The course provides and introduction to the requirements of a wireless transceiver, the main characteristics of ultra-low power radio will be analyzed. The system overview will continue with the description of two of the most used standard for ultra-low power wireless communications: ZigBee and Bluetooth Low Energy. After that, a design methodology to define the main specs of the radio starting from the physical layer of these two standards will be presented. The system overview will end by analyzing the most common and promising architecture for ultra-low power receivers and transmitters.

The main building blocks of ultra-low power wireless transceiver will be discussed. Following the RX signal path, low noise amplifiers, mixer topologies and base band filters will be presented. Beside the most common approaches, particular solutions oriented to ultra-low power systems will be included such as, quadrature low noise amplifiers, self-oscillating mixer, complex/poly-phase filters. The course will continue presenting the different topology used for the power amplifier (one of the most power hungry element in the transmitter side) and will continue with the analysis of the frequency generation required to perform signal down/up conversion in the radio. Different oscillator topologies, and quadrature generation schemes will be presented. The discussion on circuits techniques will end with the analysis of the power scalability and bias sharing approaches that can be used to minimize the power consumption of the radio through a clever re-configurability and cross-interaction between the different building blocks previously discussed.

Fundamental properties of transistors and passives components at mm-wave frequencies will be discussed. A brief overview of 2-port networks is given, as well as layout optimization of MOS transistors for high-frequency operation, gain and stability. The implementation of passives such as RLC, transformers, baluns, transmission lines and slow-wave transmission lines in MOS backend metallization is discussed with various examples.

Final lecture explains the extension of integer-N PLLs to fractional-N PLLs for both fine tuning resolution and in-loop VCO modulation. It presents an overview of modulus quantization noise shaping techniques, tradeoffs associated with quantization noise shaping order and PLL loop bandwidth, non-ideal effects of particular concern in fractional-N PLLs such as charge pump nonlinearities and data-dependent multi-modulus divider delays, techniques for increasing loop bandwidth, simulation techniques, and case studies of example circuits and applications.

Outline of the attended course:

Part I: System Overview – ULP RF for IoT
1             Characteristics of Ultra-Low Power Systems
2             Introduction to Wireless RX and TX
3             In-Sight Some Ultra-Low Power Standards  
3             Transceiver Architectures, Design Considerations     

Part II: Circuit Techniques for Low-Power Wireless
1             Low-Noise Amplifiers
2             Mixers, Base-Band Filters                
3             Power Amplifiers, Frequency Generation     
4             Power Scalabitility, Bias Sharing    

mm-Wave Circuit Design in CMOS
1             Actives and Passives at mm-Wave Frequencies                        
2             Fundamental Trade-off for mm-Wave Circuits                            
3             Broadband mm-Wave Design Techniques  
4             mm-Wave PAs: Basic Trade-offs and Limits               

mm-Wave Circuit Design in CMOS
1             mm-Wave PAs: Circuits and Architectures   
2             mm-Wave PAs: Design Examples                 
3             Fractional N-PLLs for Frequency Synthesis                 

Practical Examples
1             mm-Wave Communication Links   
2             Towards THz Circuits in CMOS      
3             RF Transceiver Design – Practical Aspects