EECS 142

Lecture 1: Communication Circuits

Prof. Ali M. Niknejad
University of California, Berkeley
c 2005 by Ali M. Niknejad
Copyright

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 1/19

p. 1

Block Diagram of Communication System

music, voice, video,
data, bits + compression
+ coding

Information
Source

mixer, PLL, VCO

driver, VCO,
power amplifier

Modulator

Transmitter

Channel
Information
Sink
video display, speakers,
couch potato, web browser
(detect+decode + decompress)

Demodulator

Receiver

free-space
fiber
ocean
your house
cables
power line
twisted pair
transmission line
trace on PCB...

low-noise amplifier (LNA)

mixer
VGA
VCO + PLL

A typical communication system can be partitioned into a transmitter, a channel,

and a receiver.

In this course we will study the circuits that interface from the channel to the
receiver/transmitter. These circuits are at the front-end of the transceiver and
operate at high frequency.

The baseband circuits are responsible for encoding, compression, modulation,

demodulation, and detection. These circuits are typically implemented in digital
form.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 2/19

p. 2

A Cell Phone

EECS 117

Software

RADIO

Microprocessor

EECS 142

EECS 150

VCO

DAC

PA

EECS 140,142

Digital
Signal
Processor
(DSP)
DAC

LNA

CMOS
Imaging

DAC

ADC

EECS 123, 141

LCD

EECS 105, 130,143

Video Amp

Audio Amp

EECS 105, 140

ENTIRE SYSTEM: EECS 120, 126, 121

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 3/19

p. 3

Non-Linear and Time Varying Circuits

EECS 142 pre-requisites: EECS 105, 120, 140. EECS 126 (226) is optional but it
gives you insight into the mathematical details of noisy signals.

From 140 you should review feedback amplifiers and frequency response. From
EECS 120 you should review linear system theory, Fourier series and transforms.

In 142 we build on EECS 140 to build wideband, tuned, linear, and high dynamic
range amplifiers. Well spend a great deal of time analyzing the frequency
performance, the noise, and the linearity of the amplifier.

Much of this course is fundamentally about non-linear and time-varying circuits.

While in some circuits well strive to eliminate sources of non-linearity (amplifiers),
in other circuits well embrace the non-linearity (oscillators, mixers).

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 4/19

p. 4

Zoom in on Receiver

90

IF
LNA
BAND
SELECT

ADC

ADC

ANTIALIAS

VGA
IMAGE
REJECT

3 LO Tripler

LO

This is a generic super-heterodyne receiver. There are several important active

and passive blocks in this system. Passive blocks include switches, filters, and
resonators. Active building blocks include:

LNA: Low noise amplifier

LO: Local Oscillator
VGA: Variable Gain Amplifier (or PGA for programmable gain amplifier)
ADC: Analog to Digital Converter
DSP: Digital Signal Processor

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 5/19

p. 5

The Spectrum Seen by a Receiver

channel
interference
signal
noise

Note that the desired signal is often much weaker than other signals. In addition to
out of band interfering signals, which can be easily filtered out, we also must
contend with strong in-band interferers. These nearby signals are often other
channels in the spectrum, or other users of the spectrum.

The dynamic range of a wireless signal is VERY large, on the order of 80 dB. The
signal strength varies a great deal as the user moves closer or further from a
base-station (access point).

Due to multi-path propagation and shadowing, the signal strength varies in a time
varying fashion.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 6/19

p. 6

Dont Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater!

Strong

Nearby

Interfe
rer

Mixer

Mixer

LNA

PA

IF/AGC

IF/AGC

ign
al

LLP

PLL

PLL

VCO

LC Tank

LC Tank

RF Synth

er

PA

De
s ir

ed

Di

sta
nt
W
ea
kS

RF Synth

VCO

Sy
nt

LC

Ta
n

RF

IF

/A

V
CO

L
PL

ix

PL
L

Interference often appears in a near-far situation shown above. The receiver is far
away from the base-station and so it must detect a weak signal. Unfortunately, a
nearby transmitter is blasting away producing a strong blocker signal.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 7/19

p. 7

Goal of a Communication System: Amplification

The power in communication systems is often measured in the dBm scale, or the
log power measured relative to a 1 mW reference. E.g. a power level of 10 mW
can be expressed as 10 dBm
10 log

 10 mW 
1 mW

= 10 dBm

On your laptop or cellular phone, you can often see the signal strength expressed
in dBm units.

Amplification of weak signals is a major goal of a communication system.

Amplification is not easy since the signals are often only marginally larger than the
intrinsic noise. Additionally, high gain for the interference signals can easily rail
our amplifiers unless we carefully filter them out.

Say your WLAN on your laptop is receiving a signal with strength 70 dBm. This
corresponds to a power of P = 1010 W = 100 pW. The voltage on the antenna
can be approximated by
V2
P =
2Z0

where Z0 = 50, the antenna impedance. Solving for V

A. M. Niknejad

V =

2Z0 P =

2 50 1010 = 104 V = 100 V

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 8/19

p. 8

Goals: Filtering

A cell phone can work with even smaller signals. For instance for P = 100 dBm,
or P = 1013 W, we have
V =

100

1013

= 10 106 3 V

This is indeed a tiny signal. We need a voltage gain of about 105 to bring this
signal into the range for baseband processing.

Now imagine an interference signal of strength 40 dBm, or about 3 mV. This

may seem like a small signal, but it effectively limits the gain of our system to about
1000. Unless we employ a very high resolution ADC (expensive, bulky, power
hungry), we must filter out this interference.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 9/19

p. 9

Goals: Frequency Translation

RF

IF
LO

Frequency translation is a non-linear or time-varying operation. An LTI system

cannot do this!

The received signal can be represented in the following form

Vr = A(t) cos (c t + (t))

The frequency c is the carrier frequency since the modulation rides on top of
this signal. The term A(t) represents the amplitude modulation, or AM. The term
(t) is the phase modulation (PM). Frequency modulation, or FM, can also be
achieved through (t)

A cos(c t +

m(t)dt)
0

where m(t) is the normalized modulation waveform and is the maximum

frequency deviation.

E.g. in broadcast television we use AM for the video and FM for audio. A digital
modulation scheme may involve AM, FM, PM, or some combination.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 10/19

p.

Carrier Frequency

How is the RF carrier chosen? Often its a legal requirement (FCC in the U.S.),
since the spectrum is a shared resource. Other considerations include propagation
characteristics and antenna size. The Eiffel Tower is used as a radio transmitter!

Finally, the bandwidth of the modulating signal is an important characteristic. Most

information sources are baseband in nature, where we arbitrarily define the
bandwidth BW as the highest frequency of interest. This usually means that
beyond the BW the integrated energy is negligible compared to the energy in the
bandwidth.

The bandwidth of some common signals:

High fidelity audio: 20 kHz

Uncompressed video: 10 MHz
802.11 b/g WLAN: 22 MHz

Some common carrier frequencies

A. M. Niknejad

100 MHz, FM radio

600 MHz, UHF television
900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, cellular band
2.4 GHz, 5.5 GHz WLAN
3-10 GHz, proposed ultra-wideband (wireless USB)

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EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 11/19

p.

Frequency Synthesis
VCO

fref

PFD

LPF

fout

Since carrier frequencies are used for RF modulation, a transmitter and receiver
need to synthesize a precise and stable reference frequency. Since the reference
frequency changes based on which channel is employed, the synthesizer must
be tunable. Think of the tuning knob on an FM receiver.

The reference signal is generated by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and

locked to a much more stable reference signal, usually provided by a precision
quartz crystal resonator.

A phase-locked loop (PLL) synthesizer is a feedback system employed to provide

the locking and tuning. It employs a frequency divider, a phase/frequency detector,
and filtering to achieve this goal.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 12/19

p.

Zoom in on Transmitter

PLL
VCO

RF Synthesizer

PA

DAC

VGA

900 MHz

SSB Filter

10 MHz IF

This is a generic heterodyne transmitter. In addition to passive filters and switches,

we have the following important active building blocks include:

DAC: Digital to Analog Converter

Mixer: Up-conversion mixer
VGA: To select desired output power
Frequency Synthesizer: Synthesize carrier frequency
PA: Power Amplifier

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 13/19

p.

Transmitter Spectrum
S()

fund
SF DR

spur

SN R

distortion

The transmitter must amplify the modulated signal and deliver it to the antenna (or
cable, fiber, etc) for transmission over the communication medium.

Generating sufficient power in an efficient manner for transmission is a challenging

task and requires a carefully designed power amplifier. Even the best RF power
amplifiers do this with only about 60% efficiency.

The transmitted spectrum is also corrupted by phase noise and distortion.

Distortion products generated by the amplifier often set the spurious free dynamic
range.

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 14/19

p.

Topics: High Speed and Wideband Amplifiers

Review of frequency response (140)

Gain bandwidth product
Feedback amplifiers
Applications:

Instrumentation
IF gain stages
Ultra-wideband receiver

Tuned amplifiers and matching networks

Fiber optic front-end

Review of RLC networks and resonance

Tuned amplifiers
L-matching networks
/T and multi-section L matching networks
Capacitive and inductor transformers
Magnetic transformers
Optimal amplifier design (maximum gain, stability, matching)

Technology: CMOS and BJT, SiGe HBT, (MESFET, JFET)

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 15/19

p.

Topics: Noise in Electronic Amplifiers

Source of noise
Input/output referred noise
Noise figure of an amplifier
Low noise amplifier design (LNA)
Noise figure of a cascade of amplifiers
Applications:

LNA for receiver

Instrumentation
IF amplifiers

Technology: BJT, HBT, CMOS, SOI, MESFET, JFET

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 16/19

p.

Topics: Distortion in Amplifiers

Source of distortion in electronic circuits

Device characteristics and large signal models
Distortion reduction techniques
Measurement of distortion (harmonic, inter-modulation, cross-modulation)
Effect of feedback on distortion

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 17/19

p.

Topics: Mixers and Oscillators

Mixers:
Frequency translation/conversion

Voltage-switching mixers
Current commutating mixers
Conversion gain, terminal impedances

Oscillators:
Analysis and design

A. M. Niknejad

Amplitude and frequency stability

Concept of negative resistance
Waveform distortion
Oscillator topologies (Colpitts, Hartley, Clapp, Cross-coupled,...)

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EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 18/19

p.

Topics: Power Amplifiers

Different classes of operation (Class A, B, C ...)

Switching mode Class D
Power gain , efficiency
Linearity, device stress

A. M. Niknejad

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 142 Lecture 1 p. 19/19

p.