Radio-Frequency Digital-to-Analog Converters

Radio-Frequency Digital-to-Analog Converters

by Morteza S Alavi, Jaimin Mehta, Robert Bogdan Staszewski
Released November 2016
Publisher(s): Academic Press
ISBN: 9780128025031

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Book description

With the proliferation of wireless networks, there is a need for more compact, low-cost, power efficient transmitters that are capable of supporting the various communication standards, including Bluetooth, WLAN, GSM/EDGE, WCDMA and 4G of 3GPP cellular. This book describes a novel idea of RF digital-to-analog converters (RFDAC) and demonstrates how they can realize all-digital, fully-integrated RF transmitters that support all the current multi-mode and multi-band communication standards.

With this book the reader will:

  • Understand the challenges of realizing a universal CMOS RF transmitter
  • Recognize the design issues and the advantages and disadvantages related to analog and digital transmitter architectures
  • Master designing an RF transmitter from system level modeling techniques down to circuit designs and their related layout know-hows
  • Grasp digital polar and I/Q calibration techniques as well as the digital predistortion approaches
  • Learn how to generate appropriate digital I/Q baseband signals in order to apply them to the test chip and measure the RF-DAC performance.
  • Highlights the benefits and implementation challenges of software-defined transmitters using CMOS technology
  • Includes various types of analog and digital RF transmitter architectures for wireless applications
  • Presents an all-digital polar RFDAC transmitter architecture and describes in detail its implementation
  • Presents a new all-digital I/Q RFDAC transmitter architecture and its implementation
  • Provides comprehensive design techniques from system level to circuit level
  • Introduces several digital predistortion techniques which can be used in RF transmitters
  • Describes the entire flow of system modeling, circuit simulation, layout techniques and the measurement process

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgment
  7. Acronyms
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction
    1. Abstract
    2. 1.1 The Conventional RF Radio
    3. 1.2 Motivation
    4. 1.3 The Book Objectives
    5. 1.4 Analog Versus Digital RF Transmitters
    6. 1.5 Analog-Intensive RF Transmitters
    7. 1.6 Digitally Intensive RF Transmitters
    8. 1.7 New Paradigm of RF Design in Nanometer-Scale CMOS
    9. 1.8 All-Digital Polar Transmitter
    10. 1.9 All-Digital I/Q Transmitter
    11. 1.10 Conclusion
    12. 1.11 Book Outline
  9. Chapter 2: Digital polar transmitter architecture
    1. Abstract
    2. 2.1 Introduction to Narrowband Polar Transmitters
    3. 2.2 Overview of the RFDAC-Based Polar Transmitter Architecture
    4. 2.3 Details of Phase Modulation
    5. 2.4 Design Challenges for the Small-Signal Polar Transmitter
  10. Chapter 3: Digital baseband of the polar transmitter
    1. Abstract
    2. 3.1 Overview of the TX Digital Baseband
    3. 3.2 Predistortion Module
    4. 3.3 Predistortion Self-Calibration
    5. 3.4 Interpolative Filter
    6. 3.5 Polar Bandwidth Expansion
  11. Chapter 4: RF front-end (RFDAC) of the polar transmitter
    1. Abstract
    2. 4.1 Overview of the RF Front-End
    3. 4.2 ΣΔ Amplitude Modulation
    4. 4.3 Digital Pre-PA
    5. 4.4 DPA Transistor Mismatches
    6. 4.5 Key Categories of Mismatches and DEM
    7. 4.6 Clock Delay Alignment
    8. 4.7 Analysis of Parasitic Coupling
  12. Chapter 5: Simulation and measurement results of the polar transmitter
    1. Abstract
    2. 5.1 Simulation Results
    3. 5.2 Measurement Results
    4. 5.3 Conclusion
  13. Chapter 6: Idea of all-digital I/Q modulator
    1. Abstract
    2. 6.1 Concept of Digital I/Q Transmitter
    3. 6.2 Orthogonal Summing Operation of RFDAC
    4. 6.3 Conclusion
  14. Chapter 7: Orthogonal summation: A 2 × 3-bit all-digital I/Q RFDAC
    1. Abstract
    2. 7.1 Circuit Building Blocks of Digital I/Q Modulator
    3. 7.2 Measurement Results
    4. 7.3 Conclusion
  15. Chapter 8: Toward high-resolution RFDAC: The system design perspective
    1. Abstract
    2. 8.1 System Design Considerations
    3. 8.2 Conclusion
  16. Chapter 9: Differential I/Q DPA and power-combining network
    1. Abstract
    2. 9.1 Idealized Power Combiner With Different DRACs
    3. 9.2 A Differential I/Q Class-E-Based Power Combiner
    4. 9.3 Efficiency of I/Q RFDAC
    5. 9.4 Effect of Rise/Fall Time and Duty Cycle
    6. 9.5 Efficiency and Noise at Back-Off Levels
    7. 9.6 Design an Efficient Balun for Power Combiner
    8. 9.7 Conclusion
  17. Chapter 10: A wideband 2 × 13-bit all-digital I/Q RFDAC
    1. Abstract
    2. 10.1 Clock Input Transformer
    3. 10.2 High-Speed Rail-to-Rail Differential Dividers
    4. 10.3 Complementary Quadrature Sign Bit
    5. 10.4 Differential Quadrature 25% Duty Cycle Generator
    6. 10.5 Floorplanning of 2 × 13-Bit DRAC
    7. 10.6 Thermometer Encoders of 3-to-7 and 4-to-15
    8. 10.7 DRAC Unit Cell: MSB and LSB
    9. 10.8 MSB/LSB Selection Choices
    10. 10.9 Digital I/Q Calibration and DPD Techniques
    11. 10.10 Conclusion
  18. Chapter 11: Measurement results of the 2 × 13-bit I/Q RFDAC
    1. Abstract
    2. 11.1 Measurement Setup
    3. 11.2 Static Measurement Results
    4. 11.3 Dynamic Measurement Results
    5. 11.4 Conclusion
  19. Chapter 12: Future of RFDAC
    1. Abstract
    2. 12.1 The Outcome
    3. 12.2 Some Suggestions for Future Developments
    4. 12.3 Future Trends
  20. Appendix A: Appendix for the polar transmitter
    1. A.1 EDGE Modulation
    2. A.2 RF System Specifications for the EDGE Transmitter
    3. A.3 Details of the Simulation Model
  21. Appendix B: Appendix for I/Q RFDAC
    1. B.1 Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
    2. B.2 Matching Network Equations
    3. B.3 AM-AM/AM-PM Relationship
    4. B.4 DPD Bandwidth Expansion
  22. References
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Radio-Frequency Digital-to-Analog Converters
  • Author(s): Morteza S Alavi, Jaimin Mehta, Robert Bogdan Staszewski
  • Release date: November 2016
  • Publisher(s): Academic Press
  • ISBN: 9780128025031