1

ADI 2006 RF Seminar

Chapt er VI
A Det ai l ed Look at Wi r el ess
Si gnal Chai n Ar c hi t ec t ur es
Chapt er VI
A Det ai l ed Look at Wi r el ess
Si gnal Chai n Ar c hi t ec t ur es
2
Rec ei ver Ar c hi t ec t ur es
Receivers are designed to detect and demodulate the
desired signal and remove unwanted blockers
Receiver must also get rid of unwanted signals that it
generates (e.g. mixer spurs)
Receiver uses variable gain and power detection
Most Receivers will have some form of Automatic Gain
Control
Diversity: Some Receiver Systems have two separate
Receive Paths (Antennas separated by a quarter
wavelength).
A Diversity Receiver will either pick the strongest signal or
intelligently combine both signals to increase signal power
3
Bl oc k er s a c l oser l ook
Blockers can be orders of magnitude larger than the desired
signal
Large Blockers can jam a receiver
Blockers can inter-modulate with each other and produce IMD
products right at the frequency of the desired signal
Some Blockers can be filtered (e.g. out-of-band) but others must
be tolerated.
A
RxBand
DC DC
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
Out-of-Band
Blocker
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
Transmit
Signal
4
A Super het er odyne (Si ngl e Conver si on) I F
Sampl i ng Rec ei ver
Mixes the received signal from RF down to a single IF
Uses SAW filters to remove blockers and unwanted mixing components
Detects signal power and implements AGC at the IF
Reduces number of down-conversions by sampling the spectrum at an
Intermediate Frequency but requires a high performance ADC
Is the most popular architecture in non-cellular applications
IF SAMPLING
ADC
MIXER
DUPLEXER
RSSI
/AGC
VGA
Band/Image
Filter
A
B C D E F G H
I
TRANSMITTER
Channel Select
Filter
5
I F Sampl i ng Si gnal Fl ow
A
RxBand
DC DC
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
Out-of-Band
Blocker
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
Transmit
Signal
B
RxBand
DC DC
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
Out-of-Band
Blocker
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
Transmit
Signal
C/D
RxBand
DC D
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
E
Desired
Signal
DC D
Freq
Power (dBm)
LO
Leakage
F
LO
-F
RF
F
LO
+F
RF
F Channel Select Filter
DC D
Freq
Power (dBm)
H
2nd
Harmonic
DC D
Freq
Power (dBm)
I
DC D
Freq
Power (dBm)
SAMPLING
CLOCK
F
IF F
S
F
S
-F
IF
FFT
F
S
/2
F
LO
AGC
&
Nqyuist
Filter
Blocker
IMD
Product
6
How I F sampl i ng w or k s
The receiver uses RF and IF filters to eliminate the transmit
signal and blockers so that only the desired signal is
sampled
The ADC must sample at twice the signal bandwidth to meet
Nyquist criteria
Oversampling can be used to improve the signal to noise
ratio by 3 dB for each doubling of the sample frequency
Harmonics of ADC driver amp that are not filtered will
degrade performance
There is usually a clock recovery loop in an FPGA or DSP or
both that locks the sampling rate to a multiple of the symbol
rate
7
Di r ec t Conver si on Rec ei ver
Saves money by mixing RF spectrum to baseband in a single
step
Reduces component count and eliminates IF SAW filters
There is a reason why RF engineers have not tried this
sooner removing DC offsets at baseband
ADC
ADC
90
0
IQ DEMOD
DUPLEXER
RSSI
/AGC
VGA
Band
Filter
A
B C D E
F
G
TRANSMITTER
8
Di r ec t Conver si on Rec ei ver
A
RxBand
DC DC
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
Transmit
Signal
C
DC DC
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
Transmit
Si gnal
F
DC
Freq
F
S F
S
/2
RxBand
E
DC DC
Transmit
Signal
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
Freq
TxBand
Power (dBm)
RxBand
In-Band
Blockers Desired
Signal
DC Offset from
LO Self Mixing
&
IP2 Intermodulation
Blocker IMD
Product
G
DC
Freq
F
S
F
S
/2
Nqyui st
Filter
Desired
Carrier
In-Band
Bl ockers
Desired
Signal
In-Band
Blockers
Desired
Signal
Blocker IMD
Product
BB Amp
Distortion
9
Di r ec t Conver si on Rec ei ver
In-Band Blockers can only be eliminated at the end of the
signal chain or in the digital domain.
In-Band Blockers can mix in the Front End (before mixer) to
produce an unwanted product at baseband
LO leakage to the RF input causes self-mixing and produces
an unwanted dc offset at dc (right in the middle of the
desired signal)
Non-Ideal 90 degree balance in the Demodulator produces
unwanted images of blockers which can be close to the
carrier
Direct Conversion Receivers are cheaper and smaller (no IF
SAW filters, cheaper ADCs, only one mixer)
10
Tr ansmi t t er Ar c hi t ec t ur es
Super Heterodyne with IQ Modulator
Super Heterodyne with Real IF DAC Synthesis
Direct Conversion
Low IF to RF Conversion
11
Super het er odyne Tr ansmi t t er usi ng I Q
Modul at or
Superheterodyne Transmitter uses one or more Intermediate Frequencies.
DAC constructs the baseband signal, centered either at dc or at a low
Intermediate Frequency (IF)
Gain control and filtering may be implemented at RF, IF, and baseband.
Lots of power back-off to avoid distortion in non-constant envelope
systems
ACTIVE
MIXER
IF
AMP
Diff
to SE
DAC
DAC
-15 dBm
380 MHz
SAW
PA
DRIVER
-25 dBm
-10 dB
+10dB
0 to -20dB
+15dB
-15 dBm
-18 dBm
BAND
FILTER
-3 dB
-3 dBm
-5dBm
380 MHz
1760 +/-30 MHz
1580 +/-30 MHz
1462.5 +/-37.5 MHz
AD8345
PA
48 dB
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
ADF4212L (Int-N)
ADF4252 (Frac-N)
TxDAC
+45 dBm
Gain=10dB
NF=12 dB
OIP3=20 dBm
P1 dB=10dBm
A B
C D
E
F G
12
Super het er odyne Tr ansmi t t er usi ng I Q
Modul at or
A
TxBand
F
TxBand
G
TxBand
DC DC
F
F
DC DC
B
TxBand
DC DC
C
F
F
F
IF
IF
IF
TxBand
D
F
IF
TxBand
E
TxBand
LO IMAGE
F
13
Super het er odyne Tr ansmi t t er usi ng I Q
Modul at or
Noise and Spurs generated in the IF stage can be filtered
After mix to RF, band filtering removes out of band noise
along with the image
In-Band noise generated in mix to RF cannot be removed
14
Ex ampl e: Super het w i t h I F Synt hesi s of
si gnal i n I Q f or mat
Driving IQ mod with a low IF creates a single-sideband-like
spectrum at the modulator output.
Once IF has been filtered (removing unwanted sideband and
LO), modulation quality (EVM) is excellent.
AD9777
AD8345
Power
Amplifier
Step
Attenuator
AD8343
40dB
16-bit
16-bit
402 MHz
380 MHz
1.52 GHz
22 Mhz
Band
Filter
A
B
C D E F
G
15
A
F
TxBand
G
TxBand
DC DC
F
F
LOW IF
D
F
IF
E
TxBand
IMAGES
F
B
F
LOW IF
C
F
IF
LO
LEAKAGE
LO
LEAKAGE
UNDESIRED
UPPER
SIDEBAND
F
Ex ampl e: Super het er odyne Rec ei ver w i t h
I F Synt hesi s of si gnal i n I Q f or mat
Unwanted LO leakage and Upper Sideband are filtered at IF,
resulting in excellent EVM
If low IF is high enough, do a single up-conversion to RF
16
Di r ec t Conver si on Zer o I F Ar c hi t ec t ur e
DAC
DAC
-15 dBm
PA
DRIVER
0 to -20dB
+15dB
-18 dBm
BAND
FILTER
-3 dB
-3 dBm
-5 dBm
1760 +/-30 MHz
1580 +/-30 MHz
1462.5 +/-37.5 MHz
AD8349
PA
48 dB
AD8362
60dB RMS Detector
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
AD9767 TxDAC
+45 dBm
Direct Conversion mixes a base-band signal from a dual DAC up to the transmission frequency in a
single step.
With no IF, gain control, filtering, and equalization must be performed either in the digital backend, at
the reconstructed analog base-band output or at RF.
Effects of LO leakage and Upper Sideband Leakage occur in-band potentially interfering with the
signals EVM.
Dual channels are required to generate the complex signal, any channel mismatch causes In-band
distortion which cannot be filtered.
High quality components are required to generate an accurate signal
In-Band Modulator Noise cannot be filtered
Calibration of LO leakage and Quadrature balance is generally necessary
PA to LO leakage can modulate or pull the PLL
17
Ex ampl e: Di r ec t Conver si on Tr ansmi t t er
DAC
DAC
-15 dBm
PA
DRIVER
0 to -20dB
+15dB
-18 dBm
BAND
FILTER
-3 dB
-3 dBm
-5 dBm
1760 +/-30 MHz
1580 +/-30 MHz
1462.5 +/-37.5 MHz
AD8349
PA
48 dB
AD8362
60dB RMS Detector
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
AD9767 TxDAC
+45 dBm
A
B
C
D
E
A
TxBand
D
TxBand
DC DC
E
TxBand
DC DC
Freq
Freq
DC DC
B
TxBand
DC DC
C
TxBand
Freq
Freq
Freq
18
Poor OI P3 c auses Adj ac ent Channel
Leak age
Think of a broadband spectrum multiple tones inter-modulating with each
other
IM3 products produce Adjacent Channel Power/Leakage/Distortion
Use 3-to-1 decay of IMD products to reduce dBc IMD but this degrades
SNR
SNR
Adjacent
Channel
Leakage
19
ACPR and Noi se vs. Out put Pow er
-65.0
-64.0
-63.0
-62.0
-61.0
-60.0
-59.0
-58.0
-57.0
-56.0
-55.0
-30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18
Per-Carri er Output Power - dBm
A
C
P

-

d
B
c
-160
-159
-158
-157
-156
-155
-154
-153
-152
-151
-150
N
o
i
s
e

F
l
o
o
r

-

d
B
m
/
H
z


(
2
5

M
h
z

C
a
r
r
i
e
r

O
f
f
s
e
t
)
ACP 2140 MHz
Noise Floor 2140 MHz
ACP degrades with increased output power due to IMD
Noise is independent of input and output power
At low power levels ACP degrades because of falling SNR
20
Ex ampl e: Low I F t o RF Tr ansmi t t er usi ng
I F Synt hesi zi ng DAC and Passi ve Mi x er
AD9786
DAC
Pout -15 dBm
190MHz
ANTI
ALIAS
-16dBm
-1 dB
0to -20dB
-11 dBm
-5 dBm
PASSIVE
MIXER
IF
AMP
PA
DRIVER
+15dB
-14 dBm
BAND
FILTER
-3 dB
+1 dBm
PA
44 dB
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
AD8362
60 dB RMS Detector
+45 dBm
2.33 GHz
2.15 GHz
2.03 GHz
+5dB
10 dB
-6 dBm
Gain=-5 dB
NF=5 dB
OIP3=+35 dBm
P1dB=25 dBm
Baseband DAC, IQ Modulator and PLL are replaced by an IF
Synthesizing DAC or DDS modulator
Trade Off: High Performance DDS/DAC + SAW + Mixer + PLL vs.
IQ DAC + Modulator + PLL
None of the problems typically associated with Direct Conversion
Probably more expensive than Direct Conversion
21
Low I F t o RF Ar c hi t ec t ur e

TxBand
A
DC
LO
B
IF
DC
LO LO
-
IF LO
+
IF

I F

TxBand
High Performance DAC generates real IF at a low IF (100-200
MHz)
Mixer performs Double Sideband Modulation
Advantage: Unwanted LO and Sideband are removed -> excellent
EVM
Challenge: To move unwanted LO and upper sideband out of band
means that the IF must be quite high