Wireless Communication and RF System Design

Using MATLAB and Simulink

Giorgia Zucchelli Technical Marketing RF & Mixed-Signal

2013 The MathWorks, Inc.

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Outline of Todays Presentation

Introduction to RF system-level simulation of wireless transceivers

MathWorks tools for RF top-down design
802.15.4 design example
Conclusions

RF

Analog
Baseband

Digital Baseband

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 Model and Simulate Wireless Systems

System-level simulation including RF

Digital to Analog to
Digital Digital
Analog RF RF Digital
baseband baseband
Converter Converter

Transmitter (TX) Receiver (RX)

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 Model and Simulate Wireless Systems

System-level simulation including RF

RF = high frequency analog signals
RF causes imperfections that cannot be neglected

Digital to Analog to
Digital Digital
Analog RF RF Digital
baseband baseband
Converter Converter

Transmitter (TX) Receiver (RX)

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Why Do We Need RF System Simulators?

Radio Frequency Small simulation time-

Long Simulation Runs
Signals step

~10psec

~5GHz

Deal with RF complexity with:

Models at high levels of abstraction
Solvers that use larger time-step

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Simulink and SimRF

System-level simulation including RF

Architectural design of RF transceivers
Tradeoff simulation time and modeling fidelity

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Trade Off Simulation Speed and Modeling Fidelity

Equivalent Baseband
Simulation speed

Circuit Envelope

True Pass-Band

Modeling fidelity
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Trade Off Simulation Speed and Modeling Fidelity
How do your signals look like?
Signal
bandwidth

Spectrum
Equivalent Baseband
Simulation speed

Carrier freq

Spectrum
Circuit Envelope

DC Carrier 1 Carrier 2 freq

True Pass-Band

Spectrum
freq
Modeling fidelity
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SimRF Libraries:
Circuit Envelope Equivalent Baseband

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 Design of a Wireless Receiver

802.15.4 Air interface @2.4GHz

250 kbps
2 Mchps
O-QPSK modulation
sine pulse shaping
Robustness to -20dBm UMTS interference
-100dBm sensitivity @0.00625%BER
Ultra low cost / power

Digital Digital
DAC RF RF ADC
baseband baseband

Transmitter (TX) Receiver (RX) 10

 Wireless Receivers Architectures
Super Heterodyne
High performance
Low power
Great sensitivity
High RF complexity / cost
Discrete filters for image
rejection and channel selection
Multiple LOs
Interference

Desired Signal

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 Wireless Receivers Architectures

Interference Low IF
Moderate performance
Moderate power
Good sensitivity
Moderate RF complexity
Integrated filters for image
Desired Signal
rejection

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 Wireless Receivers Architectures

Interference

Desired Signal

Direct Conversion
Moderate performance
Moderate power
Good sensitivity
Moderate RF complexity
No image rejection
Noise mitigation
Quality of matching
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Typical Direct Conversion Receiver Design
broadband direct high speed SD data CIC filters and down-
conversion receiver converters samplers

Analog Baseband

ADC

Analog
Filter VGA Decimation
Filter

0
Analog PLL
Digital
90 Baseband

LNA Decimation
Filter

ADC

Analog
Filter VGA
Analog Baseband

reconfigurable analog analog phase locked

baseband DSP
filters loop

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Top-Down Design of the RF Receiver

Model the overall communication chain

Refine the receiver model with a top-down approach
Verify the specifications at each step
Trade off model fidelity and simulation speed

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Demo

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Demo: Design of a ZigBee Receiver

?
Executable specification of the system
Architecture exploration and refinement of the RF front-end

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ZigBee Specifications

802.15.4 Air Interface for 2.4 GHz ISM Band

250 kbps
2 Mchps
O-QPSK modulation
sine pulse shaping
Robustness to -20 dBm UMTS interference in IMT-2000 band spanning
2500 MHz to 2690 MHz
-100 dBm sensitivity @ 0.00625% BER
Ultra low cost

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Step 1: How Much Noise Can Be Tolerated?

Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)

Determine minimum allowable SNR to meet specifications

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Step 2: Overall RF Receiver Performance

Determine Receiver Gain / Noise Figure

ADC dynamic range

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Step 3: RF Receiver Noise and Power Budget

Refine the model of the RF Receiver and determine the link budget

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Step 4: Design the RF Architecture

Specify the architecture of the Receiver: Direct Conversion

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Step 5: Add RF Impairments

Explore the causes and effects of DC offset

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Modeling RF Front Ends with SimRF

Model the entire system including RF

Leverage MATLAB and Simulink
Two libraries supporting two simulation approaches
Equivalent Baseband for all digital simulations of 2-port single carrier cascaded
systems
Circuit Envelope for multi-carrier simulation of arbitrary topologies
Trade off simulation speed and modeling fidelity

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More Technical Details

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Equivalent Baseband RF Models
Rapid Single-Carrier Simulation of RF Cascades

Link budget analysis for super heterodyne transceivers

In-band odd-order spectral regrowth and mismatches

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Equivalent Baseband Library
Discrete-Time Frame-Based RF Simulation

Frequency defined (linear) elements

S-parameters, Lumped components, Transmission lines
Equivalent baseband (FIR) descriptions taking into account input / output mismatches
Nonlinear elements
Amplifiers, Mixers
Static odd-order characteristics

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 From Pass-Band to Equivalent Baseband

Pass-band
transfer function MHz GHz fc

0 Bandwidth = 1/Ts

0
Baseband-complex equivalent transfer
function frequency
-0.5/Ts +0.5/Ts
Complex
Equivalent
Baseband
Baseband equivalent Number of sub bands (freq. resolution)
time-domain equals length of impulse response
0
impulse response
time
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Circuit Envelope RF Models
Multi-carrier Simulation of Arbitrary RF Networks

Interferers and spurs analysis at system-level

Arbitrary networks

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Circuit Envelope Library
A Transient Simulation Superimposed to Harmonic Balance

Frequency defined (linear) elements

Lumped components, Transmission lines
S-parameters: frequency domain models for flat characteristics
S-parameters: rational fitting for broadband components
Nonlinear elements
Amplifiers, Mixers
Static even and odd order characteristics
Author your own model using Simscape

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Multi-Carrier Envelope Simulation
carriers

Complex envelope of
modulated input signals MHz GHz fc1
fc2

0 frequency
Circuit-envelope
simulation
MHz GHz fc2-fc1 fc1 fc2 fc2+fc1

0 frequency

Circuit
Envelope harmonic tones
Complex envelope response
around the selected carrier
MHz GHz fc2+fc1 signal envelope
frequency
0
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 Circuit Envelope 1/2

Based on multiple Harmonic Balance analysis

The coefficients of the harmonic tones are time-varying
jcarrier t
Vin Re{V (t )e }

N t1
Vout Re{ Vk (t )e
j carrier k t fcarrier1 fcarrier2
}
k 0
t2
fcarrier1 fcarrier2

t3
fcarrier1 fcarrier2

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 Circuit Envelope 2/2

Transient simulation to calculate the time-varying envelopes of the signal

around the harmonic tones
f1 f2 f3

t1 fcarrier t1
Time
HB simulation

t2 fcarrier t2

t3 fcarrier t3 f1 f2 f3

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SimRF and Simscape

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Modeling of the IF Chain for Image Rejection

Model the RF chain with SimRF and IF chain the electrical domain

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Using Simscape Together with SimRF

Early exploration of the receiver architecture

Intuitive analog model of the IF chain
Refine complex architectures:
Differential
Biasing networks
Build your own models using the Simscape language
Models compatible with SimRF Circuit Envelope

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 Behavioral Modeling of Analog Electronics

Simscape: Acausal, implicit, differential algebraic equations

Very similar to VerilogA
VerilogA
module Amplifier(in_port, out_port);
analog begin
inout in_port, out_port;
I(in_int) <+ cin*1e-9
electrical *ddt(V(in_int));
in_port, out_port;
I(in_int) <+ V(in_port)/rin*(1-s11)/(1+s11);
Simscape I(in_int) <+ -a2*s12/(sqrt(rin)*(1+s11));

component Amplifier end

equations
in nodes
in_port = foundation.electrical.electrical; %
Iin == cin * Vin.der + ...
in:left
Vin/rin*(1-s11)/(1+s11)
out_port + ...
= foundation.electrical.electrical; %
-a2*s12/(sqrt(rin)*(1+s11));
out:right
end
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Conclusions

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Modeling RF Systems with MathWorks

Combine digital baseband, analog and RF

Integrate your design and find errors early

Progressively refine your design with a top-down methodology

The verification effort will be limited

Trade off accuracy and execution speed by choosing the desired abstraction
level
You dont have to become a modeling guru

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Next Steps

For more information please contact me: giorgia.zucchelli@mathworks.com

For an evaluation or trial please contact your account manager

Thank you for your interest

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