Methodologies and Tools for the Design and Optimization of Multi-Standard Radio Receivers

One of the main challenges posed by 4G wireless communication systems is achieving flexible, programmable multi-standard radio transceivers with maximum hardware share amongst different standards at a minimum power consumption. Evaluating the feasibility and performance of different multi-standard/multi-band radio solutions at an early stage, i.e. system level, is key for succeeding in surmounting this challenge. This entails formulation of the transceiver budget for several RF architectures and frequency plans with different degrees of hardware sharing. This task is complicated by the fact that transceiver blocks can have different implementations that lead to different performances. The tools that are available for use at present have only analysis capabilities or address only one standard and/or receiver architecture at a time. In the belief that a new approach to this problem is necessary, the work that has led to this thesis proposes a novel methodology that automates the design-space exploration of integrated multi-standard wireless radio receivers. This methodology has been implemented in a multi-standard RF Transceiver Architecture Comparison Tool, TACT. TACT helps surmounting many of the challenges faced by RF system designers targeting multi-standard/multi-band radio receivers. The goal of the algorithms TACT is built upon is to find a multi-standard receiver frequency plan and budget that meets or exceeds the specifications of the addressed wireless standards while keeping the requirements of each of the receiver blocks as relaxed as possible. TACT offers RF engineers a deep insight into the receiver behavior at a very early stage of the design flow. It models the impact of critical circuit non-idealities using a high level of abstraction. This reduces the number of design iterations and, thus, the time-to-market of the solution. The reuse of already available intellectual property (IP) blocks is also considered in TACT, what can result in a significant cost reduction of the receiver implementation. A combination of a behavioural-based cooperative multi-agent optimization and deterministic techniques is proposed. The capabilities of the proposed techniques and developed tool are illustrated through case studies addressing different design challenges the design of multi-standard receivers present. The last part of this thesis is devoted to one of the key blocks of any communications receiver: the analog-to-digital converter. This work focuses on modeling and design methodologies for continuous-time ∆Σ modulators. A method to evaluate the stability margin of continuous-time ∆Σ modulators as a function of the timing uncertainty effects is proposed. List of Publications [1] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, Mohammed Ismail, and Hannu Tenhunen. TACT: A Multi-standard RF Transceiver Architecture Comparison Tool. In IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), volume 1, pages 659–662, August 2005. [2] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. A Frequency Plan Evaluation Tool for Multi-standard Wireless Transceivers. In Proc. IEEE Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), pages 473–476, June 2006. [3] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. Automated Receiver Design and optimization for 4G Wireless Communication Systems. In Proc. IEEE International Behavioral Modeling and Simulation Conference (BMAS), pages 132–137, September 2006. [4] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. Radio Design in Nanometer Technologies, chapter Receiver Design for MultiStandard Wireless Communications, pages 145–171. Springer, 2006. [5] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. Tackling 4G Challenges with "TACT" Design and Optimization of 4G Radio Receivers with a Transceiver Architecture Comparison Tool (TACT). IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, 22(6):16–23, November/December 2006. [6] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. Automated Design of a WCDMA/WLAN Multi-standard Receiver. In IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems (ICECS), pages 1320–1323, December 2006. [7] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, Wangren Xu, and Mohammed Ismail. TACT as a Learning Tool for Radio Design. In IEEE International Conference on Microelectronic Systems Education (MSE’07), pages 71–72, June 2007. [8] Delia Rodríguez de Llera González, Ana Rusu, and Mohammed Ismail. EDA for RF and Analog Front-ends in the 4G Era: Challenges and Solutions .