Linear CMOS RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Applications: Efficiency Enhancement and Frequency-Tunable Capability (Analog Circuits and Signal Processing)

171 Pages·2010·3.68 MB·English

by  Paulo Augusto Dal Fabbro

Linear CMOS RF
Power Amplifiers
for Wireless
Applications
ANALOGCIRCUITSANDSIGNALPROCESSINGSERIES
ConsultingEditor:MohammedIsmail.OhioStateUniversity
Forothertitlespublishedinthisseries,goto
www.springer.com/series/7381
Paulo Augusto Dal Fabbro (cid:2) Maher Kayal
Linear CMOS RF
Power Amplifiers
for Wireless
Applications
Efficiency Enhancement and
Frequency-Tunable Capability
Dr.PauloAugustoDalFabbro Prof.MaherKayal
ÉcolePolytechniqueFédérale ÉcolePolytechniqueFédérale
deLausanne(EPFL) deLausanne(EPFL)
1015Lausanne 1015Lausanne
Switzerland Switzerland
[email protected] maher.kayal@epfl.ch
SeriesEditors:
MohammedIsmail MohamadSawan
205DreeseLaboratory ElectricalEngineeringDepartment
DepartmentofElectricalEngineering ÉcolePolytechniquedeMontréal
TheOhioStateUniversity Montréal,QC,Canada
2015NeilAvenue
Columbus,OH43210,USA
ISBN978-90-481-9360-8 e-ISBN978-90-481-9361-5
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9361-5
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010930617
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Preface
Advances in electronics have pushed mankind to create devices, ranging from in-
credible gadgets to medical equipment to spacecraft instruments. More than that,
modern society is getting used to—if not dependent on—the comfort, solutions,
andastonishingamountofinformationbroughtbythesedevices.Onefieldthathas
continuously benefitted from those advances is the radio frequency integrated cir-
cuit(RFIC)design,whichinitsturnhaspromotedcountlessbenefitstothemankind
asapayback.Wirelesscommunicationsisoneprominentexampleofwhatthead-
vances in electronics have enabled and their consequences to our daily life. How
couldanyonebackin theeightiesthinkof the possibilitiesopenedbythewireless
localareanetworks(WLANs)thatcanbefoundtodayinahostofplaces,suchas
publiclibraries,coffeeshops,trains,tonamejustafew?Howcanayoungster,who
livesthistrueWLANexperiencenowadays,imagineaworldwithoutit?
ThisbookdealswiththedesignoflinearCMOSRFPowerAmplifiers(PAs).The
RFPAisaveryimportantpartoftheRFtransceiver,thedevicethatenableswireless
communications. Two important aspects that are key to keep the advances in RF
PAdesignatanacceleratepacearetreated:efficiencyenhancementandfrequency-
tunable capability. For this purpose, the design of two different integrated circuits
realizedina0.11µmtechnologyispresented,eachoneaddressingadifferentaspect.
With respect to efficiency enhancement, the design of a dynamic supply RF
poweramplifieristreated,makingupthematerialofChaps.2to4.Thefrequency-
tunablecapabilityisaddressedinChaps.5to7,presentingthedesignofatunable
impedancematchingnetworkforuseinmultibandRFpoweramplifiers.Thisnovel
networkisbasedoncoupledinductors.ThereadercanjumpdirectlytoChap.5ifthe
interestisforthefrequency-tunablePA.Whenbackgroundinformationisimportant
totheunderstandingofthematerialbeingpresented,thereaderwillbeguidedtothe
pageofconcern.InChap.1,adetailedoutlineofthebookcanbefound.Chapter8
summarizestheresultsobtainedandconclusionsthatcouldbedrawnfromthework
underlying this book. Additional information, regarding the measurement setups
andtheimplementationoftheimpedancematchingnetworksusedinthecharacter-
ization of the power amplifiers, can be found in the two appendices that close the
book.
v
vi Preface
Thematerialpresentedinthisbookistheoffspringofacollaborativeresearchbe-
tweentheElectronicsLaboratoryoftheÉcolepolytechniquefédéraledeLausanne
(EPFL)inLausanne,Switzerland,andtheFujitsuLaboratoriesLtd.inYokohama,
Japan.
Acknowledgments
ThankstoYuuWatanabeandKazuhikoKobayashi,fromFujitsuLabs,forthesup-
portduringallthecollaborationproject.ThanksalsotoCédricMeinen,fromEPFL,
forhisinvaluablecontributionstothedesignofthedynamicsupplysystem.
Lausanne,Switzerland PauloAugustoDalFabbro
MaherKayal
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 EfficiencyEnhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.2 Frequency-TunableCapability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 BookOutline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Efficienc Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 BasicPrinciples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2.1 Linearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2.2 Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 OverviewoftheMainEfficiency-EnhancementTechniques . . . . 7
2.3.1 EnvelopeEliminationandRestoration . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.2 DynamicSupplyRFPowerAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3 DesignoftheDynamicSupplyCMOSRFPowerAmplifie . . . . . 17
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 High-Efficiency,FastModulator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.1 High-SpeedComparator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.2 SynchronousSwitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.3 LCFilter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3 RFPowerAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.1 DesignProcedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.2 Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 DynamicSupplyRFPowerAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
vii
viii Contents
4 MeasurementResultsfortheDynamicSupplyCMOSRFPower
Amplifie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 MainEvaluationBoard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.3 ModulatorCharacterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.3.1 EnvelopeDetectionandProcessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 RFPowerAmplifierCharacterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.4.1 S-ParametersMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.4.2 Single-ToneMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.5 DynamicSupplyRFPACharacterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.5.1 Two-ToneMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.5.2 OFDMMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5 Frequency-TunableCapability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1.1 Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.1 TuningRange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3 OverviewoftheExistingFrequency-TunableTechniques . . . . . 63
5.3.1 BroadbandTechniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.2 NarrowbandTechniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 DesignoftheFrequency-TunableCMOSRFPowerAmplifie . . . . 77
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2 OutputImpedanceMatching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2.1 Theπ-MatchingNetwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.2.2 TunableOutputImpedanceMatching . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.3 InputImpedanceMatching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.4 Frequency-TunableRFPowerAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.4.1 RFPowerAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.4.2 CoupledInductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.4.3 ControlCircuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.4.4 CompleteSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7 MeasurementResultsfortheFrequency-TunableCMOSRFPower
Amplifie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2 Stand-AloneRFPowerAmplifierCharacterization . . . . . . . . . 102
7.3 CoupledInductorsCharacterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.4 Frequency-TunableRFPAMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Contents ix
7.5 HybridImplementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.5.1 MeasurementResultsfortheHybridPA . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.6 AnalysisandDiscussionoftheResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
8.1 Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
8.2 MainContributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.2.1 EfficiencyEnhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.2.2 Frequency-TunableCapability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.2.3 ImpedanceMatching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.3 FutureWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.3.1 EfficiencyEnhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.3.2 Frequency-TunableCapability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
9 AppendixA:MeasurementSetupsandAdditionalScreenshots . . . 127
9.1 SetupsUsedfortheS-ParameterMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . 127
9.2 SetupUsedforthe2-ToneMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
9.3 SetupUsedfortheOFDMMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
9.4 AdditionalScreenshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
10 AppendixB:ProcedureforImpedanceMatchingofPrinted-Circuit
RFAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10.2 ProcedureforImpedanceMatching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
10.2.1 PCBAccessLinesDesignandFabrication . . . . . . . . . 140
10.2.2 SOLTCalibrationandMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
10.2.3 TRLCalibrationandMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
10.2.4 AccessLineModelingandDe-Embedding . . . . . . . . . 142
10.2.5 MatchingNetworkImplementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
10.2.6 SummarizedGuidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
10.3 ApplicationExample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
10.3.1 FirstStep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
10.3.2 SecondStep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
10.3.3 ThirdStep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
10.3.4 FourthStep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10.3.5 FifthStep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
10.4 AnalysisoftheResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157