Martijn Huynen Injection Locking and Pulling EMC-Aware Design of A
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EMC-Aware Design of a Low-Cost Receiver Circuit under Injection Locking and Pulling Martijn Huynen Supervisors: Prof. dr. ir. Dries Vande Ginste, Prof. dr. ir. Johan Bauwelinck Counsellors: Ir. Gert-Jan Stockman, Dr. ir. Frederick Declercq, Dr. Guy Torfs Master's dissertation submitted in order to obtain the academic degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Department of Information Technology Chairman: Prof. dr. ir. Daniël De Zutter Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Academic year 2013-2014 EMC-Aware Design of a Low-Cost Receiver Circuit under Injection Locking and Pulling Martijn Huynen Supervisors: Prof. dr. ir. Dries Vande Ginste, Prof. dr. ir. Johan Bauwelinck Counsellors: Ir. Gert-Jan Stockman, Dr. ir. Frederick Declercq, Dr. Guy Torfs Master's dissertation submitted in order to obtain the academic degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Department of Information Technology Chairman: Prof. dr. ir. Daniël De Zutter Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Academic year 2013-2014 Preface This master's dissertation is the conclusion to a lustrum at the faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Ghent University. Writing this preface is one of the final feats in this one-year work and makes you contemplate about the work that has been done and the help you received. This is why I want to seize the opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to all those who helped bring this work to a successful ending. First and foremost, I would like to thank the chairman, prof. dr. ir. D. De Zutter, as well as prof. dr. ir. D. Vande Ginste and prof. dr. ir. J. Bauwelinck for giving me the opportunity to carry out this thesis research at the Electromagnetics Group and at the INTEC design group of the Department of Information Technology and providing me with the necessary facilities and materials to successfully complete this work. In particular, I thank prof. Vande Ginste for giving splendid advice, putting forward great suggestions and for his general support. I am very appreciative as well of the excellent guidance and cheerful positivism of prof. Bauwelinck. If I would have to name one person without whom this dissertation would not have come to a good end, it would be, without any doubt, ir. Gert-Jan Stockman. His dedication and determination kept me from not seeing the wood for the trees. For his inexhaustible patience and his thorough feedback, I thank him from the bottom of my heart. Special thanks goes to dr. ir. Frederick Declercq and dr. ir. Guy Torfs for aiding me in the design of the oscillator. There is no doubt about it that without their expertise, the design would not have worked properly in the end. I am also grateful for the suggestions and assistance, however small, from various people of both research groups. They may not have always realised it at the time, but every contribution to this work was highly appreciated. I would also like to thank my fellow thesis students with whom I shared the computer room of the research group for the past year. Irven Aelbrecht, Olivier Caytan, Erica Debels, Niels Lambrecht and our Italian friend Lorenzo Silvestri always backed me up when I needed some encouragement and created a fun atmosphere to work on the thesis. My roommate, Niels Van den Putte, deserves special thanks as well since we shared the fun and not so fun moments of student life for the past five years. We are going our separate ways now, but I wish him the best of luck in his last year of veterinary medicine. For going through this book and correcting my numerous writing errors, my sincerest gratitude goes towards my cousin, Sacha. Last but certainly not least, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my friends and family. In particular, I thank my parents and my sister without whose unconditional support, not only during my studies, I would have never made it this far. Martijn Huynen, June 2014 Admission to Loan The author gives permission to make this master's dissertation available for consultation and to copy parts of this master's dissertation for personal use. In the case of any other use, the limitations of the copyright have to be respected, in particular with regard to the obligation to state expressly the source when quoting results from this master dissertation. De auteur geeft de toelating deze masterproef voor consultatie beschikbaar te stellen en delen van de masterproef te kopi¨erenvoor persoonlijk gebruik. Elk ander gebruik valt onder de beperkingen van het auteursrecht, in het bijzonder met betrekking tot de verplichting de bron uitdrukkelijk te vermelden bij het aanhalen van resultaten uit deze masterproef. Martijn Huynen, June 2014 EMC-Aware Design of a Low-Cost Receiver Circuit under Injection Locking and Pulling by Martijn HUYNEN Master's Dissertation submitted to obtain the academic degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Academic 2013{2014 Promoters: Prof. dr. ir. Dries VANDE GINSTE, Prof. dr. ir. Johan BAUWELINCK Supervisors: Ir. Gert-Jan STOCKMAN, Dr. ir. Frederick DECLERCQ, Dr. ir. Guy TORFS Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Ghent University Departement of Information Technology Chairman: Prof. Dr. Ir. Dani¨elDE ZUTTER Summary This master's dissertation encompasses the design of a low-cost radio frequency (RF) receiver front-end, intended for application in the 2:45 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band. In order to reduce the cost, the RF preselect filter is omitted, which affects the immunity of the total system. Out-of-band signals can leak into the oscillator and cause non-linear effects such as injection locking and injection pulling. The designed oscillator is a negative resistance oscillator that produces a fundamental tone at 2:344 GHz with an output power of 9 dBm. The employed mixer is a commercially available double balanced diode mixer. For the first time in literature, this work demonstrates the critical necessity to take into account the potentially detrimental effects caused by injection locking and pulling during Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)-aware design. Throughout the design cycle, it is advised to adopt rigorous theoretical analysis, thorough simulation, and careful prototyping and measurements. After an introduction to EMC-aware design in Chapter 1, a theoretical approach to the exam- ined phenomena of injection locking and pulling is given in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 continues with a summary of the various oscillator and mixer topologies and holds a discussion of non-linear simulation tools as well. The design of the negative resistance oscillator and the mixer is ex- plained in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 is devoted to the measurements of both the functional and the EMC-behaviour of the individual building blocks and the total front-end under injection locking and pulling. Finally, conclusions and an outline for future research are formulated in Chapter 6. Keywords superheterodyne receiver; low-cost circuit; negative resistance oscillator; electromagnetic com- patibility (EMC); injection locking and pulling EMC-Aware Design of a Low-Cost Receiver Circuit under Injection Locking and Pulling Martijn Huynen Supervisors: prof. dr. ir. D. Vande Ginste, prof. dr. ir. J. Bauwelinck, ir. G.-J. Stockman, dr. ir. F. Declercq and dr. ir. G. Torfs Abstract— This master’s dissertation focusses on the design of a low- the natural frequency, the so-called lock range, the oscillator’s cost radio frequency (RF) receiver front-end, intended for operation in the frequency will shift to the frequency of the external signal, 2.45 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band. The effects of co-located sources, in particular injection locking and pulling, are observed called injection locking. The width of this range is proportional and characterised in both the local oscillator (LO) and the complete sys- to the amplitude of the injected signal, the natural frequency tem. The consequences on the receiver’s performance are evaluated as well. of the oscillator and inversely proportional to the quality factor For the first time in literature, this work demonstrates the critical necessity (Q) of the oscillator, a measure for the frequency selectivity [2]. to take the potentially detrimental effects caused by injection locking and pulling into account during Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)-aware When the frequency is brought just outside of the lock range af- design. terwards, the frequency of the oscillator does not return to its Keywords— superheterodyne receiver; low-cost circuit; negative resis- original state. Quite the opposite, the oscillator will still attempt tance oscillator; electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); injection locking to lock to the external signal. However, as it cannot keep up, its and pulling frequency undergoes a quick transition back towards its natural frequency, overshoots and tries to lock once again to the external I. INTRODUCTION signal. To put it briefly, the oscillator’s frequency response has VER the last few decades, an explosive growth in wireless become time-dependent because it is being pulled towards the Ocommunication has been witnessed. Together with the rise external frequency, hence the name injection pulling. This effect of smarthphones and other multimedia applications, the demand manifests itself in the frequency domain by the appearance of a for low-cost communication circuits has increased drastically. lot of tightly spaced frequency components close to the external In an attempt to reduce the cost of a standard superheterodyne frequency. The further one departs from the lock range, the less receiver, the radio frequency (RF) preselect filter is sometimes pronounced the effect becomes whereby the natural frequency omitted. This measure should not be taken lightly, however, as it will start prevailing once again. can affect the immunity of the receiver system to interfering sig- nals. When out-of-band signals (for the intended application), III. DESIGN OF A RECEIVER CIRCUIT having a frequency in the vicinity of the local oscillator (LO) A.