Integrated Circuit Technology for Wireless Communications: an Overview Babak Daneshrad Integrated Circuits and Systems Laboratory UCLA Electrical Engineering Dept
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Integrated Circuit Technology for Wireless Communications: An Overview Babak Daneshrad Integrated Circuits and Systems Laboratory UCLA Electrical Engineering Dept. email: [email protected] http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~babak Abstract: Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a typical wireless com- This paper provides a brief overview of present trends in the develop- munication system. Moreover it shows the partitioning of the ment of integrated circuit technology for applications in the wireless receiver into RF, IF, baseband analog and digital components. communications industry. Through advanced circuit, architectural and In this paper we will focus on two main classes of integrated processing technologies, ICs have helped bring about the wireless revo- circuit technologies. The first is ICs for analog and more lution by enabling highly sophisticated, low cost and portable end user importantly RF communications. In general the technologist as terminals. In this paper two broad categories of circuits are highlighted. The first is RF integrated circuits and the second is digital baseband well as the circuit designer’s challenge here is to first, make the processing circuits. In both areas, the paper presents the circuit design transistors operate at higher carrier frequencies, and second, to challenges and options presented to the designer. It also highlights the integrate as many of the components required in the receiver manner in which these technologies have helped advance wireless com- onto the IC. The second class of circuits that we will focus on munications. are digital baseband circuits. Where increased density and I. Introduction reduced power consumption are the key factors for optimiza- tion. The wireless industry has enjoyed rapid growth over the past Radio Intermediat Baseband Baseband decade and a half. Advances in integrated circuit technology Frequency (RF) Frequency (IF) Analog Digital coupled with novel system level solutions have combined to RSSI A/D give rise to small, low cost, low power and portable units for a A/D host of wireless communication systems. In fact, it is the mar- LNA VGA riage of advanced system design and IC technology that has 90° made anytime anywhere communication a reality. ASIC DSP or A/D Micro Controller LO The low cost paging receiver is a prime example of this mar- Baseband Processor riage. The RF and analog portions of these devices consume a VCO D/A mere 1.5 mW - 5 mW [1]. In the cellular arena, integrated cir- D/A cuits have helped reduce the form factor of the AMPS phones D/A form the bulky boxes introduced in the 80’s to the sleek pocket- sized phones that are becoming a staple in our society. The PA 90° LO move toward second generation digital cellular systems helped underscore the tremendous importance of high speed digital sig- D/A nal processing ICs to perform the operations for both the speech Figure 1. Block diagram of a generic wireless transceiver. coder/decoder, as well as the physical layer. In the case of GSM and IS-136/54, it was found that the general purpose DSP archi- II. CMOS Process Technology tecture coupled with dedicated datapaths for Viterbi decoding Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) can meet the processing requirements of these second genera- technology is by far one of the most important IC processing tion systems. However, in the case of IS-95, the tremendous technologies available. The suitability and cost effectiveness of amount of processing needed to implement the rake receivers CMOS technology for the design and development of digital has dictated a different hardware architecture. In these systems circuits has helped accelerate the advancement and maturity of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is used to per- this technology. With the exception of very high speed special- form the baseband signal processing at the chip rate. The role of ized digital circuits, CMOS is the technology of choice for all ASICs in the realization of cellular systems is expected to grow digital circuits. In fact, the rapid pace of development in this as we move towards third generation cellular systems which technology coupled with its cost-effectiveness arrived at partly require more sophisticated baseband processing. through the economies of scale has made CMOS the technol- Indoor wireless systems have also benefited from advance- ogy of choice for analog circuit design as well. ments in integrated circuit technology. The realization of high The tremendous advances in CMOS processing technology speed adaptive equalizer [2], beamforming [3] and FFT based have shown no sign of slowing down. The current commer- ASICs [4] for OFDM based systems are ideal for realizing the cially available minimum size channel length is 0.25 microns physical layer of most high speed wireless indoor links. At high (micro-meters), compared to the 2.0 micron state of the art rates even the MAC layer functionality is typically assigned to technology that was available in 1983 [5]. The stage is set for an ASIC. the predicted 0.1 micron channel lengths to be available around the turn of the century. The ever shrinking transistor sizes trans- clearer in the ensuing section, however, at this point it is worth late into different capabilities for RF and digital circuits. noting that in general GaAs is fast, provides high gain, high In the case of RF circuits, the smaller channel lengths trans- selectivity (high Qs), and has lower noise than silicon based late into higher operating frequencies for the transistors. This circuits, on the other hand Si based circuits are cheaper and can allows CMOS analog circuits to move up the transceiver chain be used in mixed-mode circuits where digital and analog func- towards the RF carrier frequency. Although CMOS process tionality is realized on the same substrate. technology provides low cost and speed, circuit level innova- tions are still needed to meet the desired gain, linearity and noise levels in CMOS RF-IC design. Digital circuits benefit from smaller dimensions, through increased density which implies increase functionality for the same amount of Silicon real-estate. The circuit designers actu- ally have a choice when it comes to taking advantage of the smaller dimension. They can harness the higher speeds provided by smaller transistors to clock the gates faster, or they can reduce the supply power and thus minimize power consumption while keeping the operating frequency the same. III. Technology Trends in RF ICs This section attempts to provide some insights into the cur- rent trends and research in the area of low cost RF front ends. Figure 2. Block diagram of a recently reported GSM RFIC transceiver implementation in Si bipolar [6]. Note the external SAW Currently, a great amount of research is underway to improve bandpass filters, oscillator and PA, from. the power efficiency and lower the cost of the circuits used in the present generation of wireless products. The general In an attempt to eliminate the need for the GaAs compo- approach taken towards this goal is to move towards higher lev- nents and enjoy the cost savings associated with Silicon based els of integration in cheap silicon based technologies, such as circuits, researchers within industry and universities are look- BiCMOS (combination of bipolar and CMOS transistors on the ing for ways of realizing the same functionality now provided same substrate) and CMOS. There are several factors that con- by GaAs based circuits on a Silicon substrate, at the expense of tribute to the significantly lower cost of circuits manufactured some degradation in the overall performance of the block. This on Silicon substrates compared with other semi-conductor mate- was first initiated with Silicon bipolar circuits due to the tradi- rials, such as GaAs and SiGe. First, processes for CMOS and tionally higher bandwidths of these devices. However, in BiCMOS circuits provide higher yields (fewer defects per recent years advances in the development of CMOS processes wafer). Secondly, the high volume of orders enjoyed by CMOS and circuits have brought bandwidths, fT, of these transistors to fabrication facilities helps reduce the cost of such circuits levels comparable with Silicon bipolar transistors. Conse- through economies of scale. Finally, analog circuits imple- quently, researchers have also started to consider the use mented in CMOS can be easily integrated on the same substrate CMOS at RF. In addition to implementing RF sub-blocks of a with the digital baseband processing circuits for a truly optimal traditional super-heterodyne architectures, researchers are also single chip implementation of the system. investigating a host of alternative transceiver architectures The traditional approach towards the design of wireless which will help eliminate the need for high-Q, lossy, off-chip transceivers has been to use GaAs based circuits for the realiza- filters [9] [10]. Overall, these activities will help take us one tion of the RF components such as power amplifiers, low noise step closer to the ultimate goal of a single chip radio which amplifiers, and switches. Silicon based analog circuits are then integrates, RF, IF, analog-baseband, D/A and all the required used for the IF to baseband sections and possibly the RF mixers. baseband signal processing on the same substrate. Over the In these approaches, band selection at RF and IF are typically past several years, a number of entities have successfully dem- performed using discrete off chip components. This eliminates onstrated CMOS building blocks such as mixers oscillators and the difficulties associated with the realization of high-Q filters amplifiers [11][12][13][14] for operation in the cellular and the on chip. Most conventional approaches also utilize external 900 MHz ISM bands. With the continuing trend towards the tuned LC resonators to provide the tuning element of the VCO. availability of smaller transistor dimensions, this trend is sure The high Qs realized by the external elements are critical in to move towards the PCS bands.