INTERMODULATION

Third Intercept Point:

Measure of Intermodulation,
using a two-tone test.
Equating the fundamental and
IM amplitudes:

3<*3^/ZP3
4

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 INTERMODULATION

Example: A Bluetooth receiver employs a LNA having a voltage

gain of 10 and an input impedance of 50 Q. The LNA senses a
desired signal level of -80 dBm at 2.41 GHz and two interferers of
equal levels at 2.42 GHz and 2.43 GHz. The LNA drives a 50 O
load.

a)' Determine the value of cr that

3
yields7 a P. of -30in,ldB
dBm.
b) If each interferer is 10 dB below P determine the
corruption experienced by the desired signal at the LNA output. IJ
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 INTERMODULATION

Exercise: A LNA senses a -92 dBm desired signal at 3.65 GHz and
two -32 dBm interferers at 3.64 GHz and 3.63 GHz. Determine the
value of P (in dBm) required if the amplitude (voltage) of the IM
products must remain 15 dB below the signal. Assume matching
at 50 Q at all ports.

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 INTERMODULATION

Homework: How is it possible to describe the nonlinearity of a

system consists of a cascaded nonlinear stages?

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 FURTHER READINGS
• Behzad Razavi, RF Microelectronics, Book Slides.
Chapter 2: Basic Concepts in RF.
• Michael Steer, Fundamentals of Microwave and RF Design. Volume 4: Modules
Chapter 4: Noise, Distortion and Dynamic Range
Rohde & Schwarz, dB or not dB, Application Note. Available in Classroom.
ElectronicDesign, What's The Difference Between The Third-Order Intercept
And The 1-dB Compression Points?
https://www.electronicdesign.com/resources/whats-the-difference-between/
article/21799714/whats-the-difference-between-the-thirdorder-intercept-and
-the-ldb-compression-points

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RF TRANSCEIVERS

£
TRANSCEIVER STRUCTURE

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 TRANSCEIVER STRUCTURE

IMAGE IF
FILTER MIXER FILTER

LPF PA MIXER AGC LPF

 TRANSCEIVER STRUCTURE

A Transceiver (Transmitter + Receiver) is one of the key parts in a

mobile telecommunications terminal. The Receiver transforms
the signals coming from the antenna into signals which can then
be converted into the digital domain. The Transmitter converts
the analog version of the digital data stream at baseband into a
signal at radio frequencies, and delivers this signal to the antenna
with a certain amount of power.

£
 TRANSCEIVER STRUCTURE

Band-Pass
Alternate
Filter
Adjacent 1 / AdJacent
Response
Channel Channel
Low Noise
Desired Amplifier
Channel

Channels

(a)

Transmitter: Must employ Receiver: Must be able to process

narrowband modulation and the desired channel rejecting strong
amplification to avoid leakage to in-band and out-band interferers.
adjacent channels.
Source: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/brweb/teaching.html
 RECEIVER

Main function of a Receiver: Detection and demodulation of a

wanted signal in the presence of undesired interferers and noise.
Three basic steps: Filtering, Amplification and Demodulation.
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RECEIVER

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 FILTERING

Channel and Band Selection: Select the entire receive band and reject
out-of-band interferers. Channel selection performed in additional
steps, after frequency down-conversion

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 AMPLIFICATION

\/ ^ww\ ^A/IM
BPF
> LNA *

Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA): First block in most RF receivers. Amplify

a very low-power signal while introducing a minimum amount of
noise to the signal. Amplification obtained with an active device (BJT,
FET). Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION

Translation of the desired RF

channel to a much lower center RF Mixer
Input /y\
IF
frequency to achieve channel o
Output
selection filtering with a COjn (0 I
40COS(D|_of
reasonable Q. Translation
Local
performed by a mixer, acting as a Oscillator

simple analog multiplier.

Source: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/brweb/teaching.html

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION

Ideally, the mixer multiplies the

incoming Radio Frequency (RF)
input signal with an accurate
IF
frequency generated by an internal Output

Local Oscillator (LO). The LO is

tuned so that the output frequency
of the mixer, the Intermediate
Frequency (IF) signal is always the
same.

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION

RF - Radio Frequency
Frequency translation performed by the mixer
LO - Local Oscillator Frequency
(multiplication of cuDCand
nr
w.J LU
IF - Intermediate Frequency

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
SINE
ID=A4 MIXER_B2
FRQ=1 GHz ID-A1
AMPL=0.01 MODE=SUM
PHS=0Deg GCONV--10dB
AWR ■CTRFRQ= NF-10dB LOAD
SMPFRQ= ID=S1
Design NOISE=Auto

Environment
Version 22.1 ___

SINE
ID=A2
FRQ=1.1 GHz
AMPL=0.1
PHS=0 Deg
CTRFRQ=
SMPFRQ=

AWR Simulation of a Mixer

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

RF Input Port of Mixer:

Leakage signal of LO (1.1
GHz) appears in RF port,
Frequency (GHz)
combining with RF signal. Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Output Port of Mixer (IF):

Components produced by
combination of RF and LO
leakage. Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Frequency (GHz)
Fundamentals Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 2.8 3.2

Frequency (GHz)
Sum and Difference Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Frequency (GHz)
3rd and 4th order IM Products. Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Time

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Time Domain:
Low and High frequency
components. Por una
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
SINE
ID=A4 MIXER.B2 LPFB
FRQ=1 GHz ID-A1 ID=F1
AMPL=0.01 MODE=SUM LOSS=0dB

AWR PHS=0 Deg

CTRFRQ=
GCONV=-10dB
NF-10dB
N=3
FP=0.2 GHz LOAD
Design SMPFRQ= NOISE=Auto NOISE=Auto ID=S1

Environment
Version 22.1 ___

SINE
ID=A2
FRQ=1.1 GHz
AMPL=0.1
PHS=0 Deg
CTRFRQ=
SMPFRQ=

Mixer + Behavioral LPF

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Spectrum

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Mixer + LPF
0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 4 2.8 3.2
Attenuated out-of-band Frequency (GHz)

components. Por una

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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION
Time

AWR
Design
Environment
Version 22.1 ___

Mixer + LPF - Time Domain

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FREQUENCY CONVERSION

Down-Conversion
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 FREQUENCY CONVERSION

RF a IF
Input Output

Local
Oscillator

- C0|_0 0 + COLO

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 IMAGE FREQUENCY

Image (interferer) and RF equally spaced of LO.

Down-conversion of both Image and RF fall on IF.
Image frequency power can be much higher than of the desired signal.
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 IMAGE FREQUENCY

Desired
Signal

®in Wim (0
A
W|F W|F COSCOLOt

C0Lo
If one interferer signal (image) happens to fall at cu = 2oo
it corrupts the desired signal after downconversion.
Source: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/brweb/teaching.html

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 IMAGE REJECTION FILTER

Image Reject
, Filter

2C0|F

For suppressing the unwanted image frequency, precede the

mixer with an image-reject filter, that attenuates the amplitude
of the image.

Source: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/brweb/teaching.html

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 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

LNA bpf2 MIXi bpf3 MIX2 bpf4 AMP

Input: RF Hetero: Different, Dyne: To mix

Output: IF2 Dual Down-Conversion: Signal received by the antenna,
N Stages of Frequency filtered by a BPF^ amplified by a LNA and converted down
Conversion
to IF and IF by two mixers fed by LO and LO .
N Stages of Filtering
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 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

LOt@ LO2Q)

Blue: RF desired signal. Gray: Interference signals

Purple: Image signal.

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 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

BPFl acts as a broadband selection filter. Signals outside this

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 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

»)

BPF1 acts as a broadband selection filter. Signals outside this

band will be removed (Image signal inside the band!).

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 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

»)

BPF (a more selective filter before MIX ) effectively removes

the Image signal of MIX . Also known as Image Reject Filter.

£
 HETERODYNE RECEIVER

»)

BPF (a more selective filter before MIX ) effectively removes

the Image signal of MIX . Also known as Image Reject Filter.