Combined Hartley Image-Reject Receiver with Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator

Tsung-Yuan Chang and Steven B. Bibyk

Department of Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University E-mail : bibyk@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu, and changt@er4.eng.ohio-state.edu ABSTRACT A new improved image-reject RF receiver is proposed to reduce the sensitivity of IQ mismatches of a traditional Hartley Architecture. Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulators on both I and Q channel path directly convert the passband signals to digital bit streams. Thus, the 90o shifter can be realized by a simple digital delay circuit and the phase shift can be as precise as possible because of the characteristics of a digital format. Furthermore, the A/D conversion also makes the use of DSP algorithms possible to obtain higher performance for demodulation. The system noise gure is also analyzed for the proposed architecture. Keywords: image-reject, RF, Hartley receiver, IQ mismatches, Bandpass, Delta-Sigma, noise gure.

1. Introduction
Wireless communication becomes more and more popular during this decade because of its mobility and a ordable price. Today, the biggest challenge of RF receiver design is to nd a dependable receiver architecture design which can be fully integrated by advanced VLSI technology. Currently, most of receivers adapt heterodyne type architecture to relax the Q factor for the channel selection lter. However, heterodyne type receivers are limited by RF ltering of the image frequency. There are two methods to suppress the image frequency. The rst one is to apply image-reject lter before down conversion mixer. This lter is designed to have small loss in the desired channel and large attenuation in the image band. These two requirements can be achieved simultaneously when the IF frequency is large. However, when IF frequency is su ciently large, the channel selection lter will be more di cult to design (higher Q). So, there is a trade-o between image-reject lter and channel selection lter. Furthermore, most image-reject lters are realized as a passive, external component which do not meet our design goal of fully integrated VLSI design. The second method for suppressing the image is to use image-reject architecture, like Hartley Architecture, which has no trade-o with channel selection lter. However, Hartley Architecture su ers from the sensitivity of IQ mismatches. The mismatches lead to incomplete image cancelation and corrupt desired signals. Our Bandpass Delta-Sigma Hart-

ley Architecture is designed to reduce the sensitivity of mismatches of traditional architecture. In the next section we will review more details of Hartley Architecture. In Section 3 a new improved Hartley Architecture with Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator (BP ; M ) is proposed. Section 4 will analyze the performance of this new architecture. Finally, conclusion and future works will be discussed in the last section.

2. Hartley Architecture for Image Rejection

I-channel LPF A cos LO t sin LO t B C

RF Input

IF Output

LPF Q-channel

90

Fig. 1. Hartley image-reject receiver. Figure 1 shows the architecture of a Hartley imagereject receiver. The incoming RF signal is mixed with quadrature phase local oscillator, cos!LO t and sin!LO t, the resulting signals are low-pass ltered, and shift Q-channel path by 90o before nal summation. To understand how Hartley architecture performs image rejection, let us assume the RF input signal is x ~RF (t) = x ~(t)ej!RF t + AIM ej!IM t , where the rst term is desired signal and the second term is the image. All the signals are expressed by their

complex form (~ y(t)). The real signals (y(t)) can be obtained by y(t) = Re y ~(t)]. The relation between RF frequency, image, and local oscillator is !RF ; !LO = !LO ; !IM = !IF . From the description in the previous paragraph, signals at point A and B can be calculated as follows. 1x ;j!IF t x ~A (t) = 2 ~(t)ej!IF t + AIM 2 e 1x j!IF t ; AIM e;j!IF t ~ ( t ) e x ~B (t) = ; 2j 2j (1) (2)

I-Channel

LPF

BP-

LNA

PLL SYNTHESIZER

IF

90

LPF
Q-Channel

BP-

90

Fig. 2. Combined Hartley architecture with Bandpass M. signals directly to digital bit stream. Thus, the implementation of 90o shifter can be simply achieved by a digital delay circuit with one sample time delay, because the sampling frequency of Bandpass M is typically set at four times the carrier frequency. Since the signals has been converted to digital format, the 90o shifter can be built as precise as possible. For the same reason, a digital adder can also be used in the nal IF stage to prevent the nonlinearity of analog adder in traditional Hartley Architecture. Furthermore, sophisticated DSP algorithm can also be applied to demodulate signals and achieve higher performance. Simulations are performed to evaluate the architecture's behavior. A desired signal is at 117:7MHz with image at 96:3MHz , where fLO = 107MHz and fIF = 10:7MHz . The simulation results are shown in Figure 3.
(a) Input 0 0 (b) Input Magnitude (dB) Magnitude (dB) 0 50 100 150 200 Frequency (MHz) (a) Output 0 0 250 20 20

After the 90o shifter at Q-channel, the signal at point C will become
;j!IF t x ~C (t) = 1 ~(t)ej!IF t ; AIM 2x 2 e

(3)

Finally, add the signals at point A and C together, the IF output can then be obtained.

x ~IF (t) = x ~(t)ej!IF t

(4)

Equation 4 shows that the image is canceled prior to the IF stage. The main disadvantage of Hartley architecture is its sensitivity to IQ mismatches. If the IQ signals generated by local oscillator are not in exact quadrature (di erent amplitudes or phase di erence is not exactly 90o), then the image cancelation is not complete. Furthermore, if the 90o shifter is not perfect, the image cancelation is also not complete and the image will corrupt the desired signals. Usually the quadrature generator and 90o shifter circuits are realized by analog components, such as capacitors and resistors. The mismatch control for these components are di cult in today's VLSI technique. This principal drawback leads us to consider an improved Hartley architecture with more precise quadrature generator and 90o shifter by using digital circuits. The details will be discussed in the next section.

40

40

60

60

80

80

50

100 150 200 Frequency (MHz) (b) Output

250

Magnitude (dB)

40

Magnitude (dB) 0 5 10 15 Frequency (MHz) 20

20

20

40

60

60

80

80

10 15 Frequency (MHz)

20

3. Improved Hartley Architecture with Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator

To avoid the IQ mismatches in Hartley architecture, the new improved architecture is shown in Figure 2. The major improvement of this new architecture is to apply Bandpass M to convert IQ channel

Fig. 3. Spectrum of input and output of proposed image-reject receiver for (a) only the image and (b) only the signal. The desired signal and image are applied one at a time during the simulation to make the results more clear. From the spectrum results, it is clear that when only the image is applied, our proposed receiver cancel the image frequencies.

However, our proposed architecture can be limited by the need to generate simple and more precise quadrature signals. Hence, in order to generate more precise quadrature signals, two techniques are discussed in this section 1].
V1 + + Vin ~ 90
o

gure. The de nition of noise gure F , shown as follow, is to measure the reduction of signal to noise ratio 2].

Si =Ni F=S =N
o

(5)

V0ut1

V2 + V0ut2

Fig. 4. Havens quadrature circuits. Figure 4 shows Havens quadrature circuits. This technique rst splits the input signal by approximately 90o, and then adds and subtracts V1 and V2 to generate Vout1 and Vout2 with precise 90o phase di erence. The hard limiters are applied to ensure the amplitudes of Vout1 and Vout2 are exactly the same (same reason for the signals V1 and V2 ). The second method uses frequency division to generate quadrature signals. Figure 5 shows its architecture.
Latch

where Si , Ni are the input signal and noise powers, and So , No are the output signal and noise powers. By de nition, the input noise power is assumed to be the noise power resulting from a matched resistor at room temperature T0 = 290K , i.e. Ni = kT0 B , where k is Boltzmann's constant, and B is the signal bandwidth. With regards to the calculation of noise gure, it is sometimes easier to use the idea of equivalent noise temperature, Te , which measures the noise power generated by the component. Noise gure and equivalent noise temperature are interchangeable. The relation is shown in following equation.

Te = (F ; 1)T0

(6)

For a cascaded system shown in Figure 6. The noise gure or equivalent noise temperature of the total system can be easily calculated by Equation 7, 8.
Ni T0 G1 F1 Te1 G2 F2 Te2 Gm Fm Tem No

V0ut2

Vin

V0ut1

Latch

Fig. 5. Frequency divider as quadrature generator. This approach generates quadrature signals with frequency !LO by using a mater-slave ip op to divide a double frequency Vin (2!LO ) signal by a factor 2. If Vin is 50% duty cycle, then the phase di erence of Vout1 and Vout2 will be exactly 90o. Note that the quadrature signals generated by Havens technique are usually sinusoidal waveform, but square waveform for frequency division approach. Digital phase shifting in the Q-channel path allows for compensating quadrature generation errors in the digital section.

Ni T0

G 1G 2.... G m F cas Tcas

No

Fig. 6. Noise gure and equivalent noise temperature for a cascaded system.

Tem e2 + Te3 + ::: + Tcas = Te1 + T G GG G G :::G

1 1 2 1 2

m;1

(7)

4. Performance analysis of Hartley Architecture with Bandpass DeltaSigma Modulator

Fm ; 1 3;1 Fcas = F1 + F2G; 1 + F G G +:::+ G G :::G

1 1 2 1 2

m;1

(8)

The best way to describe the performance of our new proposed architecture is to analyze its system noise

After the introduction of noise gure, we can now consider our image rejection system. Assumed gain and noise gure (or equivalent noise temperature) for each component are known and impedance of each stage is conjugate matching. Furthermore, assume

Gm,T m

Gf , Tf
LPF

G , T
BP-

the summation is perfect and noiseless) can now be obtained easily as following.
S o, N o

Si , N i
T0

Ga ,Ta
LNA

I-Channel

Q-Channel
LPF BP- 90
o

Gm,T m

Gf , T f

G , T

Gs ,T s

So = GI Si + GQ Si =1 2 Gsys (Si + Si ) = Gsys Si

(13)

Fig. 7. Gain and Noise gure for each component of the image rejection system. the quadrature signals from synthesizer are noiseless. The total system can now be simpli ed as Figure 7. If the power separation after the LNA is perfect and noiseless, then we can nd the equivalent system for Figure 7 in Figure 8.
Si , N i
T0 1 G ,T 2 a a

No = GI (Ni + kTI B ) + GQ (Ni + kTQ B ) 1 Gsys k(T0 + TI + T0 + TQ )B =2 (14) Ts )B = Gsys k(T0 + TI + 2G sys = Gsys k(T0 + Tsys )B
By using the de nition of noise gure, Equation 5, we can obtain the total noise gure or equivalent noise temperature of our image rejection system.

Gm ,Tm

G f, Tf
I-Channel

G , T

So , N o
Q-Channel

Tf T Ts m Tsys = Ta + T Ga + Ga Gm + Ga Gm Gf + 2Gsys (15)

Si , N i
T0

1 G ,T 2 a a

Gm ,T m

G f, Tf

G , T

Gs ,T s

Fig. 8. Equivalent system for the image rejection. From Figure 8 we can clearly see that each channel is indeed a cascaded system. Thus, it is easy to obtain the total gain and noise gure for each channel by using the formula described in Equation 7, 8. For I-Channel, 1G G G G GI = 2 (9) a m f

; 1 + Ff ; 1 + F ; 1 + Fs ; 1 Fsys = Fa + Fm Ga Ga Gm Ga Gm Gf 2Gsys

(16)

For most of the components, like LNA and mixer, their gain and noise gure are well de ned. However, for Bandpass modulator, its gain and noise gure need further description, given as follows. The characteristic of Bandpass modulator can be expressed by its z-domain transfer function 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

Tf T m TI = Ta + T Ga + Ga Gm + Ga Gm Gf
For Q-Channel,

Y (z ) = STF (z )X (z ) + NTF (z )E (z )
(10)

(17)

GQ = 1 2 Ga Gm Gf G Gs

(11)

Tf T Ts m TQ = Ta + T Ga + Ga Gm + Ga Gm Gf + Ga Gm Gf G

(12)

For most cases the gain of the 90 degree shifter is equal to one, i.e. Gs = 1. Thus GI = GQ = 1 Gsys , where Gsys = Ga Gm Gf G . The output 2 signal and noise power after the summation (assumed

where X (z ) is input signal, Y (z ) is output signal, E (z ) is quantization noise, STF is signal transfer function, and NTF is noise transfer function. The output signal can be viewed as some transfer function times input signal plus shaped quantization noise. Most of the Bandpass modulator have a at STF within the signal bandwidth, if the signal bandwidth is narrow enough. If above assumption is true, the STF can be substituted by a constant gain, G , which can be easily obtained form STF (z ). Next, let's consider the noise power of Bandpass modulator. There are several di erent noises generated from Bandpass modulator, like thermal noise, icker noise, quantization noise, ...etc. In most situation quantization noise is the dominant

source of noise. Its power, N , can be obtained by integrating the power spectrum density of shaped noise, NTF (z )E (z ), within the signal bandwidth. Generally, N will decrease by increasing the oversampling ratio or the order of Bandpass modulator. From above two statements, Equation 17 can be rewritten in its power form.

So = G Si No = G Ni + N

(18)

where Si and So are the input and output signal power respectively, Ni and No are the input and output noise powers respectively. From the de nition of equivalent noise temperature, we can calculate the T as follows.

= GN kB

(19)

2] D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, New York, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1990, ch11. 3] S. Jantzi, K. Martin, M.Snelgrove and A.Sedra, \A Complex Bandpass Converter For Digital Radio", Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE ISCAS, pp. 453-456. 4] W. Singor, and M. Snelgrove, \SwitchedCapacitor Bandpass Delta-Sigma A/D Modulation at 10.7 MHz", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol.30, No. 3, March 1995, pp. 184-192. 5] D. Johns, K. Martin, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997, ch14. 6] C. J. Kuo, C. T. Liu, C. J. Hou, \Sigma-Delta Modulator for Bandpass Signal", Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE ISCAS, pp. 29-32. 7] R. Cormier, T. Sculley, R. Bamberger, \A Fourth Order Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulator with Digitally Programmable Passband Frequency", Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Dec. 1997, pp. 217-229.

The corresponding noise gure, F , can also be obtained from Equation 6.

5. Conclusion

A new improved image-reject RF receiver is proposed to reduce the sensitivity of IQ mismatches of traditional Hartley Architecture. By applying Bandpass Delta-Sigma modulator on both I and Q channels, the 90o shifter on Q-channel is much easier to be realized (a digital delay circuit) and the phase shift is also more precise. Furthermore, after the A/D conversion, further signal processing, like demodulation, can be performed by sophisticated DSP algorithms which can also provide much higher system performance. The system noise gure of this new proposed architecture has been analyzed. The results suggest to reduce overall system noise, higher order or higher oversampling ratio Bandpass Delta-Sigma modulator should be used. The proposed architecture helps to realize a more precise 90o shifter. However, quadrature signals generation can not bene t from this new architecture. More studies will be conducted in the future to nd various methods to generate quadrature signals, and to perform suitable compensation.

References

1] B. Razavi, RF Microelectronics, New Jersey, Prentice Hall Inc., 1998.