in 2.5-/spl mu/m CMOS

A design is presented for an 8-bit/spl times/8-bit parallel pipelined multiplier for high speed digital signal-processing applications. The multiplier is pipelined at the bit level. The first version of this multiplier has been fabricated in 2.5-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. It has been tested at multiplication rates up to 70 MHz with a power dissipation of less than 250 mW. Clock skew, a major problem encountered in high-speed pipelined architectures, is overcome by the use of a balanced clock distribution network all on metal, and by proper use of clock buffers. These issues and the timing simulation of the pipeline design are discussed in detail. Possible extensions and improvements for achieving higher performance levels are discussed. The conversion of the two-phase clocking scheme to an inherently single-phase clock approach is one possible improvement. A design using this approach has been simulated at 75 MHz and is currently being fabricated.     

A Bluetooth radio in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS

This paper describes the results of an implementation of a Bluetooth radio in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. A low-IF image-reject conversion architecture is used for the receiver. The transmitter uses direct IQ-upconversion. The VCO runs at 4.8-5.0 GHz, thus facilitating the generation of 0/spl deg/ and 90/spl deg/ signals for both the receiver and transmitter. By using an inductor-less LNA and the extensive use of mismatch simulations, the smallest silicon area for a Bluetooth radio implementation so far can be reached: 5.5 mm/sup 2/. The transceiver consumes 30 mA in receive mode and 35 mA in transmit mode from a 2.5 to 3.0-V power supply. As the radio operates on the same die as baseband and SW, the crosstalk-on-silicon is an important issue. This crosstalk problem was taken into consideration from the start of the project. Sensitivity was measured at -82 dBm.     

A 48-16-MHz CMOS SC decimation filter

This paper presents a CMOS switched-capacitor decimation filter for prefiltering operations in video communications systems, reducing the complexity of continuous-time antialiasing filters and alleviating dynamic range requirements of analog-to-digital converters. As a consequence of the structure's low sensitivity to process variations, predicted by theory and verified in the laboratory by measurements on all samples of the same batch, it was possible to apply capacitor arrays having minimum feasible size units of 100 fF to implement the filter coefficients, leading to substantial savings in power consumption. Implemented in a standard 0.8-/spl mu/m CMOS process with poly-poly capacitors, the experimental device samples the incoming continuous-time analog signal at 48 MHz and presents a filtered sampled-data output at 16 MHz, with a measured pass-band deviation smaller than 0.22 dB up to the cutoff frequency of 3.6 MHz, output noise power spectrum of 1.1 nV/sub RMS///spl radic/(Hz) and a signal handling ability of 1.4 V/sub pp/, resulting in a dynamic range of 48 dB, meeting the usual specifications for video-frequency signal processing.