Methods and Tools for the Design of Rfics
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Methods and tools for the design of RFICs Tomás Carrasco Carrillo Aquesta tesi doctoral està subjecta a la llicència Reconeixement- NoComercial – SenseObraDerivada 3.0. Espanya de Creative Commons. Esta tesis doctoral está sujeta a la licencia Reconocimiento - NoComercial – SinObraDerivada 3.0. España de Creative Commons. This doctoral thesis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0. Spain License. Tomas´ Carrasco Carrillo Methods and tools for the design of RFICs – A dissertation submitted to the department of Electronics of University of Barcelona in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy – September 22, 2013 Director: Dr. Javier Sieiro Cordoba´ Co-Director: Dr. Jose´ Mar´ıa Lopez-Villegas´ GRAF-Group of Radio Frequency Universitat de Barcelona Departament d’Electronica` Methods and tools for the design of RFICs Memoria` presentada per a optar al t´ıtol de Doctor per la Universitat de Barcelona. Programa de doctorat: Enginyeria de microsistemes, sensors i actuadors Bienni: 2004-2005 19 de Setembre de 2013 Autor: Tomas´ Carrasco Carrillo Director: Dr. Javier Sieiro Cordoba´ Co-Director: Dr. Jose´ Mar´ıa Lopez-Villegas´ En Javier Sieiro i en Jose´ M. Lopez-Villegas,´ professors de la Facultat de F´ısica de la Universitat de Barcelona, CERTIFIQUEN: que la memoria` “Methods and tools for the design of RFICs”, que presenta en Tomas´ Carrasco Carrillo per optar al grau de Doctor en Enginyeria Electronica,` s’ha realitzat sota la seva direccio.´ Dr. Javier Sieiro Cordoba´ Dr. Jose´ Mar´ıa Lopez-Villegas´ To my lovely wife Elisabet and my little baby boy Atreyu with all my love Preface Radio frequency and microwave technology have reached an unimaginable de- velopment and are involved in most of our daily activities. It is a fact that, cell technology holds the fastest grown of any other technology advance ever. To this point, mobility paradigm have been achieved and we have fast internet access from wherever we are in a pocket device. However, there are still milestones ahead. Most likely, ambient intelligence paradigm is going to focus the next advances in wireless technologies. Beside, developments of information technology never had the explicit goal of changing society, but rather did so as a side effect, the ambi- ent intelligence visions expressly proposes to transform society by fully connecting and computerizing it. Hence, the increasing demand on radio frequency (RF) de- vices and applications represents, not only a challenge for technological industries to improve its roadmaps, but also for RF engineers to design faster and more robust, low-power, small-size and low-cost devices. Regarding to communication robustness, in the latest years, differential topolo- gies have acquired an important relevance because of its natural noise and inter- ference immunity. Within this framework, a differential n-port device can still be treated as a 2nx2n device and classical analysis circuit theory (i.e. quadripole theory) can be applied by means of Z-,Y-, h-parameters or the most suitable S-parameters in the radio frequency field. Despite of it, Bockelman and Eisenstadt introduced the mixed-mode scattering parameters, which more properly express the differen- tial and common-mode behavior of symmetrical devices and make faster the design process of these devices. However, since Bockelman and Eisenstadt introduced the mixed-mode scattering parameters, they have been used with a varying degree of success, as it will be shown, mainly because of a misinterpretation. Thereby, Part I of this thesis is devoted to extend the theory of mixed-mode scat- tering parameters and proposes the methodology to analyze such devices. For this proposal, in Chapter 2, the simplest case of a two-port device is developed. By solv- ing this simple case, most of the lacks of the current theory are filled up. As instance, it allows the characterization and comparison of symmetric and spiral inductors, which have remained a controversy point until now. Furthermore, the power dissi- pated on a two-port device, when it is seen as a symmetric load, is reviewed, showing vii viii Preface interesting properties of this kind of devices. After solving this case, Chapter 3 ex- tends the theory to a n-port device. Thereby, generalized S-parameters are used to obtain a new expression for the input reflection coefficient of a n-port device. More- over, power match theory is extended to multiple-port devices showing that there exist a duality between standard S-parameters and mixed-mode S-parameters but at the same time, there are important differences that have to be taken into account in a fine design. Another key point on the fast and inexpensive development of radio frequency devices is the advance on fast CAD tools for the analysis and synthesis of passive devices, specially inductors. These devices frequently appear in radio frequency de- sign because of its versatility. Even though, there have been multiple attempts to replace them with external components or even active circuits, in the case of silicon technologies, planar inductors are the most popular shapes because of its integrabil- ity. However, the design of inductors entails a deep experience and acknowledge not only on the behavior of such devices but on the use of electromagnetic (EM) simu- lators. Unfortunately, the use of EM simulators consumes an important quantity of time and resources. Thus, the synthesis of inductors represents an important draw- back. Thereby, Part II of this thesis is devoted to improve some of the aspects that slow down the synthesis process of inductors. Therefore, in Chapter 4, an ‘ab ini- tio’ technique for the meshing of planar radio frequency and microwave circuits is described. It is based on the analytic study of the current crowding phenomena that takes place inside the component. In such evaluation, it is not required an explicit solution of currents and charges at any part of the circuit. Then, the number of mesh cells assigned to a given metal strip depends on the value initially obtained from the analytic study. The technique presented can evaluate the losses in the component with a high accuracy just in few seconds where an electromagnetic simulator would normally last hours. Likewise, in Chapter 5 a simple bisection algorithm for the synthesis of compact planar inductors is presented. It is based on a set of heuristic rules obtained from the study of the electromagnetic behavior of these planar devices. Thereby, the number of iterations is kept moderately low. Moreover, in order to speed up analysis at each step, a fast planar electromagnetic solver is used which is based, once again, on the knowledge of the synthesized component. Additionally, in Chapter 6 the mixed-mode S-parameter methodology proposed and the CAD tools introduced are extensively used in the design of a single-ended to differential low noise amplifier (LNA) in a standard 0.35mm CMOS technology. Low noise amplifier is one of the key components because it tends to dominate the sensitivity and noise figure (NF) of the whole system. Moreover, device per- formances are directly related to both active and passive components available in a given technology. Thus, the chosen technology and the quality factor of passives will have a high impact on the main figures of merit of the actual circuit. Gelida, Tomas Carrasco June 2013 Resum L’enginyeria de radiofrequ¨encia` i la tecnologia de microones han assolit un de- senvolupament inimaginable i avui en dia formen part de la majoria de les nostres activitats diaries.` Probablement, la tecnologia mobil` ha tingut un desenvolupament mes´ rapid` que qualsevol altre avenc¸tecnologic` de l’era digital. Avui en dia, podem dir que el paradigma de la mobilitat s’ha assolit i tenim acces´ rapid` a internet des de qualsevol lloc on podem estar amb un dispositiu de butxaca. No obstant aixo,` encara hi ha fites per endavant. Es mes´ que probable que el paradigma de l’‘ambient intelligence’ sigui el centre dels proxims` avenc¸os en les tecnologies sense fils. A diferencia del paradigma de l’‘ambient intelligence’, l’evolucio´ de la tecnologia de la informacio´ mai ha tingut l’objectiu expl´ıcit de canviar la societat, sino´ que ho van fer com un efecte secundari, en canvi, les visions d’‘ambient intelligence’ proposen expressament el transfor- mar la societat mitjanc¸ant la connexio´ completa i la informatitzacio´ d’ella. Per tant, l’augment de la demanda de dispositius de radio` frequ¨encia` (RF) i de les seves pos- sibles aplicacions representa, no nomes´ un repte per a les industries´ tecnologiques` per millorar els seus plans de treball, sino´ tambe´ per als enginyers de RF que hau- ran de dissenyar dispositius de baixa potencia,` mes´ robusts, de mida petita i de baix cost. Quant a la robustesa dels dispositius, en els ultims´ anys, les topologies de ti- pus diferencial han adquirit una important rellevancia` per la seva immunitat natural al soroll i resistencia` a les interferencies.` Dins d’aquest marc, un dispositiu de n- ports diferencial, encara pot ser tractat com un dispositiu 2nx2n i la teoria classica` d’analisi` de circuits (es´ a dir, la teoria de quadripols) es pot aplicar a traves´ de parametres` Z, Y, h o els parametres` S, mes´ adequats en el camp de frequ¨encia` de radio.` Tot i aixo,` Bockelman i Eisenstadt introdueixen els parametres` S mixtos, que expressen mes´ adequadament el comportament diferencial i en mode comu´ de dis- positius simetrics` o asimetrics.` Des de llavors, aquests parametres` s’han utilitzat amb un grau variable d’exit,` com es mostrara,` principalment a causa d’una mala interpretacio.´ D’aquesta manera, la primera part d’aquesta tesi esta` dedicada a estendre la teo- ria dels parametres` S de mode mixt i proposa la metodologia d’analisi` d’aquest ix x Preface tipus de dispositius i circuits.