ECE 3113 INTRODUCTION TO RF CIRCUIT DESIGN

Lecture Notes for A-term 2007 LECTURE 1 Prof. R. Ludwig Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA
copyright 2007, R. Ludwig
Copyright, 1998 R. Ludwig

Objectives
Motivation why this course? Organization/HWs/Exams What differentiates low from high frequency circuits?
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ECE 3113: Lecture 1

Importance of RF circuit design
Wireless/wirebased communication technologies (explosive growth in multi-band, multi-protocol transceivers and WLAN) global positioning systems (GPS) ASIC/SoC designs (bus systems, digital logic exceeding 3GHz clock speeds)

Why this course??

lumped circuit representation no longer applies!
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What do we mean by going from lumped to distributed theory?

Example: INDUCTOR
Low-frequency (lumped)

High-frequency

Z = R + j L
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Z=?
4

Case in point: bondwires of RF power transistors

BLF4G22-100 is a silicon LDMOS (Laterally Diffused Metal-OxideSemiconductor) power FET made by Philips. It is designed for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular base station applications in the frequency range of 2.0-2.2 GHz. The device is rated for 24 W average output power and 150 W peak power. It operates at a nominal drain-source voltage of 28 V and delivers up to 13.5 dB of gain. By permission of Philips Semiconductors, Mansfield, MA, 2005.

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Current and voltage vary spatially over the component size

E (or V) and H (or I) fields

Upper MHz to GHz range

6

4 z

1 2 0.5 0 0 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 x 1 -1 -0.5

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Frequency spectrum
RadioFrequency (RF) TV, wireless phones, GPS 300 MHz 3 GHz operational frequency 1 m 10 cm wavelength in air MicroWave (MW) RADAR, remote sensing 8 GHz 40 GHz operational frequency 3.75 cm 7.5 mm wavelength in air Optical Communication Typically above 100 GHz Potential fibre bandwidth at 1550 nm: >30THz! Electro-optical modulation: 100GHz
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Design Focus
Cell phone transceiver circuit Typical frequency ranges: 890 - 960 MHz (GSM) 824 894 MHz 1.9 2.5 GHz (CDMA, WCDMA)

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Implementation
matching networks BJT/FET active devices biasing circuits

printed circuit board mircostripline realization LTCC/HTCC technology

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New ways of RF integration

Low temperature co-fired ceramics can stack up to 50 layers of tape that are subsequently cured.

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by permission: Lamina Ceramics

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Most recent LNA design

Network analyzer for performance characterization

Conventional PCB implementation with SMA connectors

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