Transceiver

Specifications
Telecom Paris
Chadi Jabbour

TELECOM 201
 Pillars of RF system

I Power transfer

I Noise

I Non linearity

2/17 Sept. 2020 Telecom Paris Transceiver Specifications

 1-Power transfer

Antenna

RS
Receiver

RL

RS RS

+ 2 +
Vs - RL VL VnRS - RL VL

Equivalent circuit Equivalent circuit

for the input signal for the Rs thermal noise

2
PSDnRs = VnRS in 1 Hz = 4KTRs

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 Reminders (or not)?
Signal Power in a resistor
V2
Plin =
R
Power in dBm

PdBm = 10 · log10 (Power in mW)

Relation between Power and Power Spectral Density (PSD)

Z
Plin = PSDlin · df
Bw

In case, the signal or noise distribution is uniform in the band

Plin = PSDlin · Bw

In dBm
Pdbm = PSDdBm/Hz + 10 · log10 (Bw )
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 1-How to optimise power transfer?

1. Calculate the power at the receiver input Pin .

RL
2. Let α = RS , determine α that allows to maximize Pin for a
given Rs

3. Set α to the value obtained in the previous question,

determine the thermal noise PSD at the receiver input.

4. Calculate the noise PSD in dBm/Hz for a temperature of

17 o C. (Blotzmann constant K =1.38e-23 J/K)

5. Chadi claims that he has designed a magnificent receiver: The

SNR in a 10 MHz band at his receiver output is 20 dB for an
input signal of -90 dBm.
What do you think about Chadi, are his pants on fire?
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 2-Noise Figure, what for!!

I Noise Figure (NF) is a figure of merit that relates the output

Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) to the input SNR of a given block
I If not specified otherwise, NF is defined with respect to the
antenna noise
I Most basic definition was defined by Friis in the 1940s

SNRin−lin
Flin = NFdB = SNRin−dB − SNRout−dB
SNRout−lin
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 2-Noise Figure, what for!!

Note that G is a power Gain not a voltage gain

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 2-Friis formula

Pin
SNRin Nin
F1 = = G1 ·Pin
=⇒ Na1 = G1 (F1 − 1)Nin
SNR1 G1 ·Nin +Na1
Pin
SNRin Nin F2 − 1
F12 = = G1 ·G2 ·Pin
= F1 +
SNR2 G1 ·G2 ·Nin +G2 ·Na1 +Na2
G1

Generalization for N stages, Friis formula

F2 −1 FN −1
Ftot = F1 + G1 + ... + G1 ·G2 ···GN−1

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 Exercise 2-Noise!!
We have at our disposal 3 amplifiers. We would like to cascade
them to obtain a higher gain.

1. Calculate the noise figure of the chain ABC using Friis equation
2. Compare the calculated result to the one given by the script
AmplifierChain.m
3. Simulate the configurations BCA and CAB, compare the obtained
NFs with ABC.
4. Ga is flexible, it can be set to 0 dB, 6 dB or 12 dB. Try the 3
possibilities and analyze the impact of this change on the NF of the
complete chain.
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 3-Nonlinearity

I Electronic systems have a non-linear behavior due to many

reasons:
I The transistors are not linear
I Slew Rate
I Inter symbol interference (ISI)
I Mismatch

I To model this effect, many models exist:

I Memory-less models: polynomial,hyperbolic, orthogonal ...
I Memory aware: Volterra, Hammerstein, Wiener, Narmax...

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 3-Third order system

Let us consider a third order system:

y (t) = α1 x(t) + α3 x(t)3 α3 < 0 in practice

with a two-tone input

x = Acos(ω1 t) + Acos(ω2 t)

The system output yields

9 1
y (t) = (α1 A + α3 A3 ) [cos(ω1 t) + cos(ω2 t)] + α3 A3 [cos(3ω1 t) + cos(3ω2 t)] +
| 4 {z } |4 {z }
Fundamental Terms 3rd order harmonics
3
α3 A3 [cos((2ω1 + ω2 )t) + cos((ω1 + 2ω2 )t) + cos((2ω1 − ω2 )t) + cos((2ω2 − ω1 )t)]
|4 {z }
3rd order Inter Modulation Products

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 3-Impact of non Linearity

I Gain compression (since α3 < 0).

I Harmonics: New terms arising at 3 times the useful band.

I Inter modulation products: terms arising in the useful RF band

The higher α3 or/and the higher the input amplitude A, the higher
the impact of Nonlinearity

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 3-Nonlinearity metrics!!
How to characterize non-linearity: 1-dB compression point, Spurious Free
Dynamic Range, Second order intercept point IIP2, Third order intercept
point IIP3 ...

y (t) = α1 x(t) + α3 x(t)3 with an input x(t) = Acos(ωt)

3 1
y (t) = (α1 A + α3 A3 )cos(ωt) + α3 A3 cos(3ωt)
4 4
The IIP3 is the input amplitude A for which the third harmonic power is
equal to the linear power (without compression)
r
1 α1
α1 IIP3lin = α3 IIP33lin =⇒ IIP3lin = 2
4 α3

IM3 or HD3
z }| {
Psignal−dBm − Pharmonic−dBm
IIP3dBm = PindBm + 2
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 IIP3 formula calculation
The linear curve power (blue curve) can be modeled by
y1 (x) = x + a
The third order curve (red curve) can be modeled by
y3 (x) = 3x + b
We perform a measurement at an input power P1 , the difference
between the two curves is the third inter-modulation term IM3.
IM3(P1 ) = y1 (P1 )−y3 (P1 ) = P1 +a−3P1 −b =⇒ a−b = IM3(P1)+2P1
The third order intercept point is the point for which the linear
term becomes equal to the third order term.
a−b
y1 (IIP3) = y3 (IIP3) =⇒ IIP3 + a = 3IIP3 + b =⇒ IIP3 =
2
We replace a − b by the expression determined earlier.
IM3(P1 )
IIP3 = P1 +
2
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 Exercise 3 -Nonlinearity!!

We will use the amplifier A employed in the previous exercise. We

will model its non linear behavior using the following equation:

y (t) = α1 x(t) + α3 x(t)3

1. Use the script Amplifier NL.m to plot the SNDR vs Pin curve.
Explain the behavior of the curve

2. Observe two plotted spectrums for the two input powers.

Compare the HD3 values and explain the obtained difference.

3. Calculate the IIP3 of the amplifier.

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 Exercise 3-Nonlinearity (con)!!

The gain of amplifier A is not sufficient to receive very low input

signals (Pin < −90dBm). We will use the complete chain ABC.

4. Calculate the IIP3 of the full chain using the script

AmplifierChain NL.m.

5. Observe carefully the output spectrums of the second and

third stages. What can be noticed?

6. Ga is flexible, it can be set to 0 dB, 6 dB or 12 dB. Try the 3

possibilities and analyze the impact of this change on the IIP3
of the complete chain.

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 References
I https://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Noise/Understanding%20Noise
%20Figure.pdf
I https://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedias/noise-figure
I https://www.electronicdesign.com/what-s-difference-
between/what-s-difference-between-third-order-intercept-and-
1-db-compression-point
I https://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedias/compression-
point
I https://www.microwaves101.com/calculators/859-cascade-
calculator
To go beyond
I Chapter 2 of “RF Microelectronics” of Behzad Razavi.
Publisher: PHPTR
I Chapter 4 of “RF System Design of Transceivers for Wireless
Communications” of Qizheng Gu. Publisher: Spinger
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