An active-under-coil RFDAC with analog linear interpolation in 28-nm CMOS
(2021) In IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers 68(5). p.1855-1868- Abstract
This paper demonstrates a wideband 2.4 GHz $2\times 9$ -bit Cartesian radio-frequency digital-to-analog converter (RFDAC). Active-under-coil integration is introduced in the physical implementation, where all key active circuitry is located underneath the matching-network transformer, achieving a core area of merely 0.35 mm2. An 8× analog linear interpolation at the RF rate is proposed to suppress replicas close to the carrier while avoiding any high-order and high-speed digital filters in digital processing back-end. The multi-port transformer is adopted in the matching network to improve the back-off efficiency. The measured peak output power and drain efficiency at the center frequency of 2.4 GHz are 17.47 dBm and 17.6% respectively,... (More)
This paper demonstrates a wideband 2.4 GHz $2\times 9$ -bit Cartesian radio-frequency digital-to-analog converter (RFDAC). Active-under-coil integration is introduced in the physical implementation, where all key active circuitry is located underneath the matching-network transformer, achieving a core area of merely 0.35 mm2. An 8× analog linear interpolation at the RF rate is proposed to suppress replicas close to the carrier while avoiding any high-order and high-speed digital filters in digital processing back-end. The multi-port transformer is adopted in the matching network to improve the back-off efficiency. The measured peak output power and drain efficiency at the center frequency of 2.4 GHz are 17.47 dBm and 17.6% respectively, while the peak efficiency is 19.03%. Moreover, the 6-dB back-off efficiency is at 66% of that at the peak output power. The active-under-coil integration helps this RFDAC to achieve the smallest area among comparable prior arts.
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- author
- Zhang, Feifei ; Chen, Peng LU ; Walling, Jeffrey S. ; Zhu, Anding and Staszewski, Robert Bogdan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-05
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Active-under-coil integration, Analog linear interpolation (ALI), Class-E power amplifier, Multi-port transformer, RFDAC
- in
- IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers
- volume
- 68
- issue
- 5
- article number
- 9361220
- pages
- 14 pages
- publisher
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85101778627
- ISSN
- 1549-8328
- DOI
- 10.1109/TCSI.2021.3059368
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: Manuscript received June 4, 2020; revised November 3, 2020 and January 18, 2021; accepted February 7, 2021. Date of publication February 23, 2021; date of current version April 27, 2021. This work was supported by the Microelectronic Circuits Centre Ireland (MCCI) through Enterprise Ireland under Grant TC-2015-0019. This article was recommended by Associate Editor H. Stratigopoulos. (Corresponding author: Peng Chen.) Feifei Zhang was with MCCI, Dublin D04, Ireland, and also with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin D04, Ireland. She is now with Silicon Austria Labs, 4040 Linz, Austria (e-mail: feifei.zhang@silicon-austria.com). Publisher Copyright: © 2004-2012 IEEE.
- id
- cabee699-2fcf-4534-a1a9-53e7b9020bf2
- date added to LUP
- 2023-09-29 14:14:11
- date last changed
- 2023-10-18 14:50:38
@article{cabee699-2fcf-4534-a1a9-53e7b9020bf2, abstract = {{<p>This paper demonstrates a wideband 2.4 GHz $2\times 9$ -bit Cartesian radio-frequency digital-to-analog converter (RFDAC). Active-under-coil integration is introduced in the physical implementation, where all key active circuitry is located underneath the matching-network transformer, achieving a core area of merely 0.35 mm2. An 8× analog linear interpolation at the RF rate is proposed to suppress replicas close to the carrier while avoiding any high-order and high-speed digital filters in digital processing back-end. The multi-port transformer is adopted in the matching network to improve the back-off efficiency. The measured peak output power and drain efficiency at the center frequency of 2.4 GHz are 17.47 dBm and 17.6% respectively, while the peak efficiency is 19.03%. Moreover, the 6-dB back-off efficiency is at 66% of that at the peak output power. The active-under-coil integration helps this RFDAC to achieve the smallest area among comparable prior arts.</p>}}, author = {{Zhang, Feifei and Chen, Peng and Walling, Jeffrey S. and Zhu, Anding and Staszewski, Robert Bogdan}}, issn = {{1549-8328}}, keywords = {{Active-under-coil integration; Analog linear interpolation (ALI); Class-E power amplifier; Multi-port transformer; RFDAC}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{5}}, pages = {{1855--1868}}, publisher = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}}, series = {{IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers}}, title = {{An active-under-coil RFDAC with analog linear interpolation in 28-nm CMOS}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2021.3059368}}, doi = {{10.1109/TCSI.2021.3059368}}, volume = {{68}}, year = {{2021}}, }