Ainhoa Rezola

A Wideband Millimeter-Wave Up-Conversion Mixer for Future Backhaul E-Band Point-to-Point Links with a 0dBm 1-dB Compression Point

This paper presents the design of an energy- efficient E-Band full-duplex transceiver for backhaul links of the future mobile networks. The link is designed to achieve 10Gbps using 2GHz channels and 64-QAM modulation. The effect of the transmitter linearity on the system performance is analyzed, showing that the required power back-off is around 10dB. A 15GHz mixer to be used in the I/Q upconverter of the transmitter is also presented, which is integrated in a SiGe 55nm process from STMicroeletronics. Measurement results show input and output bandwidths of 0-4GHz and 11.2-18GHz respectively, with a CG of 2.5dB, an OCP1dB of 0dBm and a DC power consumption of 68mW. The mixer features better linearity than other reported upconverters integrated in Si-based technologies.

A Wideband and High-Linearity E -B and Transmitter Integrated in a 55-nm SiGe Technology for Backhaul Point-to-Point 10-Gb/s Links

This paper presents the design of a wideband and high-linearity

Implementation of a zero-second-IF transmitter for wide-band millimeter-wave links

E

Digital Compensation and Mitigation of I/Q Gain and Phase Imbalance

-band transmitter integrated in a 55-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It consists of a double-balanced bipolar ring mixer which upconverts a 16–21-GHz IF signal to the 71–76- and 81–86-GHz bands by the use of a 55/65-GHz local oscillator signal, followed by a broadband power amplifier which employs 2-way output power combining using an integrated low-loss balun transformer. The transmitter exhibits an average conversion gain of 24 dB and 22 dB at the 71–76- and 81–86-GHz bands, respectively, with an output 1-dB compression point greater than 14 and 11.5 dBm at each band. A maximum output power of 16.8 dBm is measured at 71 GHz. The dc power consumption is 575 mW. The presented transmitter is used to demonstrate the transmission of a 10.12-Gb/s 64 quadrature amplitude modulated signal with a spectral efficiency of 5.06 bit/s/Hz, which makes it suitable for use in future high-capacity backhaul and fronthaul point-to-point links.

Effect of Front-End Imperfections on Wideband Millimeter-Wave Signals

The growing demand for ubiquitous broadband communication has motivated the deployment of ultra high-speed communication systems. In order to achieve Gigabit data rates, the underlying backhauling network infrastructure demands wideband and high-order modulations in the E-band. This paper considers the design of a transceiver able to provide a data rate of 10Gbps for the backhaul of the future mobile network, with a signal bandwidth of 2GHz and 64-QAM modulation. The article describes the hardware implementation of both the analog front-end and the digital base-band processing of a modulator as part of an E-Band transceiver that is able to achieve the required capacity.

Design of Wideband Up-Converters with Self-healing Capabilities

Wideband mmW communication systems suffer from a series of imperfections that can greatly jeopardize the signal quality. One of the most detrimental effects is the frequency-selective I/Q imbalance, which is present in most wideband mmW transceivers. This chapter analyzes the frequency-selective I/Q imbalance in detail, explaining its mathematical fundamentals and outlining methods to detect and compensate for it.

Design of Wideband Millimeter-Wave Power Detectors to Enable Self-healing and Digital Correction Capabilities

This chapter will discuss the main impairments that affect the performance of wideband, high-speed mmW transceivers. Each impairment will be first introduced theoretically, and then its effect on a wideband mmW transceiver will be analyzed at system level. Numerical examples correspond to a reference E-band wideband transceiver, implemented using an FPGA for the baseband processing, commercial off-the-shelf DACs and baseband components, and specifically designed BiCMOS integrated circuits for the IF and mmW front-end blocks.

Design Methodology for BiCMOS Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits

This chapter deals with the design of up-conversion mixers for application in mmW transmitters. First, the operation principles, figures of merit and common implementations for mmW mixers are presented. Then, the principles of I/Q modulation are reviewed, and some common architectures are discussed. Afterwards, design examples of a 16-21-GHz I/Q upconverter and an E-band upconverter are given. These circuits are basic building blocks of double-conversion wideband mmW transmitters, and they are designed to meet the requirements of the wideband BiCMOS integrated transmitter described throughout this book.

System-Level Analysis of Millimeter-Wave Wireless Links

This chapter deals with integrated mmW power detectors. First, motivations for their use, figures of merit, and common implementations are reviewed. Then, a design example of an integrated mmW wideband detector is presented and validated with measurement results. It is integrated at the output of an E-band power amplifier and it can be used for built-in integrated self-test (BIST) purposes or as a first step towards an integrated self-healing system.

A Fully Integrated and Digitally Assisted BiCMOS Transmitter for a 10-Gbps Wireless Link in the E-Band

The design of millimeter-wave circuits involves understanding and dealing with new challenges, which make every design step crucial for a successful design. For instance, the high frequency of operation makes almost every layout connection behave as a transmission line, and therefore, they need to be adequately modeled and sized. In addition, transistors work close to their maximum operating frequency and voltages, and thus adequate transistor layout and biasing are a must, not to mention the fact that some components like transmission lines or transformers are not readily available in the design kits, and some other available components are not adequately modeled upto millimeter-wave frequencies. This means that the classical lower frequency design methodology consisting of sequential schematic simulation, layout implementation, and parasitic extraction is no longer valid, as the parasitics and electromagnetic behavior of every component and connection need to be taken into account from the very beginning. This chapter will outline the design methodology to be followed for successful, time- and resource-efficient design of millimeter-wave integrated circuits.