Wireless Technologies

Circuits, Systems, and Devices

Krzysztof Iniewski

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780849379963
• eBook ISBN: 9781351838207
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Advanced concepts for wireless technologies present a vision of technology that is embedded in our surroundings and practically invisible. From established radio techniques like GSM, 802.11 or Bluetooth to more emerging technologies, such as Ultra Wide Band and smart dust motes, a common denominator for future progress is the underlying integrated circuit technology. Wireless Technologies responds to the explosive growth of standard cellular radios and radically different wireless applications by presenting new architectural and circuit solutions engineers can use to solve modern design problems.This reference addresses state-of-the art CMOS design in the context of emerging wireless applications, including 3G/4G cellular telephony, wireless sensor networks, and wireless medical application. Written by top international experts specializing in both the IC industry and academia, this carefully edited work uncovers new design opportunities in body area networks, medical implants, satellite communications, automobile radar detection, and wearable electronics.The book is divided into three sections: wireless system perspectives, chip architecture and implementation issues, and devices and technologies used to fabricate wireless integrated circuits. Contributors address key issues in the development of future silicon-based systems, such as scale of integration, ultra-low power dissipation, and the integration of heterogeneous circuit design style and processes onto one substrate.Wireless sensor network systems are now being applied in critical applications in commerce, healthcare, and security. This reference, which contains 25 practical and scientifically rigorous articles, provides the knowledge communications engineers need to design innovative methodologies at the circuit and system level.

PART I

Circuits for Emerging Wireless: A System Perspective

1
RF Building Blocks for the Next-Gen Wireless Systems

Ali M. Niknejad

CONTENTS

1. The Evolution of Wireless Transceivers
   1. Component Count Explosion in a Multimode Radio
   2. New Wireless Standards
   3. Universal Software-Defined Radio
   4. Dynamic Radio Concept
   5. A Cognitive Radio
2. CMOS Technology Scaling
   1. Passive Devices
   2. Active Devices
3. High Dynamic Range Front-End Receiver
   1. Receiver Specifications
   2. Wideband LNA Design
   3. Shunt Feedback LNA
   4. Noise and Distortion Cancellation
   5. Broadband Low 1/f Noise Mixers
4. Power Amplifiers for the Future
   1. PA Target Specification
   2. Multimode Power Amplifiers
   3. PA Architecture
   4. Power-Combining Challenges
   5. Dynamic Biasing Power Amplifier
   6. Universal Frequency Synthesizer
   7. Wide Tuning Range VCO
   8. Analog and Digital Baseband
5. Microwave and mm-Wave CMOS
   1. Microwave CMOS
   2. mm-Wave CMOS
   3. mm-Wave Active Elements
   4. mm-Wave Passive Elements
   5. Key mm-Wave Building Blocks
   6. mm-Wave Radio Architecture
      1. Antenna Array
      2. Transceiver Architecture
6. Conclusion
7. Acknowledgments
8. References

Wireless devices have become ubiquitous, from cordless to cellular phones and wireless local area networks (WLANs). And yet, this is still the tip of the iceberg. New applications such as sensor networks, 3G and 4G multistandard radios, metropolitan area wireless data networks such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), personal area networks (PANs) such as ultra wideband (UWB), multiantenna radios, 60 GHz, to name a few, promise even more choices and mobility.

Every wireless device needs a transceiver to drive and extract power from the antenna to enable two-way communication. Today, most wireless devices contain one, or at best a few, transceivers. Typically each radio is optimized for a particular application, trading off data rate versus range, or battery life versus performance. There is a real challenge in moving into the future of universal wireless devices, integrating many radios on the same device, capable of universal operation.

One of the biggest bottlenecks is the radio front-end. In particular, the low-noise amplifier (LNA), mixer, analog filters, and power amplifier (PA) are usually standard and frequency specific and do not scale with technology. This chapter will explore new radio building blocks that are inherently more broadband and linear and amenable to integration with scaled digital CMOS process.

THE EVOLUTION OF WIRELESS TRANSCEIVERS

The wireless revolution has created a great demand for low-cost, mass-producible, and reliable circuits for communications. Not surprisingly, the past decade of research and development in both industry and academia has been concentrated in this area, particularly work associated with employing integrated circuits to replace bulky and expensive discrete and multichip solutions. Major advancements have been made and these efforts have focused primarily on voice communications over cellular networks and short-range WLAN data communication. The Internet revolution has created an appetite for high-speed data communication, and users worldwide demand an always-on link to the Internet. Today a wireless device needs to communicate in a heterogeneous environment, including current and next-generation cellular metropolitan area networks (MAN), medium-range high-speed WLANs, and short-range PANs. The common element in all future wireless communication systems is the requirement for spectral efficiency, low power, and multistandard interoperability.

Cellular communication networks are now ubiquitous. Unfortunately, many disparate standards and frequencies are used and thus global connectivity is hard to achieve. The global system for mobile communication (GSM) standard is almost universal in Europe, and GPRS and enhanced data for GSM evolution (EDGE) have added medium data rate capability to the standard. Code division multiple access (CDMA) described by IS-95 and US-TDMA based on IS-136 are also common in the United States and abroad. These networks are the so-called 2G networks intended primarily for voice communication. They are also circuit-switched networks and therefore make very poor utilization of bandwidth for bursty data, typical of Internet browsing. These networks have been allocated spectrum in the range of 800 MHz to 2 GHz. Unfortunately, a given standard is often implemented in many different bands in different countries and regions, requiring multiband operation in the transceiver.

Medium-range WLAN networks based on 802.11a/b/g have grown exponentially in the past few years. It is now possible to build a high-speed WLAN network in an office or residential environment using off-the-shelf inexpensive parts. Data rates vary from 1 to 108 Mb/s. Fortunately, the frequency bands for WLANs are more standard and occur mostly in the 2.4 GHz industrial science medical (ISM) bands for 802.11b/g.

The Bluetooth standard is an example of a short-range PAN network. In theory, such a network can fulfill many tasks, such as providing connectivity to mice/keyboards, headphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and printers. One potential issue with Bluetooth is that it also operates in the 2.4 GHz band, with the possibility of interfering with the WLAN standards. With the adoption of the multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) UWB standard, Bluetooth can also provide high data rate short-range communication and utilize less crowded frequencies between 6 and 10 GHz. The Zigbee alliance has also created renewed interest in a reliable, cost-effective, low-power wireless network for monitoring and controlling applications based on an open standard.

FIGURE 1.1 Typical present-day multiband transceiver off-chip components.

COMPONENT COUNT EXPLOSION IN A MULTIMODE RADIO

Even inside a so-called “single-chip” cellular phone, there are hundreds of bulky components in addition to the core radio implemented in Si technology. Shown schematically in Figure 1.1, a simple triple-band cell phone requires band-specific filters to relax the requirements of the radio blocks on-chip. Switches are needed to change from band to band or from transmitter to receiver, and this introduces loss and complexity in the design. The PA on the transmitter drives the antenna through additional off-chip filtering. To implement power control and load isolation, directional couplers and circulators are often used. This radio is only a multiband radio operating with a single standard. Using conventional methods, it is very difficult and expensive to build a multistandard radio since all the various off-chip components must be duplicated for each new standard. Even today, there are several competing standards for cellular phones and short-range communication. To cover the important bands and standards available today globally would require a dozen or more parallel radio paths.

NEW WIRELESS STANDARDS

The explos...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Editor
• Contributors
• PART I Circuits for Emerging Wireless: A System Perspective
• PART II Chip Architectures and Circuit Implementations
• PART III Device and Process Technology for Wireless Chips
• Index