CMOS Data Converters for Closed-Loop mmWave Transmitters
Licentiate thesis, 2020

With the increased amount of data consumed in mobile communication systems, new solutions for the infrastructure are needed. Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) is seen as a key enabler for providing this increased capacity. With the use of a large number of transmitters, the cost of each transmitter must be low. Closed-loop transmitters, featuring high-speed data converters is a promising option for achieving this reduced unit cost.

In this thesis, both digital-to-analog (D/A) and analog-to-digital (A/D) converters suitable for wideband operation in millimeter wave (mmWave) massive MIMO transmitters are demonstrated. A 2×6 bit radio frequency digital-to-analog converter (RF-DAC)-based in-phase quadrature (IQ) modulator is demonstrated as a compact building block, that to a large extent realizes the transmit path in a closed-loop mmWave transmitter. The evaluation of an successive-approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is also presented in this thesis. Methods for connecting simulated and measured performance has been studied in order to achieve a better understanding about the alternating comparator topology.

These contributions show great potential for enabling closed-loop mmWave transmitters for massive MIMO transmitter realizations.

CMOS

SAR ADC

IQ-modulator

Data converter

mmWave

RF-DAC

Opponent: Assoc. Prof. Jacob Wikner, Department of Electrical Engineering (ISY), Linköping University, Sweden

Author

Victor Åberg

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Computer Engineering (Chalmers)

Design Considerations and Evaluation of a High-Speed SAR ADC

2018 IEEE Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NORCAS): NORCHIP and International Symposium of System-on-Chip (SoC),;(2018)

Paper in proceeding

Åberg, V., Fager, C., Svensson, L., A 2x6b 8GS/s 17-24GHz I/Q RF-DAC Transmitter in 22nm FDSOI CMOS

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Infrastructure

Kollberg Laboratory

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Embedded Systems

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Technical report L - Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University: 212L

Publisher

Chalmers

Online

Opponent: Assoc. Prof. Jacob Wikner, Department of Electrical Engineering (ISY), Linköping University, Sweden

More information

Latest update

5/19/2020