Search for: All records

A new reference-spur cancelation technique is presented for supply-regulated ring-oscillator-based integer-N phaselocked loops (PLLs). A passive RC filter is used to implement a feed-forward (FF) spur-coupling path to perform spur cancelation at the PLL control signal. The proposed technique achieves a simulated spur cancelation of about 22 dB at the first spur harmonic. The simulated postcancelation spur value is -79 dBc for an oscillator gain of 0.1 GHz/V and -46 dBc for an oscillator gain of 6 GHz/V. Spur cancelation is also robust against large process, voltage, and temperature variations in the gain and bandwidth of the FF path. A 1-GHz integerN PLL prototype in a 65-nm CMOS process has a measured cancelation of 19.5 and 13 dB at the first and the second spur harmonic, respectively, with 320 μW of total power consumption. The PLL prototype has an oscillator gain of 1.5 GHz/V, which results in a postcancelation spur of -53 dBc. The proposed zero-power technique is suitable for low-power PLLs as it achieves a large spur cancelation without requiring any additional power consumption or calibration. 

To fulfill the insatiable demand for high data-rates, the millimeter-wave (mmW) 5G communication standard will extensively use high-order complex-modulation schemes (e.g., QAM) with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPRs) and large RF bandwidths. High-efficiency integrated CMOS power amplifiers (PA) are highly desirable for portable devices for improved battery life, reduced form factor, and low cost. To meet simultaneous requirements for high efficiency and reasonable linearity, PAs intended for use with complex modulation are often operated in Class-AB mode [1,2]. For small input amplitude in Class-AB, the device is turned-on and has an input capacitance (Cgs) of ~(2/3)WLCox. As the input amplitude becomes large, the device turns-off for part of the RF cycle, thus reducing its effective input capacitance. This input capacitance-modulation effect creates an input-amplitude-dependent phase shift in Class-AB mode resulting in an amplitude-modulation to phase-modulation (AM-PM) distortion [2]. Consequently, it degrades linearity metrics (e.g., error vector magnitude (EVM), adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR)) in complex-modulation systems. External linearization techniques (e.g., digital pre-distortion) are often used in transmitters to meet linearity requirements, but they are complex in nature and expensive to implement. Apart from these, few works at low-GHz frequencies are reported to improve the PA's intrinsic linearity using a varactor-or PMOS-based AM-PM correction methods [1,2]. These works reduce the design overhead of external linearization systems; however, the inclusion of additional capacitive element to correct AM-PM degrades gain and efficiency, which is not optimal for mmW frequencies 

In this letter, two different switching modes are identified for RF synchronous rectifier circuits which lead to a change in the polarity of the rectified output voltage. The operation of the two modes is defined in terms of the dynamic current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the switching device and the polarity of the output load voltage. In one mode, the dc output voltage is positive and associated with a switching condition where the device is ON in quadrant-III and OFF in quadrant-I. This mode of operation has been reported widely in the literature. In the second mode, the quadrants associated with the on- and off-state are swapped leading to a polarity reversal across the load. Theoretical justification for the two modes is given and the experimental results are shown to confirm the two different switching modes in the synchronous rectifier. Experiments with a GaN inverse class-F rectifier were made to verify the theory, and both modes have similar measured peak rectification efficiencies of 77% at a frequency of 1.8 GHz.