This paper presents a complete top-down design and experimental results for a fast-hopping 11-band 3-10-GHz frequency synthesizer. The system requirements for a synthesizer in an ultrawideband (UWB) ...radio are discussed. The synthesizer specifications for 480-Mb/s- and 1-Gb/s-data-rate multiband orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing UWB radios using quadrature phase shift keying and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation, respectively, are provided. The circuit-level implementation of this microwave system is described in detail including layout considerations. Fabricated in a 0.25-mum SiGe BiCMOS process and integrated in a receiver, the synthesizer was characterized in a quad-flat-no-leads package while being mounted on an FR-4 substrate. Measurement results and a model-hardware correlation analysis are presented.
In this paper, an approach to map the Bluetooth and 802.11b standards specifications into an architecture and specifications for the building blocks of a dual-mode direct conversion receiver is ...proposed. The design procedure focuses on optimizing the performance in each operating mode while attaining an efficient dual-standard solution. The impact of the expected receiver nonidealities and the characteristics of each building block are evaluated through bit-error-rate simulations. The proposed receiver design is verified through a fully integrated implementation from low-noise amplifier to analog-to-digital converter using IBM 0.25-/spl mu/m BiCMOS technology. Experimental results from the integrated prototype meet the specifications from both standards and are in good agreement with the target sensitivity.
Next-generation mobile technology (5G) aims to provide an improved experience through higher data-rates, lower latency, and improved link robustness. Millimeter-wave phased arrays offer a path to ...support multiple users at high data-rates using high-bandwidth directional links between the base station and mobile devices. To realize this vision, a phased-array-based pico-cell must support a large number of precisely controlled beams, yet be compact and power efficient. These system goals have significant mm-wave radio interface implications, including scalability of the RFIC+antenna-array solution, increase in the number of concurrent beams by supporting dual polarization, precise beam steering, and high output power without sacrificing TX power efficiency. Packaged Si-based phased arrays 1-3 with nonconcurrent dual-polarized TX and RX operation 2,3, concurrent dual-polarized RX operation 3 and multi-IC scaling 3,4 have been demonstrated. However, support for concurrent dual-polarized operation in both RX and TX remains unaddressed, and high output power comes at the cost of power consumption, cooling complexity and increased size. The RFIC reported here addresses these challenges. It supports concurrent and independent dual-polarized operation in TX and RX modes, and is compatible with a volume-efficient, scaled, antenna-in-package array. A new TX/RX switch at the shared antenna interface enables high output power without sacrificing TX efficiency, and a t-line-based phase shifter achieves <;1° RMS error and <;5° phase steps for precise beam control.
This paper presents a study of antenna-in-package (AiP) design options for mm-scale Internet-of-Things (ioT) applications. Specifically, silicon interposer and organic-based substrates with areas ...ranging from 2.1\times 2.1 mm 2 to 6\times 5 mm 2 are explored as options to package a mm-scale active IoT IC and integrate it with antennas to form a compact module capable of power harvesting and data transmission. The AiP designs considered are electrically-small loop and dipole antennas operating at 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz in the sub-6 GHz bands as well as dipole antennas operating in the 28 GHz mm-wave band. Simulation results show that AiP designs in both silicon interposer and organic-based substrates can achieve similar performance; moreover, we also observed that for a given EIRP limit, 28 GHz achieves the highest range for smaller 2.1\times 2.1 mm 2 substrates. Initial measurement results on fabricated AiP test structures and complete IoT module samples show the feasibility of electrically-small antenna designs for these applications and highlight associated fabrication, assembly, and measurement challenges.
