IEEE SCV Communications Society Lecture

CMOS for Ultra Wideband and 60 GHz Communications

Bob Brodersen Dept. of EECS Univ. of Calif. Berkeley http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu
Berkeley Wireless Research Center

17 GHz of Unlicensed Bandwidth!

UWB
UWB UWB
Mm Wave Band

10 0 ID Comm

20 30 Vehicular

40

50

60 GHz Comm

The UWB bands have some use restrictions, but FCC requirements will allow a wide variety of new applications The 59-64 GHz band can transmit up to .5 Watt with little else constrained How can we use these new resources?

Berkeley Wireless Research Center

UWB and 60 GHz radios potentially extend the range of application of radio technology
1G
HDTV motion picture, Pt.-to-Pt. links UWB 60 GHz WLAN

Peak Data Rate (bps)

100 M
NTSC video; rapid file transfer MPEG video; PC file transfer 3G

802.11a

60 GHz Pt.-to-Pt.

10 M

802.11b

1M

Bluetooth

100 k 10 k

Voice, Data
UWB
Cellular

ZigBee

0.1

10

100

Carrier Frequency (GHz)

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Lets start with UWB

According to the FCC:
Ultrawideband radio systems typically employ pulse modulation where extremely narrow (short) bursts of RF energy are modulated and emitted to convey information. the emission bandwidths often exceed one gigahertz. In some cases impulse transmitters are employed where the pulses do not modulate a carrier. -- Federal Communications Commission, ET Docket 98-153, First Report and Order, Feb. 2002
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Signaling Approach
Sinusoidal, Narrowband

Time

Frequency

Impulse, Ultra-Wideband

Time

Frequency

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FCC Emissions Limit for Indoor Systems

Allowed emissions from a PC
/MHz

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Exploring a new regime of Shannons curve

Bits/sec/Hz 4

Usual goal
Bandwidth Limited

Energy Limited 3
2
1 -5db Eb/N
0

1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16

5 db

10 db

15 db

UWB

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First Major Application Area

High Speed, Inexpensive Short Range Communications (3.1-10.6 GHz)
FCC limit of -41dBm/Mhz at 10 feet severely limits range
Even using all 7.5 GHz of bandwidth the maximum power that can be transmitted is equivalent to having -2dBm (.6 mW) from an isotropic radiator (EIRP) For short range communications this may be OK e.g. line of sight from 10 feet for connecting a camcorder to a set-top box, wireless Firewire

Advantage is that it should be less expensive and lower power than a WLAN solution (since 802.11a > 100 Mbits/sec for short range)
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Sample waveforms
Transmitted Signal
4.5 4 3.5 3 0.5 2.5 2 1.5 -0.5 1 0.5 -1 0 -0.5 -1.5 980 -150 1000 1020 1040 1060 time (nanoseconds) 1080 1100 1120 -50 0 0 50 1.5

Outdoor Rcvd Clear LoS

150 1

Office Rcvd Clear LoS

100

200 ns

20 ns

20 ns

-100

800

1000

1200

1400

1600 1800 2000 time (nanoseconds)

2200

2400

2600

980

1000

1020

1040 1060 1080 time (nanoseconds)

1100

1120

4.5 4

1.5

150

1 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 -0.5 1 0.5 -1 0 -0.5 953 -1.5 994 0

100

1 ns

0.5

50

-50

-100

954

955

956

957 958 time (nanoseconds)

959

960

961

962

995

996

997

998 999 time (nanoseconds)

1000

1001

1002

1003

-150 981

982

983

984

985 986 time (nanoseconds)

987

988

989

990

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(From Bob Scholtz USC Ultralab)

High Rate UWB Communications

1 0.8 0.6 0.4

0
Biphase signalling

Magnitude (V)

0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8 -1

6 Time (nS)

10

12

Basically pulsed rate data transmission sort of optical fiber without the fiber Key design problem, as in wireline transmission, is synchronization New design problems that do not exist in wireline
Interference from other RF sources Multipath (delay spreads of 10s of ns at least)

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High Data Rate UWB

To Minimize Interference
Break 7.5 GHz into smaller bands (> 500MHz) and transmit in clear bands Filter out bands that are likely to have use (e.g. 5GHz wireless LAN bands) Directional antennas

Multipath
Equalizers (as used in SERDES), but much longer delay compensation digital? Directional antennas

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Second Major Application Area

Low Data Rate, Short Range Communications with Locationing (< 960 MHz)
Round trip time for pulse provides range information multiple range estimates provides location Used for asset tracking a sophisticated RFID tag that provides location Can be used to track people (children, firemen in buildings) Sensor networks
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Location Determination Using UWB

Transmit short discrete pulses instead of modulating code onto carrier signal
Pulses last ~1-2 ns Resolution of inches Time of flight

UWB provides
Indoor measurements Relative location Insensitivity to multipath Material penetration (0-1 GHz band)

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Material penetration
35
Concrete Block Painted 2X6 Board Clay Brick

30

Total One Way Attenuation (dB)

25

20

3/4" Plywood

15
3/4" Pine Board

10
Wet Paper Towel Glass Drywall

Asphalt Shingle Kevlar Sheet Polyethylene Paper Towel (Dry) Fiberglass Insul.

10

20

30

50

80 100

200

Frequency (GHz)

(from Bob Scholtz)

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Avoiding Interfering With Other Users

Co-existence through very low power transmission:
Operate so that aggregate Interference from UWB Transmissions is Undetectable (or Has Minimal Impact) to Narrow-Band Receivers.

What you can do with that for communications and locationing is a research question we are looking at
UWB
Thermal (kT) Noise Floor

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Interference From other Users

Everyone is an in-band interferer why isnt the UWB signal swamped? Energy in Pulse is Concentrated in Time
Amplitude

If Equate Energies, Find Ratio of Amplitudes is:

Apulse 1/2 A sin DutyCycle
Time

For a duty cycle of 1%, this implies a pulse amplitude 7x an equivalent power sinusoid. Ex: -77dBm (50W noise) per MHz over 1GHz is a 40mV pulse!
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BWRC: UWB Transceiver Chip

A single chip CMOS UWB transceiver at power levels of 1 mW/MHz for locationing and tracking applications
Flexible design for a wide range of data rates to investigate UWB transmission characteristics For low rate applications, transmission at minimum possible signal level Develop limits of locationing accuracy

Being Implemented by PhD students Ian ODonnell, Mike Chen, Stanley Wang

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Analog Circuits - Pulse Reception

Energy of Pulse is Contained in Small Time Window
Tsamp
Time

Twindow

Only Need Limited Amount of Fast Sampling Use Parallel Sampling Blocks
Have Rest of Time in Cycle to Process Samples

Do Digital Correlation for Synchronization and Detections

Minimum of Analog Blocks Run at Full Speed to Reduce Power
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Chip Architecture
Transient Capture Parallel A/Ds
A/D

Correlation, detection and synchronization

LNA

AGC

A/D

Programmable Correlators
Detector
ECC

. . .

A/D

. . .

Dout

AGC Timing & Control Synchronization

Encoder

Pulser

Oscillator

PLL
Din Crystal

1 GHz bandwidth (2 Gsample/sec A/D)

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1 Bit A/D is Adequate at Typical Interference Levels

1 GHz BW RX @ kTB Noise Floor 1-bit ADC Is Adequate (No AGC) NF Not Critical

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Specs for Baseband

PN0 PN1

Nripple <= 64 ns

Trep 10ns ~ 100ns

Pulse Repetition Rate: 100MHz to 1 MHz Maximum receivable Pulse ripple length (Nripple=Npulse+Nspread): < 64ns (128 samples) Sampling rate: 2 GHz PN spreading is ranging from 1 to 1024 chips

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RX: Digital Backend

To Analog

V[31:0]

Data Out

Acquisition: 128-Tap Matched Filter x 128 x 11 PN Phases Synchronization: Early/On-Time/Late PN Phases

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Receiving with Eb/No = -11db

PN sequence length requirement ( design max is 1024). (1) Acquisition mode, ~400 chips is enough for suppressing the acquisition error below 1e-3.
Chips Prob. of Miss lock Prob. of False alarm 300 400 0.0037 0.86e-3 0.0041 1.3e-3 EbNo @ output 14.4245 dB 15.6643 dB

(2) Data recovery mode, ~100 chips could achieve an uncoded bit error rate of 1e-3.
Chips BER 10 0.1663 100 1.1e-3 200 2e-5

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MF/Correlator Area vs. Acquisition Time

Area ~ 55 mm2

Area = 5.3 mm2

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Power Budget
Block Low Noise Amp Variable Gain Amp Sample/Hold A/D Converter Oscillator Sampling Clock Gen TX: Pulse Generation Digital Logic Duty Cycle Twin/Trep Twin/Trep 100% 100% 100% 100% 2ns/Trep 100% Total Power Per Period: Power (Always On) 600mW 1.8mW 1mW 100mW 100mW 400mW 10mW 60mW Power (Per Period) 60mW 180mW 1mW 100mW 100mW 400mW 100mW 60mW = 1001mW

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Status
Chip tape out by summer in .13 micron technology Stay tuned at

http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/UWB/

Berkeley Wireless Research Center

17 GHz of Unlicensed Bandwidth!

UWB
UWB UWB
Mm Wave Band

10 0 ID Comm

20 30 Vehicular

40

50

60 GHz Comm

The UWB bands have some use restrictions, but FCC requirements will allow a wide variety of new applications The 59-64 GHz band can transmit up to .5 Watt with little else constrained How can we use these new resources?

Berkeley Wireless Research Center

60 GHz Unlicensed Allocation (1998)

Oxygen absorption band
Space and fixed & mobile apps. Space and fixed & mobile apps.
Radar

Test

Japan
Unlicensed Pt.-to-Pt.

Wireless LAN

Prohibited Prohibited

Mobile ICBN

Europe

Wireless LAN

Unlicensed
ISM

U.S.

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

Road Info.

64

65

66

Frequency GHz
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Exploiting the Unlicensed 60 GHz Band

5 GHz of unlicensed and pretty much unregulated bandwidth is available Requires

New approaches for design of CMOS integrated circuits (distributed, transmission line based) New system architectures

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Application Scenarios
Communications Backbone Last 100 meters

Ad Hoc Video Links

XBC

Building-to-Building

60 GHz Beams

In-Building Backbone and/or LAN

Highway Applications

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Why Isnt 60 GHz in Widespread Use?

Oxygen absorbs RF energy at 60 GHz The technology to process signals at 60 GHz is very expensive The signal radiated is attenuated by the small antenna size i.e. the power transmitted at 60 Ghz from a quarter wave dipole is 20 dB less than at 5GHz.

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Oxygen attenuation
The oxygen attenuation is about 15 dB/km, so for most of the applications this is not a significant component of loss For long range outdoor links, worst case rain conditions are actually a bigger issue

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The technology to process signals at 60 GHz is very expensive

Yes, it has been expensive, but can we can do it in standard CMOS?

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CMOS modeling at microwave frequencies

Maximum unilateral gain

Current gain

fmax is the important number to look at

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Need to Model CMOS at Microwave Frequencies

ft fmax

gm 2 C gg ft 2 R g (gmC gd C gg ) (R g rch R s ) gds

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And we find that CMOS can do it!

If the device is designed correctly and enough current is used, with .13 micron fmax can easily surpass 60 GHz Phillips reported 150 GHz fmax in .18 micron technology

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However, New Kinds of CMOS Circuits are Needed

Since the device dimensions are on the order of the wavelength, distributed structures can be used Distributed techniques allow for extremely wideband linear-phase amplification approaching fmax This a new circuit style for CMOS

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60 GHz Microwave CMOS Oscillators

0.13m standard CMOS process Use coplanar waveguide inductors and capacitors Calibration structures on same chip Siemanns presented circuit in .18 micron at ISSCC 2002

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Overcome the Small Antenna Problem by Using Multiple Antenna Beamformers

a0 b0 a1 b1 Single Channel Transceiver

PA

PA

a2 b2

PA

Wavelength is 5mm, so in a few square inches a large antenna array can be implemented Antenna gain provides increased energy to receiver without extra noise and power Multiple antenna implementation may actually reduce analog requirements

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New Design Strategies: Traditional Radio vs. Microwave CMOS

DSP Baseband
Filtering, Mod, Demod, Detection
bits

RF Front-End

Digital I/O

MUX and Buffer

DSP Baseband

Analog Core RF Front-End

Filters, VGA, ADC, DAC

Analog Core
LNA, PA, Mixers, VCO, PLL

RF Front-End
RF Energy

Package Antenna Array

Operate device far away from fT to enhance gain (cell phones at 1-2 GHz, fT ~ 50 GHz) Many off-chip front-end components (filters, switches, matching networks, antenna) Clear separation between lumped circuits onchip and limited consideration of distributed effects off-chip (package and board)
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Operate close or beyond fT

Integrated front-end (antenna/filter) Many structures electrically large & distributed

RF Front-End

Analog Core

Analog Core

RF Front-End RF Front-End RF Front-End

Analog Core Analog Core Analog Core

60 GHz Radio Frequency Planning

Use 5 GHz as an IF frequency

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The open question

What is the best way to use 5 GHz of bandwidth to implement a high datarate link?
Extremely inefficient modulation but at a very high rate? (say 2 GHz of bandwidth for 1 Gigabit/sec) requires analog processing Or use an efficient modulation, so lower bandwidth. e.g. OFDM but needs digital processing and a fast A/D

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Conclusions
UWB radios provide a new way to utilize the spectrum and there is a wide variety of unique applications of this technology However, it takes a completely new kind of radio design

At the present state of technology CMOS is able to exploit the unlicensed 60 GHz band However, it will take a new design and modeling methodology

There is 17 GHz of bandwidth ready to be used for those willing to try something new!
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