The doctoral dissertations of the former Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and Aalto University Schools of Technology (CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI) published in electronic format are available in the electronic publications archive of Aalto University - Aaltodoc.
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Design and Characterization of Downconversion Mixers and the On-Chip Calibration Techniques for Monolithic Direct Conversion Radio Receivers

Kalle Kivekäs

Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission for public examination and debate in Auditorium S4 at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) on the 18th of October, 2002, at 12 o'clock noon.

Overview in PDF format (ISBN 951-22-6151-0)   [2131 KB]
Dissertation is also available in print (ISBN 951-22-6150-2)

Abstract

This thesis consists of eight publications and an overview of the research topic, which is also a summary of the work. The research described in this thesis is focused on the design of downconversion mixers and direct conversion radio receivers for UTRA/FDD WCDMA and GSM standards. The main interest of the work is in the 1-3 GHz frequency range and in the Silicon and Silicon-Germanium BiCMOS technologies. The RF front-end, and especially the mixer, limits the performance of direct conversion architecture. The most stringent problems are involved in the second-order distortion in mixers to which special attention has been given. The work introduces calibration techniques to overcome these problems. Some design considerations for front-end radio receivers are also given through a mixer-centric approach.

The work summarizes the design of several downconversion mixers. Three of the implemented mixers are integrated as the downconversion stages of larger direct conversion receiver chips. One is realized together with the LNA as an RF front-end. Also, some stand-alone structures have been characterized. Two of the mixers that are integrated together with whole analog receivers include calibration structures to improve the second-order intermodulation rejection. A theoretical mismatch analysis of the second-order distortion in the mixers is also presented in this thesis. It gives a comprehensive illustration of the second-order distortion in mixers. It also gives the relationships between the dc-offsets and high IIP2. In addition, circuit and layout techniques to improve the LO-to-RF isolation are discussed.

The presented work provides insight into how the mixer immunity against the second-order distortion can be improved. The implemented calibration structures show promising performance. On the basis of these results, several methods of detecting the distortion on-chip and the possibilities of integrating the automatic on-chip calibration procedures to produce a repeatable and well-predictable receiver IIP2 are presented.

This thesis consists of an overview and of the following 8 publications:

  1. K. Kivekäs, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, Active Mixers for Direct Conversion Receivers with 0.35-μm BiCMOS, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 17-26, Jan. 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. By permission.
  2. K. Kivekäs, A. Pärssinen, J. Jussila, J. Ryynänen, K. Halonen, Design of Low-Voltage Active Mixer for Direct Conversion Receivers, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, vol. IV, pp. 382-385, Sydney, Australia, May 2001. © 2001 IEEE. By permission.
  3. J. Ryynänen, K. Kivekäs, J. Jussila, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, A Dual-Band RF Front-End for WCDMA and GSM Applications, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 36, pp. 1198-1204, Aug. 2001. © 2001 IEEE. By permission.
  4. J. Jussila, J. Ryynänen, K. Kivekäs, L. Sumanen, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, A 22mA, 3.0dB NF Direct Conversion Receiver for 3G WCDMA, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 36, pp. 2025-2029, Dec. 2001. © 2001 IEEE. By permission.
  5. K. Kivekäs, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, Characterization of IIP2 and DC-Offsets in Transconductance Mixers, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems Part-II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, vol. 48, pp.1028-1038, Nov. 2001. © 2001 IEEE. By permission.
  6. K. Kivekäs, A. Pärssinen, J. Ryynänen, J. Jussila, K. Halonen, Calibration Techniques of Active BiCMOS Mixers, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 37, pp. 766-769, June 2002. © 2002 IEEE. By permission.
  7. J. Ryynänen, K. Kivekäs, J. Jussila, L. Sumanen, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, Single-Chip Multi-Mode Receiver for GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900, and WCDMA, Accepted for publication in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. © 2002 IEEE. By permission.
  8. J. Ryynänen, K. Kivekäs, J. Jussila, A. Pärssinen, K. Halonen, RF Gain Control in Direct Conversion Receivers, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, vol. IV, pp. 117-120, Phoenix, USA, May 2002. © 2002 IEEE. By permission.

Errata of publications 1 and 5

Keywords: radio frequency, integrated circuits, IIP2, BiCMOS

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© 2002 Helsinki University of Technology

Last update 2011-05-26