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Radio Frequency Implementation Issues

Chapter 2

It is useful to note that the human body serves as a ground plane for the antenna. This effect may or may not be benecial when the radio is being held compared to when operating freestanding. On the other hand, the head can function as a ground plane, blocking the reception of the basestation signal coming from the direction of the head. Apparently, people subconsciously understand this and analog cellular phone users have routinely been observed turning the phone in the direction of the incoming signal, using the background noise to guide their orientation. Also interesting to note, various antenna congurations have different polarizations, and the orientation of the radio will reduce the antennas efciency if the antenna and wave polarization do not match.

2.5.2

Duplexer and Diplexer

Duplexers and diplexers are similar devices and their differences are often blurred. Formally, a duplexer is used to separate or isolate transmitted and received signals in a common frequency range that uses a common antenna. This isolation is necessary because the transmitted signal power is typically many orders of magnitude higher than the desired received signals power. A diplexer performs a similar but different function: it isolates transmitted and received signals that lie in distinct frequency ranges. Either device can be an expensive and very lossy component, especially for a fullduplex system, such as the cellular Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) standard. In the AMPS standard, the colocated transmitter may be transmitting a watt of power while simultaneously trying to receive a signal in the 109 W range. In this case, the duplexer operates as a lter consisting of a ferrite device called a circulator. In GSM, the transmitter does not operate simultaneously with the receiver. Isolation is achieved by a switch that disconnects either the transmitter or receiver, but, in practice, isolation is still difcult to achieve because the close proximity of the transmitter and receiver allows bleeding of the RF. Software radios that support multiple modes, such as full-duplex and half-duplex systems, require a duplexer or diplexer that works for both systems, which is a signicant design challenge. Both a duplexer and a diplexer may be used in the same system. Consider the block diagram of a dual mode cellular and Personal Communication System (PCS) phone shown in Figure 2.15. In a mobile phone, diplexers are typically low-pass and high-pass lters that allow dual-band operation through one antenna or antenna feed point. Duplexers are usually dual passband lters that allow simultaneous operation of the receiver and transmitter in a full-duplex system. Because the PCS and cellular bands are separated by a much greater frequency than transmit and receive channels of either the cellular or PCS bands, the diplexer is easier to create than the duplexer.

2.5.3

RF Filter

The initial ltering after the duplexer rejects out-of-band interference. It can also help isolate the receiver from the transmitted signal. This lter should inject small amounts of noise, have low loss, and provide as much selectivity as feasible without limiting the bandwidth needed to support multiple modes of the software radio.

Section 2.5

Importance of the Components to Overall Performance

27

Cellular Duplexer TX Section RX Section To PA To LNA 800 MHz Cellular Band

Diplexer LPF HPF

TX Section RX Section PCS Duplexer

To PA To LNA

1900 MHz PCS Band

Figure 2.15: Duplexer and Diplexer in a Dual Mode Cellular Phone.

2.5.4

Low Noise Amplier

The LNA boosts the signal power level into a range compatible with other components in the circuit. The primary design challenge is to maximize gain without adding excessive noise into the signal, but this must be traded for power consumption and dynamic range. The noise gure is the primary gure of merit and indicates the ratio of the output SNR to the input SNR. Usually the rst stage in the RF chain ultimately sets the noise performance of the system. Another key design challenge is obtaining low power consumption, a particularly important issue for mobile systems in which the receiver must remain on for extended periods in case the mobile unit is paged.

2.5.5

Image Reject and IF Filters

The image reject lter that is located before the mixers reduces noise and protects the mixer from interference, including any signals located at the image frequency, which, after conversion, may lie in the same band as the desired signal. Again, noise contributed by this lter (which is an active lter) should be minimized as should any signal loss. Noise sources early in the RF chain tend to have a more debilitating effect since this noise is amplied downstream. In addition, lters can consume a signicant amount of circuit area.

2.5.6

RF Mixer

The RF mixer is used to downconvert the signal and can be a major source of intermodulation distortion since it is, by its very nature, a non-linear device. Harmonics due to the

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Radio Frequency Implementation Issues

Chapter 2

mixer (possibly enhanced by harmonics created by the LNA) may end up in the IF passband. Increasing the LO power to the mixer is one way to improve linearity and to reduce distortion, but it reduces the battery life of portable devices. Active RF mixers can also be a source of noise, and this noise characteristic is represented by their noise gure.

2.5.7

Local Oscillator

The mixer is driven by an LO whose frequency determines the channel selection. This LO should have a good tuning range and good phase stability to minimize the contribution of phase noise to the noise oor. Thermal noise will also contribute to the noise oor. Power consumption can be a major design issue. Phase noise is an important characteristic of an LO and can be viewed as random disturbances in the phase of an oscillator. This effect can be modeled in an LO signal y(t) = K sin(2fc t + (t)) where (t) is a small random variable representing the phase noise. Given (t) 1, then y(t) K (sin(2fc t) + (t) cos(2fc t)). In the frequency domain, a signal with and without phase noise is shown in Figure 2.16. Note that phase noise can be approximated as an AM signal where the amplitude modulation is provided by (t).4 Multiplying a received signal by a noisy LO is equivalent in the frequency domain of convolving their two spectra, producing a widened resulting signal spectrum compared to that of the ideal LO case. If an adjacent channel interferer is present, its spectrum after mixing will be widened, and thus the interference may now lie in-band with the desired signal. A high level of phase noise could be a signicant source of interference. This deleterious effect is called reciprocal mixing.

fc
(a) Ideal Oscillator Output.

fc
(b) Oscillator Output with Phase Noise.

Figure 2.16: Comparison of Spectra of an Oscillator with and without Noise.

noise is measured by taking an average noise density (W/Hz) and dividing it by the power of the carrier (subtracting in the dB scale). The units are then dBc, that is, the units are on a dB scale referenced to the carrier power.
4 Phase