RF Front End Application

and Technology Trends

Pieter W. Hooijmans
Department Head Integrated Transceivers
Philips Research Laboratories
5656 AA Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Content
l RF Applications
l RF Application Trends
l RF Technology Options & Trends
l The Challenges
RF Applications
RF Applications
l Classification
RF
Professional/military
Consumer RF
Broadcast Telecom
FM/AM radio
VHF/UHF TV
Ku Satellite TV
L Satellite Radio

Cordless phone
Mobile phone
Wireless LAN
Wireless PAN
GPS Navigation

Broadcast receivers
l FM radio
75-100 MHz
90-95 dB Signal-Interference Ratio (S=200 mV, I<4 V)
l PAL/NTSC/Secam TV
45-860 MHz (VHF & UHF); 6, 7 or 8 MHz channel
60-65 dB Signal-Interference Ratio (S=200 mV, I<100 V)
l Satellite TV
Ku band (11.7-12.9 GHz); 20-40 MHz channel
Broadcast receivers
l FM radio
75-100 MHz
90-95 dB Signal-Interference Ratio (S=200 mV, I<4 V)
l PAL/NTSC/Secam TV
45-860 MHz (VHF & UHF); 6, 7 or 8 MHz channel
60-65 dB Signal-Interference Ratio (S=200 mV, I<100 V)
l Satellite TV
Ku band (11.7-12.9 GHz); 20-40 MHz channel
l Classical, high volume, low cost consumer applications
Reserved frequencies, high bandwidth, high dynamic range
l Trends
Digital transmission
Return path
Digital Broadcast Standards
l Drivers
Bandwidth efficiency (more TV channels per MHz)
Support of high bandwidth Internet traffic & data services
(down stream)
l Modulation formats
Satellite : QPSK 8PSK (DVB-S, SDARS)
Terrestrial : OFDM (DAB, DVB-T, SDARS)
l Receiver consequences
Lower SNR required
but margin used up by lower transmission power and
for many years co-existence with old analogue standards
Pushes digitization
Increased complexity
Example: SDARS
Digital Satellite Radio - SDARS
Terrestrial
Support Transmitter
OFDM 4 MHz
2.3 GHz
Satellite Direct Broadcast
QPSK 4 MHz @ 2.3 GHz
Frequency & time diversity
Simultaneous
reception &
soft decision
4 4 4 MHz
Digital Satellite Radio - SDARS
l Example of increasing system complexity
Multi-band reception
Multiple modulation schemes reception
Very low noise for satellite reception
Very high adjacent channel interference
Advanced soft-decision diversity detection
l Another example:
Integrating the TV tuner
TV Tuner Architecture
130-390
45-130
390-860
RF
130-390
45-130
390-860
Tank Tank Tank
Synthesizer
PLL
Tuning voltage
Band select
oscillator
mixer
32-40 MHz
TV Tuner Architecture
130-390
45-130
390-860
RF
130-390
45-130
390-860
Tank Tank Tank
Synthesizer
PLL
Tuning voltage
Band select
oscillator
mixer
32-40 MHz
IF band
Required:
60 dB
Signal-
Interference
Ratio
36 MHz
selectivity
TV Tuner Architecture
130-390
45-130
390-860
RF
130-390
45-130
390-860
Tank Tank Tank
Synthesizer
PLL
Tuning voltage
Band select
oscillator
mixer
32-40 MHz
IF band
Required:
60 dB
Signal-
Interference
Ratio
36 MHz
selectivity
Fully Integrated Digital TV Tuner
l bipolar
l low-IF concept (IF=5 MHz)
l complex mixers
l integrated filters for RF and
IF selectivity
l no external filters or SAW
l ...
l CMOS
l end selectivity (Nyquist) in
digital domain
l 54 MHz 8-bit ADC
l digital demodulation
l ...
8-bit
54 MHz
ADC
Digital
demodulation
Digital
Nyquist
Low-IF
5 MHz
Fully Integrated Digital TV Tuner
l 10 mm
2
l 3.3 V, 1.0 W
Fully Integrated Digital TV Tuner
l 10 mm
2
l 3.3 V, 1.0 W
70% of chip area
passives-dominated
integrated
analogue and
RF functions
Return path
l Re-use of existing broad band broadcast infrastructure
for high speed IP-traffic
Cable modem: re-use of cable TV technology
Satellite : re-use of satellite TV technology
1
st
gen.12 GHz down, 29 GHz up
2
nd
gen. 20 GHz down, 29 GHz up
Starband transceiver
Telecom transceivers
l Digital cordless phone
DECT 1.9 GHz GFSK (and 2.4 GHz)
l Mobile phone 1G & 2G
900 MHz: GSM, TDMA/IS-54
1800 MHz: DCS1800, TDMA/IS-136
1900 MHz: CDMA/IS-95
l Mobile phone 2.5G
GPRS, GSM-Edge
More time slots used; low power issues
l Mobile phone 3G (UMTS)
W-CDMA in Japan
TD-SCDMA in China
and more to come !?
Full duplex, so serious power issue
X-talk issues, so separate Tx and Rx chips
Telecom transceivers
All bands below
2.5 GHz for
sufficient range
and in-house
reception
l Digital cordless phone
DECT 1.9 GHz GFSK (and 2.4 GHz)
l Mobile phone 1G & 2G
900 MHz: GSM, TDMA/IS-54
1800 MHz: DCS1800, TDMA/IS-136
1900 MHz: CDMA/IS-95
l Mobile phone 2.5G
GPRS, GSM-Edge
More time slots used; low power issues
l Mobile phone 3G (UMTS)
W-CDMA in Japan
TD-SCDMA in China
and more to come !?
Full duplex, so serious power issue
X-talk issues, so separate Tx and Rx chips
Mobile Multi-Band Transceivers
TDA3537
Wireless
l Wireless LAN
IEEE 802.11b 2.4 GHz, CCK-QPSK 11 Mb/s raw
IEEE 802.11g 2.4 GHz, OFDM 22/54 Mb/s raw
IEEE 802.11a 5.2-5.8 GHz, OFDM 54 Mb/s raw
Range in theory 20-50 m
Net rate at ~15-20 m NLOS ~ 1/4th of raw rate
Effective bit rate still only moderate
l Wireless PAN
Bluetooth 2.4 GHz, GFSK 1 Mb/s raw
Zigbee 2.4 GHz 300 kb/s raw
Range around 10 m
Cable replacement: cost targets extremely low
Application-free, fully integrated solutions targeted
Ultra Wide-Band (UWB)
l Very high speed Wireless PAN
100-200-400-1000 Mb/s tageted in steps
wireless USB and wireless 1394
3-10 GHz pulsed transmission at very low power
Range targets 10-3 m
Standard not yet defined !
RF Application Trends
1. Higher Frequencies
l Consumer RF frequencies move into Microwave domain
l Driven by need for higher Bandwidth
WLAN/WPAN at 17 GHz (Eu, US?), 23 GHz (Japan)
IEEE 802.16 WMAN multiple bands 10.5, 26, 31, 38 GHz
Interactive broadband satellite (20 GHz down, 30 GHz up)
LMDS (wireless cable) at 28 GHz
Car radar at 17 and 24 GHz
l Standards have mostly/often been defined
l Supported by emerging integration technology
RF Application Trends
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AM-radio
TV
VHF Band
TV
UHF Band
SAT
Front End
SAT-LNB
C-Band
1G-Mobile
GSM, AMPS
2G-Mobile
DCS1800
1G WLAN
2.5 GHz
2G WLAN
5 GHz
SAT-LNB
11-13 GHz
3G-Mobile
UMTS
Sat-radio
2.3 GHz
FM-radio
VHF Band
New Microwave
Applications
RF Application Trends
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AM-radio
TV
VHF Band
TV
UHF Band
SAT
Front End
SAT-LNB
C-Band
1G-Mobile
GSM, AMPS
2G-Mobile
DCS1800
1G WLAN
2.5 GHz
2G WLAN
5 GHz
SAT-LNB
11-13 GHz
3G-Mobile
UMTS
Sat-radio
2.3 GHz
FM-radio
VHF Band
New Microwave
Applications
RF Application Trends
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 2000 10 20
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50
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G
H
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AM-radio
TV
VHF Band
TV
UHF Band
SAT
Front End
SAT-LNB
C-Band
1G-Mobile
GSM, AMPS
2G-Mobile
DCS1800
1G WLAN
2.5 GHz
2G WLAN
5 GHz
SAT-LNB
11-13 GHz
3G-Mobile
UMTS
Sat-radio
2.3 GHz
FM-radio
VHF Band
LMDS
28-30 GHz
SAT
20, 30 GHz
3G WLAN
17, 23 GHz
4G-Mobile
40 GHz
Car Radar
17, 4 GHz
W-MAN
11, 26, 31 GHz
2. Integration and low cost
l RF integration drives cost reduction
(Silicon) integrated circuits replace discrete solutions
Process technology supports higher frequencies
f
design
< f
t
/5 is research limit
f
design
< f
t
/10 for robust design
Today bipolar f
t
70-100 GHz
Good RF passives in silicon can sometimes replace discrete
external components
Local oscillator tank circuit coil
Heterodyne vs. Zero-IF
l Heterodyne architectures
Tank Tank
IF1 IF2
IC
RF
Heterodyne vs. Zero-IF
l Heterodyne architectures
Tank Tank
IF1 IF2
IC
RF
l Zero-IF architectures
Base
band
3. Digitisation
l Technology push
Continuous digital CMOS processing power increase
high speed, low power, DSP
every 2 year new technology node
Continuous ADC and DAC performance increase
higher bandwidth
higher accuracy (number of bits)
band pass filter sigma-delta ADCs
3. Digitisation
l Technology push
Continuous digital CMOS processing power increase
high speed, low power, DSP
every 2 year new technology node
Continuous ADC and DAC performance increase
higher bandwidth
higher accuracy (number of bits)
band pass filter sigma-delta ADCs
l Application pull
Zero-IF and Near Zero-IF architectures (ZIF and NZIF)
require additional selectivity in digital domain
often require digital correction of analogue impairments
Advanced digital modulation schemes
OFDM, CDMA, QAM, MIMO/STC,
Multi-standard solutions
GSM-DCS-PCS
802.11g+a, 802.11g-Bluetooth
Analogue-Digital Conversion
l ADC determined by SNR/SIR and Bandwidth
l 6 dB SNR/SIR per bit
The more filtering before ADC, the less bits required
l P
ADC
= 2
N
2BW
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
Analogue-Digital Conversion
l ADC determined by SNR/SIR and Bandwidth
l 6 dB SNR/SIR per bit
The more filtering before ADC, the less bits required
l P
ADC
= 2
N
2BW
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
l GSM low-IF : N=10, BW=300 kHz, P=10 mW
l GSM @ RF : N=18 (>100 dB SNR), BW=1 GHz, P=100 W
l Positioning and dimensioning of ADC very critical for
optimal system configuration
4. Low Power
l Driven especially by portable applications
l But
power consumption in RF, analogue and mixed-signal
proportional to dynamic range and bandwidth
Lower limit determined by standard
Actual power consumption due to implementation efficiency
l Next generations technology (both bipolar and CMOS)
give only marginal power reduction for same function
l Problems are caused by reducing supply voltages
For bipolar problems below 2.5 V
For RF-CMOS problems below 1.8 V
RF Technology Options & Trends
Bipolar and BiCMOS
l Today still 99% of RF front end solutions !
High f
t
at high gain per stage
High quality passives (low parasitic R, L, high density C, )
l State-of-the-Art
Silicon double-poly emitter technology f
t
~ 40 GHz
Rule of tumb f
design
< f
t
/10 < 4 GHz
Covers all mobile and 2.5 GHz WLAN/PAN applications
Silicon-Germanium technology f
t
~ 65-90 GHz
Rule of tumb f
design
< f
t
/10 < 9 GHz
Required for all applications 5 GHz
l Still better processes required for new microwave
applications
F
t
of 150-200 GHz targeted and in development
BiCMOS
l CMOS in BiCMOS usually old
Today mostly 0.25 m, 0.18 m coming
Used for integrating simple digital functions (control, PLL, )
Too expensive for large base band functions
l Todays RF solutions mostly at least 2-chip
BiCMOS for RF
CMOS for ADC/DAC and base band
Additional ICs for Power Amplifier
BiCMOS
l CMOS in BiCMOS usually old
Today mostly 0.25 m
Used for integrating simple digital functions (control, PLL, )
Too expensive for large base band functions
l Todays RF solutions mostly at least 2-chip
BiCMOS for RF
CMOS for ADC/DAC and base band
Additional ICs for Power Amplifier
l Is it possible to make 1-chip solutions, and are these
cheaper ?
RF-CMOS
l Driven by assumption that 1-chip in baseline CMOS is
cheaper than 2-chip
l F
t
of deep sub- CMOS now also > 50-100 GHz
Should support RF design
Major drawback: very low intrinsic gain (~ 0.01 x bipolar))
l Low-ohmic substrate bad for isolation between blocks
Especially issue with RF System-on-Chip
l No good passives available
RF-CMOS
l Good RF design in CMOS is possible !!
Mostly 0.25 and 0.18 m, 0.12 and below become difficult
Products mainly for WLAN/PAN at 2.5 and 5 GHz
Mobile phone could be next
l But
RF-CMOS
l For the same architecture and functionality RF-CMOS
Is not lower power than bipolar
Is not smaller area
Is not higher performance
Has more issues with analogue-digital X-talk
Has more issues with yield
l RF-CMOS flows are identical to bipolar RF flows
Require separate, dedicated analogue library
Can not use same tools as digital design
Can not use standard library re-use mechanisms from digital
l RF blocks do not shrink when transferred to next CMOS
generation
For RF it is advantageous (both for cost & performance) to stay in older
technology
l Therefore 1-chip RF-SoC are mostly more expensive, lower in
performance and much less flexible than multi-chip solutions
Multi-technology
l Both for BiCMOS and RF-CMOS further integration will
sharply increase costs
BiCMOS would require state-of-the-art CMOS (say < 0.12 m)
RF-CMOS would require high-quality passives
l Therefore move towards hybrid multi-technology solutions
Each function in its optimal technology
BiCMOS for high performance RF
CMOS for BB and medium performance RF
High quality passives in dedicated cheap passive technologies
(high density C, high-Q resonators, switches, MEMs)
All assembled into single package
l Modules and System-in-Package (SiP)
Example: Bluetooth
l Module
RF + BB + application
9 x 11 mm
2
, 1.8 mm high
BGB202
Example: Bluetooth
l Module
RF + BB + application
9 x 11 mm
2
, 1.8 mm high
l SiP
RF + application
5 x 5 mm
2
, 1 mm high
BGB202
The Challenges
Integrated Transceivers
Transceiver System Simulation
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
Circuit Level
Simulation
Channel
MS digital RF
System level simulation
BiCMOS CMOS
Technology
Modeling
Passive Integration
Package / Module / SiP
EMC
Integrated Transceivers
Transceiver System Simulation
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
Circuit Level
Simulation
Channel
MS digital RF
System level simulation
BiCMOS CMOS
Technology
Modeling
Passive Integration
Package / Module / SiP
EMC
Multi-technology Simulation
RF Behavioural Modeling
-For complex digital TRx
-For soft synthesis of RF blocks
-Especially for modules/SiP
Integrated Transceivers
Transceiver System Simulation
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
Circuit Level
Simulation
Channel
MS digital RF
System level simulation
BiCMOS CMOS
Technology
Modeling
Passive Integration
Package / Module / SiP
EMC
Substrate X-talk Simulation
Interconnect
& coil
Modeling
Integrated Transceivers
Transceiver System Simulation
PLL
DEM
PLL
A
D
A
D
LNA
Mixer
oscillator
Circuit Level
Simulation
Channel
MS digital RF
System level simulation
BiCMOS CMOS
Technology
Modeling
Passive Integration
Package / Module / SiP
EMC
Integrated multi-tool open-interface simulation environment
Conclusions
l RF consumer applications move into microwave domain
l Transceivers become multi-mode and highly digitised
l Digital modulation schemes put severe requirements on
system-circuit simulation
l There is an end to integration of everything into 1
technology
BiCMOS and RF-CMOS logical end stations
Passive integration enters as third party
l Modules or System-in-Package to make total solutions
Hybrid technologies, multiple levels of hierarchy
l Major CAD challenge to simulate total solution
System-circuit, RF-EM-analogue-mixed-digital
Multi-technology
Thank You, Any Questions