Phase noise

MMIC Design and Technology

Ali Medi

MMIC Course 1
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 2
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 3
 Introduction
„ Virtually
y every
y component
p in the system
y can
seriously degrade the phase noise (intrinsic
(intrinsic
noise).
noise ).

„ In addition, phase noise can result from

undesired and often unexpected interaction
between components.
components

„ Most MMIC manufacturers do not supply

pp y phase
p
noise data and experimentation is usually
required.

MMIC Course 4
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 5
 Phase Noise in Wireless Systems

„ VCO noise has a negative impact on system

performance
• Receiver: lower sensitivity, poorer blocking performance
„ Noise is characterized in frequency domain
MMIC Course 6
 Phase noise
y ω 0 + Δω )
L(Δω ) = 10log( Noise ppower in a 1Hz bandwidth at a frequency
q
Carrier power
[dBc/Hz]
B B
RF RF

Δω

LO Phase noise
ω0

MMIC Course 7
 Phase noise
Noise Power densityy increase due to blockingg signal:
g
Pn ,b = Pb L{ f LO − f b } = Pb L{Δf }

C / I = S désiré [dBm] − (S bl (Δf c )[dBm].L(Δf c ) + 10 log B )

L(Δf c ))[dBc / Hz ] < S désiré [dBm] − Sbl (Δf c ))[dBm] − C / I min [dB] − 10 logg B

Blocking signals at:

250
•250kHz ⇒ L1 (250kHz ) < −72dBc / Hz ⇒ L1 (500kHz ) = −72dBc / Hz + 20 log
500
< −78dBc / Hz

•500kHz ⇒ L2( 500 kHz) < −93dBc/Hz

MMIC Course 8
Frequency-
Frequency
q y-Reference Noise ((Phase Noise))

MMIC Course 9
 Oscillator Phase Noise

MMIC Course 10
Noise Sources Impacting
p g Phase Noise

„ Extrinsic noise - Noise from other circuits (including PLL)

„ Intrinsic noise - Noise due to the VCO circuitry
MMIC Course 11
 Measurement of Phase Noise in
dB /H
dBc/Hz

„ Definition of L(f)

„ Units are dBc/Hz

MMIC Course 12
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 13
 Output Phase Noise Spectrum

MMIC Course 14
 Oscillator Phase Noise
Effect of power consumption and inductor „

quality on oscillator

Higher power
consumption,
consumption
ectrum
m

higher inductor Q
wer Spe

Lower power
consumption,
lower inductor Q
Pow

MMIC Course Frequency 15

 Phase Noise of A Practical Oscillator

„ Ph
Phase noise
i ddrops at -20 dB/decade
dB/d d over a wide
id
frequency range, but deviates from this at:
• Low frequencies – slope increases (often -30 dB/decade)
• High frequencies – slope flattens out (oscillator tank does not
filter all noise sources)
„ Frequency breakpoints and magnitude scaling are not
readily predicted by the analysis approach taken so far
far.
MMIC Course 16
 Phase Noise of A Practical Oscillator

„ Leeson proposed modification of the phase noise expression to

capture the above noise profile

„ Note: he assumed that F(∆f) was constant over frequency

MMIC Course 17
Calculation of Intrinsic Phase Noise in Oscillators

„ Noise sources in oscillators are put in two categories

„ Noise due to tank loss
„ Noise due to active negative resistance
„ Wee want
a t to determine
dete e how
o these
t ese noise
o se sources
sou ces influence
ue ce
the phase noise of the oscillator
MMIC Course 18
Equivalent Model for Noise Calculations

MMIC Course 19
Calculate Impedance Across Ideal LC Tank Circuit

„ Calculate input impedance about resonance

• Consider:

MMIC Course 20
 A Convenient Parameterization of LC
Tank Impedance
p

„ Actual tank has loss that is modeled with Rp

• Define Q according to actual tank

„ Parameterize ideal tank impedance in terms of Q

of actual tank

MMIC Course 21
 Overall Noise Output Spectral Density

„ Assume noise from active negative resistance

element and tank are uncorrelated

„ Note that the above expression represents total

noise that impacts both amplitude and phase of
oscillator output
MMIC Course 22
Parameterize Noise Output Spectral Density

„ From p
previous slide

„ F(Δf) is
i defined
d fi d as

MMIC Course 23
 Fill in Expressions

„ Noise from tank is due to resistor Rp

„ Ztank(Δf)
( ) found p
previously
y

„ Output noise spectral density expression (single-

(single-
sided)

MMIC Course 24
Separation into Amplitude and Phase Noise

„ Noise
N i iimpact splits
li evenly
l bbetween amplitude
li d
and phase
• Amplitude
p variations suppressed
pp by
y feedback in
oscillator

MMIC Course 25
Output Phase Noise Spectrum (Leeson’s Formula)

„ All power calculations are referenced to the tank

loss resistance, Rp
loss

MMIC Course 26
Example: Active Noise Same as Tank Noise

„ Assume:

„ Resulting phase noise

MMIC Course 27
A More Sophisticated Analysis Method

„ Our concern is what happens when noise

current produces a voltage across the tank
• Such voltage deviations give rise to both
amplitude and phase noise
• Amplitude noise is suppressed through
feedback (or by amplitude limiting in following
buffer stages)
„ Our main concern is phase noise

MMIC Course 28
Modeling of Phase and Amplitude Perturbations

„ Modeling of Phase and Amplitude Perturbations

„ Characterize impact of current noise on
amplitude and phase through their associated
impulse responses
• Phase deviations are accumulated
• Amplitude deviations are suppressed
MMIC Course 29
Impact of Noise Current is Time-Varying

„ If we vary the time at which the current impulse

is injected, its impact on phase and amplitude
changes
• Need a time-
time-varying model

MMIC Course 30
 Amplitude Perturbations

MMIC Course 31
 Noise Impact in Simulation

Complementary LC oscillator
with noise sources

MMIC Course 32
Illustration of Time-Varying Impact of Noise on Phase

„ High impact on phase when impulse occurs close to the

zero crossing of the VCO output
„ Low impact on phase when impulse occurs at peak of
output
MMIC Course 33
Define Impulse Sensitivity Function (ISF) – Γ(
Γ(22πfot)

„ ISF constructed
t t d by
b calculating
l l ti phase
h deviations
d i ti
as impulse position is varied
• Observe that it is periodic with same period as VCO
output
MMIC Course 34
 R
C L
i(t)

Vout
Vout
∆V

∆V

MMIC Course 35
Parameterize Phase Impulse Response in Terms of ISF

MMIC Course 36
Linear Property of the Phase Function in Simulation

Phase shift versus injected charge for a cross coupled oscillator

MMIC Course 37
Examples of ISF for Different VCO Output Waveforms

„ ISF (i.e.,
(i Γ) iis approximately
i t l proportional
ti l tto derivative
d i ti off
VCO output waveform
• Its magnitude indicates where VCO waveform is most sensitive
to noise current into tank with respect to creating phase noise
„ ISF is periodic
„ In practice, derive it from simulation of the VCO

MMIC Course 38
 Excess phase and voltage in the output of cross coupled oscillator
MMIC Course 39
Phase Noise Analysis Using LTV Framework

„ Computation of phase deviation for an arbitrary

noise current input

„ Analysis simplified if we describe ISF in terms of

its Fourier series

MMIC Course 40
 Block Diagram of LTV Phase Noise
E
Expression
i
„ Noise from current
source is mixed
down from
different frequency
bands and scaled Γ(2π f 0 τ )
according
di tto ISF
coefficients

MMIC Course 41
Phase Noise Calculation for White Noise Input (Part 1)

MMIC Course 42
Phase Noise Calculation for White Noise Input (Part 2)

MMIC Course 43
 Spectral Density of Phase Signal
„ From the p
previous slide

„ Substitute in for SA(f), SB(f), etc.

„ Resulting expression

MMIC Course 44
 Output Phase Noise

„ We now know

„ Resulting phase noise

MMIC Course 45
The Impact of 1/f Noise in Input Current (Part 1)

MMIC Course 46
The Impact of 1/f Noise in Input Current (Part 2)

MMIC Course 47
 3
Calculation of Output Phase Noise in 1/f region
„ From the previous slide

„ Assume that input current has 1/f noise with

corner frequency
q y f1/f

„ Corresponding output phase noise

MMIC Course 48
 3
Calculation of 1/f Corner Frequency
q y

MMIC Course 49
 3
Impact of Oscillator Waveform on 1/f Phase Noise

ISF for Symmetric Waveform ISF for Asymmetric Waveform

„ Key Fourier series coefficient of ISF for 1/f3

/f3 noise
i co
is
• If DC value of ISF is zero, co is also zero
„ For symmetric oscillator output waveform
• DC value of ISF is zero - no up-
up-conversion of flicker
noise! (i.e. output phase noise does not have 1/f/f3
3
region)
„ For asymmetric oscillator output waveform
• DC value of ISF is non
non--zero - flicker noise has impact
MMIC Course 50
Issue – We Have Ignored Modulation of Current Noise

„ In practice, transistor generated noise is

modulated by the varying bias conditions of its
associated
i t d ttransistor
i t
• As transistor goes from saturation to triode to cutoff, its
associated noise changes dramatically
„ Can we include this issue in the LTV framework?
MMIC Course 51
 Inclusion of Current Noise Modulation

„ Recall

„ By inspection of figure

„ We therefore apply
pp y previous
p framework with ISF as
MMIC Course 52
 Noise Modulation in Simulation
Thermal Noise Flicker Noise
0.05

Delta Phase [Rad]

0.05
Delta Phase [Rad]

0 0

-0.05 -0.05
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12

1 1

NMS
0.5
NMS

0.5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12

0.04 0.02

Effective NMS
Effective NMS

0.02 0.01

0
0

-0.02 -0.01
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Phase [Rad] Phase [Rad]

ISF,
ISF NMF,
NMF and
d effective
ff ti ISF waveforms
f off cross coupled
l d oscillator
ill t
MMIC Course 53
Placement of Current Modulation for Best Phase Noise
Best Placement of Current Worst Placement of Current
Modulation for Phase Noise Modulation for Phase Noise

„ Phase noise expression (ignoring 1/f noise)

„ Minimum phase noise achieved by minimizing

sum of square of Fourier series coefficients (i.e.
(i e
rms value of Γeff)
MMIC Course 54
Colpitts Oscillator Provides Optimal Placement of α

„ Current is injected into tank at bottom portion of

VCO swing
• Current noise accompanying current has minimal impact
on VCO output phase

MMIC Course 55
 Noise Modulation in Collpits

ISF NMF,
ISF, NMF and effective ISF waveforms of colpitts oscillator
MMIC Course 56
Summary of LTV Phase Noise Analysis Method
„ Step 1: calculate the impulse sensitivity function
of each oscillator noise source using a simulator
„ St
Step 2: calculate
l l t th
the noise
i currentt modulation
d l ti
waveform for each oscillator noise source using a
simulator
„ Step 3: combine above results to obtain
Γeff(2
Γeff(2πfot) for each oscillator noise source
„ Step 4: calculate Fourier series coefficients for
each Γeff(2
Γeff(2πfot)
„ Step 5: calculate spectral density of each
oscillator noise source
„ Step 6: calculate
calc late overall
o e all output
o tp t phase noise using
sing
the results from

MMIC Course 57
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 58
 On chip Inductors
„ In contrast with digital circuits which use mainly
active
ti d
devices,
i on-chip
on- hi passive
i componentst are
necessary and imperative adjuncts to most RF
electronics. These components include inductors,
capacitors,
capacitors varactors,
varactors and resistors
„ For example, the Nokia 6161 cellphone contains
15 IC’s with 232 capacitors, 149 resistors, and 24
inductors
„ Inductors in particular are critical components in
low noise amplifiers, oscillators.
„ The lack of an accurate and scalable model for
on--chip spiral inductors presents a challenging
on
problem for RF IC’s designers

MMIC Course 59
 Quality
y Factor and Self-
Self-Resonant Frequency
y
The quality factor Q is an extremely important figure of
merit for the inductor at high g frequencies.
q The most
fundamental definition for Q is

⎛ EnergyStored ⎞
Q = ω ⋅ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ AveragePowerDissipated ⎠
Basically,
B i ll it d
describes
ib h how good
d an inductor
i d t can work
k as
an energy-storage element.
Self resonant frequency fSR marks the point where the
Self-resonant
inductor turns to capacitive. fSR
L

MMIC Course f 60
 Off chip resonator properties:

ƒ Highest Q.
Q
ƒ Interfacing from on chip active devices
to off
ff chip
hi tankk circuits
i i at frequencies
f i
in GHz range is quite difficult.
ƒ Consume valuable board space.
ƒ Application example: below 1GHz.

MMIC Course 61
 Inductor’’s Structures
Inductor
For hexagonal and octagonal
inductors, less metal length
is needed to achieve the
same number of turns.
Thus series resistance is
compressed and Q factor
improved.
On the other hand, the square
shaped inductor will be
more area efficient.
ffi i t
For example, for a square
area on the wafer, square
shape will utilize 100
100%% of
the area, whereas
hexagonal, octagonal and
circular shapes use 65%,
65%,
82..8% and 78
82 78..5%
respectively
MMIC Course 62
 Typical Square Shaped Spiral
Inductor built on Si Substrate

ƒ On-chip spiral inductors are used when a relatively small

inductance (i.e., several nH) is needed. Otherwise off-chip
inductors are used
ƒ Performance of the spiral inductor depends on the number
of turns, line width, spacing, pattern shape, number of
metal layers, oxide thickness and conductivity of substrate
MMIC Course 63
 Green House Method

MMIC Course 64
 Equivalent Circuit of a Lumped
(Si l -π) Model
(Single-
(Single M d l ffor SSpiral
i l IInductors
d t
Cs

Ls Rs Except for the series

inductance, all components
in the model are parasitics
of the inductor and need to
Cox Cox be minimized
This model is widely used,
C Si R Si C Si R Si but it is not very accurate
and not scalable

MMIC Course 65
 Components of Lumped Model
LS consists of the self
inductance, positive
mutual inductance, and
negative mutual
inductance
CS is the capacitance
between metal lines
RS is the series resistance
RSi and CSi are the coupling
of the metal line
resistance
i t and
d capacitance
it
associated with Si COX is the capacitance of
substrate oxide layer
y underneath the
spiral
MMIC Course 66
 Outline
„ Introduction
„ Phase Noise
„ O t t Phase
Output Ph Noise
N i Spectrum
S t
„ On chip Inductors
„ Advanced On Chip Inductor

MMIC Course 67
 Structure with patterned ground shield

ƒ Ground shielding reduces the effective distance between the

spiral and ground and thus reduces the substrate resistance.
ƒ Solid ground shield (SGS) can reflect EM field in the substrate
and reduce Q factor. Patterned ground shield (PGS).
(PGS).
ƒ Drawback: increase coupling
p g capacitance
p due to an reduced
distance between the metal and ground.
MMIC Course 68
 Structure with Suspended Spiral

Inductor suspended above the structure to reduce

p g resistance and capacitance
the substrate coupling p
MMIC Course 69
 Structure with Substrate Removal
1st Metal
2nd Metal

BPSG

Via Hole
Si Pillar

Portions of substrate are moved using deep-trench

technology to reduce the substrate coupling
resistance and capacitance.
MMIC Course 70
 Structure with Vertical Spiral

Spiral is placed vertically on the substrate to reduce

magnetic field coupling to substrate.

MMIC Course 71
 Structure with Multiple Metal Layers
and
d Vertical
V ti l ShShuntt

M4
+
M3 P
M2
M1
Oxide
+
P
V1 V2 V3

-
P
Silicon Substrate

The series resistance is reduced with increasing

number of vertical shunt among the metal layers.
layers
But this approach can increase COX and thus reduce
the self-resonant frequency.

MMIC Course 72
 Structure with Tapered Line Width

EM loss is most significant in center of spiral.

The metal line width is tapered to reduce the
magnetically induced losses in the inner turns.
MMIC Course 73
 Structure with Stacked Metal Layers

The stacked structure increases effective metal length,

which increases the inductance without increasing the
chip area
MMIC Course 74
 Structure with Non
Non--Symmetrical and
Symmetrical Winding
OverLap

Metal 2
Metal1
Via
OverLap

„ The symmetrical winding improves the RF

performance because
• It has less overlap which reduces the Cs and
• The geometric center is exactly the magnetic and electric
center, which increases the mutual inductance

MMIC Course 75
 Future Works
„ Intrinsic Mesfet noises
„ Phase noise in different topology
„ I d t
Inductors in
i GaAs
G A

MMIC Course 76
 References
1. Hajimiri and T. Lee, “A general theory of phase noise in
electrical oscillators
oscillators,” IEEE JJ. Solid
Solid--State Circuits,
Circuits vol
vol. 33
33,,
pp. 179–
179–194,
194, Feb. 1998.
1998.
2. 1Roberto Aparicio and Ali Hajimiri, "A NoiseNoise--Shifting
Differential Colpitts VCO," IEEE,
IEEE,2002
2002..
3. Thomas H. Lee, Member, IEEE, and Ali Hajimiri ,
"Oscillator Phase Noise: A Tutorial", Member, IEEE, 2000. 2000.
4. Hajimiri and T. Lee , “Design issues in CMOS differential
LC oscillators,
oscillators ” IEEE JJ. Solid-
Solid-State Circuits,
Circuits vol
vol. 34
34,, pp.
pp
716–
716 –724,
724, May 1999.
1999.
5. Razavi , “A study of phase noise in CMOS oscillators,”
IEEE J. Solid-
Solid-State Circuits, vol. 31,
31, pp. 331–
331–343,
343, Mar.
1996..
1996

MMIC Course 77