SOI在射频电路中的应用

随着射频电路(RF)工作频率和集成度的提高,衬底材料对电路性能的影响越来越大.SOI(Silicon-on-Insulator)结构以其良好的电学性能,为系统设计提供了灵活性.与CMOS工艺的兼容使它能将数字电路与模拟电路混合,在射频电路应用方面显示巨大优势.文章分析了RF电路发展中遇到的挑战和SOI在RF电路中的应用优势,综述了SOI RF电路的最新进展.     

The impact of semiconductor technology scaling on CMOS RF and digital circuits for wireless application

The impact of CMOS technology scaling on the various radio frequency (RF) circuit components such as active, passive and digital circuits is presented. Firstly, the impact of technology scaling on the noise and linearity of the low-noise amplifier (LNA) is thoroughly analyzed. Then two new circuits, i.e., CMOS complementary parallel push-pull (CCPP) circuit and vertical-NPN (V-NPN) circuit for direct-conversion receiver (DCR), are introduced. In CCPP, the high RF performance of pMOS comparable to nMOS provides single ended differential RF signal processing capability without the use of a bulky balun. The use of parasitic V-NPN bipolar transistor, available in triple well CMOS technology, has shown to provide more than an order of magnitude improvement in 1/f noise and dc offset related problems, which have been the bottleneck for CMOS single chip integration. Then CMOS technology scaling for various passive device performances such as the inductor, varactor, MIM capacitor, and switched capacitor, is discussed. Both the forward scaling of the active devices and the inverse scaling of interconnection layer, i.e., more interconnection layers with effectively thicker total dielectric and metal layers, provide very favorable scenario for all passive devices. Finally, the impact of CMOS scaling on the various digital circuits is introduced, taking the digital modem blocks, the various digital calibration circuits, the switching RF power amplifier, and eventually the software defined radio, as examples.     

Adaptive CMOS analog circuits for 4G mobile terminals—Review and state-of-the-art survey

The fourth-generation (4G) of cellular terminals will integrate the services provided by previous generations second-generation/third-generation (2G/3G) with other applications like global positioning system (GPS), digital video broadcasting (DVB) and wireless networks, covering metropolitan (IEEE 802.16), local (IEEE 802.11) and personal (IEEE 802.15) areas. This new generation of hand-held wireless devices, also named always-best-connected systems, will require low-power and low-cost multi-standard chips, capable of operating over different co-existing communication protocols, signal conditions, battery status, etc. Moreover, the efficient implementation of these chipsets will demand for reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal circuits that can adapt to the large number of specifications with minimum power dissipation at the lowest cost.Nanometer CMOS processes are expected to be the base technologies to develop 4G systems, assuring mass production at low cost through increased integration levels and extensive use of digital signal processing. However, the integration in standard CMOS of increasingly complex analog/RF parts imposes a number of challenges and trade-offs that make their design critical.These challenges are addressed in this paper through a comprehensive revision of the state-of-the-art on transceiver architectures, building blocks and design trade-offs of reconfigurable and adaptive CMOS RF and mixed-signal circuits for emerging 4G systems.     

Software Assisted Digital RF Processor (DRP™) for Single-Chip GSM Radio in 90 nm CMOS

This paper proposes and describes a new software and application programming interface view of an RF transceiver. It demonstrates benefits of using highly programmable digital control logic in an RF wireless system realized in a digital nanoscale CMOS process technology. It also describes a microprocessor architecture design in Digital RF Processor (DRP™) and how it controls calibration and compensation for process, temperature and voltage variations of the analog and RF circuits to meet the required RF performance. A few calibration examples to reduce a DCO bias current and improve device reliability, as well as to optimize transmit modulation and receive performance, are given. The presented circuits and techniques have enabled successful implementation of a commercial single-chip GSM radio in 90 nm CMOS.      

Low-power radio-frequency ICs for portable communications

The contributions of integrated circuits to the RF front-end of wireless receivers and transmitters operating in broadcast and personal communications bands are surveyed. It is seen from this that when ICs enable a rethinking of the RF architecture, the wireless device can sometimes become significantly smaller, and consume much less power. Examples are taken from FM broadcast receivers, pagers, and cellular telephone handsets. Many semiconductor technologies are competing today to supply RF-ICs to cellular telephones. The various design styles and levels of integration are compared, with the conclusion that single-chip silicon transceivers, combined with architectures which substantially reduce off-chip passive components, will likely dominate digital cellular telephones in the near future. The survey also projects future trends for ICs for miniature spread-spectrum transceivers offering robust operation in the crowded spectrum. With sophistication in baseband digital signal processing, its increasing interaction with the RF sections, and with increasing experience in simplified radio architectures, all-CMOS radios appear promising in the 900 MHz to 2 GHz bands. A specific CMOS spread-spectrum transceiver project underway at the author's institution is discussed by way of example     

RF CMOS comes of age

All-CMOS radio transceivers and systems-on-a-chip are rapidly making inroads into a wireless market that for years was dominated by bipolar and BiCMOS solutions. It is not a matter of replacing bipolar transistors in known circuit topologies with FETs; the wave of RF CMOS brings with it new architectures and unprecedented levels of integration. What are its origins? What is the commercial impact? How will RF CMOS evolve in the future? This paper offers a retrospective and a perspective.     

Wireless telecom silicon integration: analog design for radio,baseband and speech spectrum

The application today, pushing analog design for CMOS and RFbipolar into new frontiers is definitely the mobile radio telephony. New telecom systems like GSM, PCN, DECT, DCS, Wireless in the loop ... are all developing very rapidly and will enable us very soon to organise a complete telephone network with full coverage for your car, as well as in your kitchen and on your office desk. In Europe the major telecom companies have worked together to establish one common standard for cellular mobile radio communications at 900 MHz. Similar things are happening for other wireless personal communication systems. Basically the cellular radio telephone, the wireless PABX and the wireless SLIC are bringing the same challenges to analog circuit design: maximum integration of the basic radio functions into 1 or 2 silicon chips, CMOS, Bipolar or BiCMOS or GaAs. The analog circuit designer for radio telephone applications will need all the state of the art analog design knowhow available today, from RFmixers and GHz range low noise amplifiers and local oscillator synthesizers over base band 100 kHz CMOS analog to low frequency speech analog to digital conversion. And for all these circuits the message is: minimum power consumption for battery autonomy, minimum silicon area for maximum functional integration per die to obtain a small, low cost pocket size radio telephone.     

A dual-antenna phase-array ultra-wideband CMOS transceiver

Ultra-wideband (UWB) systems use high-bandwidth signals to enable a new generation of ultra-high-data-rate wireless applications. Implementation of a high-bandwidth RF system in the 3-5 GHz band presents challenges that can be solved by circuit and system techniques. This article looks at the motivation and requirements for a WiMedia-compliant UWB system implemented for a target application in wireless video transmission. It explores the circuit-level trade-offs in CMOS radio and some of the system-level methods, such as selection diversity and equal-gain combining, used to increase robustness in multipath and interference environments. The radio (S. Lo, 2006) is part of a two-chip solution that includes a digital baseband chip that implements the WiMedia-compliant PHY and MAC. The measured results of the 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS UWB transceiver demonstrate the efficacy of these techniques in the final RF and system performance.     

On-chip antennas in silicon ICs and their application

The feasibility of integrating antennas and required circuits to form wireless interconnects in foundry digital CMOS technologies has been demonstrated. The key challenges including the effects of metal structures associated with integrated circuits, heat removal, packaging, and interaction between transmitted and received signals, and nearby circuits appear to be manageable. This technology can potentially be applied for implementation of a true single-chip radio for general purpose communication, on-chip and inter-chip data communication systems, RFID tags, RF sensors/radars, and others.     

Cost and performance tradeoff analysis in radio and mixed-signal system-on-package design

An optimal total solution for radio and mixed-signal system integration needs tradeoffs between different design options. Among various design metrics, cost and performance are probably the two most important factors for design decisions. In this paper, we review and analyze cost-performance tradeoffs of system-on-chip (SOC) versus system-on-package (SOP) solutions for radio and mixed-signal applications. A new design methodology, which quantitatively predicts performance and cost gains of SOP versus SOC, is presented. The performance model evaluates various mixed-signal isolation techniques between sensitive analog/RF circuits and noisy digital circuits in SOC or SOP. The cost analysis includes new factors such as extra chip area and additional process steps for mixed-signal isolation, seamless integration of "virtual components" or intellectual property (IP) modules, yield and technology compatibility for merging logic, memory and analog/RF circuits on a single chip, and extra costs for moving passives off chip. In addition to these, a complete and systematic analysis method for on-chip versus off-chip passives tradeoffs is presented. The analysis and modeling techniques explore tradeoffs between performance, cost, robustness, and yield when different on-chip or off-chip passives are used. It thus provides a complete picture of quantitative tradeoffs for using on-chip or off-chip passives. The design methodology and analysis techniques are then demonstrated through several design examples in wireless applications. It is clearly shown that for all complex and high performance mixed-signal systems, SOP is a lower cost solution than SOC. Finally, some design guidelines for SOC versus SOP and on-chip versus off-chip are concluded.     

CMOS射频集成电路的现状与进展

随着低功耗、可移动个人无线通信的发展和CMOS工艺性能的提高,用CMOS工艺实现无线通信系统的射频前端不仅必要而且可能.本文讨论了用CMOS工艺实现射频集成电路的特殊问题.首先介绍各种收发器的体系结构,对它们的优缺点进行比较,指出在设计中要考虑的一些问题.其次讨论CMOS射频前端的重要功能单元,包括低噪声放大器、混频器、频率综合器和功率放大器.对各单元模块在设计中的技术指标,可能采用的电路结构以及应该注意的问题进行了讨论.此外,论文还讨论了射频频段电感、电容等无源器件集成的可能性以及方法.最后对CMOS射频集成电路的发展方向提出了一些看法.     

Integrated circuits for communications

Wireless communication standards have progressed greatly over the past decade, from the relative simplicity of Bluetooth, to the much more sophisticated Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards that make up a large part of today's cellular communication networks. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this progression is the accompanying reduction in cost of the wireless devices themselves, driven by numerous innovations in the fields of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology, radio frequency (RF)/analog circuit design, and system-on-chip (SoC) integration. In this issue of the Integrated Circuits for Communications Series, we have selected three articles that highlight the challenges in the design of highly integrated SoCs using standard low-cost CMOS process.     

一种低功耗数字式人工关节无线监视系统

提出了一种由压电陶瓷和射频电路供电的低功耗数字式人工关节无线监视系统。该系统监视人工关节的工作情况,通过传感器得到人工关节的异常压力、磨损情况等数据,经过数模转换、存储后,通过射频信号,以无线方式发送至体外电路。对系统的各个部分进行了详细描述。部分电路已经得到流片验证或仿真,测试结果符合系统要求。     

A 2 MHz Wireless CMOS Transceiver for Implantable Biosignal Sensing Systems

An implementation of an implantable sensing biosystem composes of a readout circuit, a power management block, an embedded microcontroller unit (MCU), an implantable drug delivery section and a wireless uplink transceiver system. This paper describes a bi-directional wireless transceiver system for implantable sensing systems. The transceiver system is composed of an external and implantable transceiver, communicating through an inductive link. Half duplex communication between transceivers at a 10 Kbps data rate was achieved at a maximum distance of 4 cm. Command and data will be supplied to the implantable module by radio frequency (RF) telemetry utilizing an amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulated 2 MHz carrier frequency. A capacitor-less amplitude demodulation receiver architecture was produced in the research with implantable receiver core area measuring at 113.2 μm by 171.8 μm with average power dissipation at 815.1 μW at a 3.3 V single rail power supply. An active uplink transceiver utilizing load shift keying (LSK) as backward data telemetry was designed. Implantable transmitter core area measures 251.7 μm by 139.3 μm, consuming 103.62 mW while driving an RF ferrite core antenna at maximum reading range. Integrating both circuits, implantable transceiver, measuring 355.3 μm by 171.8 μm, was designed and implemented using TSMC 0.35 μm mixed-signal 2P4M 3.3 V standard CMOS process. The integrated circuit solution addressed solutions for many of the problems associated with implanted devices and introduces circuits which improve in several ways over previously published designs, in functionality and integration level. In addition to being fully integrated in plain CMOS technology, not relying at least partly on available specialized elements and expensive technologies, these building blocks improve on previous designs in performance and/or power consumption. This work succeeded in implementing building blocks for an implantable transceiver, which depends only on the absolute minimum off-chip components. A complete implantable chip is presented, which highlight the design tradeoffs and optimizations applied to the design of CMOS implantable system chips.     

RF and AMS

The paper shows four basic circuit functions which are RF transceiver, AMS, power amplifier (PA) and power management (PM), and digital signal processor (DSP). In this article, the authors emphasize the first three circuit functions, which drive analog and RF technology needs. Each of those three major parts in a RF front-end for a wireless system are discussed in a separate section with special emphasis on the device needs and technology choices for those blocks and with main focus on the frequency range from 0.8 to 10 GHz. A section on millimeter wave circuits and devices cover device and technology integration issues for applications in the frequency range starting from 10-100 GHz. Finally, we discuss the evolution of technology choices, integration issues, and potentially new emerging devices, all within the time-frame for the 2003 ITRS roadmap (2003-2018).     

Design and implementation of an all-CMOS 802.11a wireless LAN chipset

The tremendous growth in wireless LANs has generated interest in technologies that provide higher data rates and greater system capacities. The IEEE 802.11a standard, based on coded OFDM modulation, provides nearly five times the data rate and at least 20 times the overall system capacity compared to the incumbent 802.11b wireless LAN systems. This article describes the design challenges and circuit implementation of a two-chip set that forms a complete 802.11a solution in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. Wherever possible, sophisticated digital signal processing techniques are used to compensate for possible analog impairments associated with integrating RF circuitry in a CMOS technology. The analog portion of the chip set implements a 5 GHz transceiver comprising all the necessary RF and analog circuits of the 802.11a standard integrated on a single chip. Some features of this IC include 22 dBm peak transmitted power, 8 dB overall receive-chain noise figure, and -112 dBc/Hz synthesizer phase noise at 1 MHz frequency offset. The digital portion of the chip set, the baseband and MAC processor, contains dual ADCs/DACs and all the digital circuits for synchronization, detection, and 802.11 MAC layer data processing. This IC delivers up to 54 Mb/s in a 20 MHz channel according to the 802.11a standard, and includes proprietary modes supporting up to 108 Mb/s in a 40 MHz channel.     

RF 集成电路工艺探讨¹

射频集成电路的研究和制作将大大拓展集成电路的应用空间，本文介绍了当今RF的主流工艺，并分别对基于硅的深亚微米CMOS工艺在RF设计中的可行性和困难进行了研究，评述了其中存在的问题，最后提出了该领域中未来的发展前景。     

Design and performance analysis of double-gate MOSFET over single-gate MOSFET for RF switch

In this paper, we have designed a double-gate MOSFET and compared its performance parameters with the single-gate MOSFET as RF CMOS switch, particularly the double-pole four-throw (DP4T) switch, for the wireless telecommunication systems. A double-gate radio-frequency complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (DG RF CMOS) switch operating at the frequency of microwave range is investigated. This RF switch is capable to select the data streams from antennas for both the transmitting and receiving processes. We emphasize on the basics of the circuit elements (such as drain current, threshold voltage, resonant frequency, resistances at switch ON condition, capacitances, and switching speed) required for the integrated circuit of the radio frequency sub-system of the DG RF CMOS switch and the role of these basic circuit elements are also discussed. These properties presented in the switches due to the double-gate MOSFET and single-gate MOSFET have been discussed.     

A Disruptive Receiver Architecture Dedicated to Software-Defined Radio

The next generation of mobile terminals is faced with the emergence of the software-defined radio (SDR) concept. The communication devices tend to provide various wireless services through a multi-functional, multi-mode and multi-standard terminal. The SDR concept aims at designing a re-configurable radio architecture accepting all cellular or noncellular standards working in the 0-5-GHz frequency range. Some technical challenges have to be solved in order to address this concept. Working in the digital domain may be a solution but the analog-to-digital conversion cannot be done at Radio Frequencies, at an acceptable resolution and at an acceptable level of power consumption. The idea proposed here was to interface an analog pre-processing circuit between the antenna and a digital signal processor to pre-condition the RF signal. It uses the principle of a fast Fourier transform to carry out basic functions with high accuracy in a low-cost technology like CMOS. This paper presents the design and the behavioral simulations of this analog discrete-time device which gives the hardware flexibility required for a cognitive radio component.     

Testing of RF mixers with adaptive filters

This work describes a technique for testing RF mixers with digital adaptive filters. RF circuits are widely used on data transmission applications, such as wireless communication, radio and portable phone systems. However, traditional analog testing covers mainly linear circuits, being not suitable to non-linear pieces of hardware like analog mixers. Herein, an adaptive non-linear filter is trained so that it can mimic the behavior of a RF mixer. Then, a test stimulus is simultaneously applied to the filter and the mixer and the outputs of both circuits are compared to check whether the circuit under test is faulty or fault free. A prototype of a mixer was built in order to allow fault injection in the circuit under test. Thus, the detection capability of the proposed technique could be checked in a real life circuit. The preliminary results point to a very promising test technique. The test is very precise, low cost and allows a complete fault coverage with a very small testing time.