| Future radio transceivers are expected to deliver much higher data rates and operate at several frequencies. In 4G wireless systems, convergence of cellular and WLAN traffic for VoIP will require the radio to operate in multiple RF bands and with different modulation schemes ranging from BPSK to 64- and 256-QAM OFDM. There is also the challenge for low power even as the handheld is pushed to achieve additional performance. While CMOS technology scaling and innovations in platform based systems and Network-on-Chip (SOC and NOC) have resulted in great strides within the digital part (digital baseband/MAC), the radio part of a wireless solution remains a major bottleneck. In today's radio design environment, a fully integrated CMOS radio requires several silicon spins before it meets all product specifications and often with relatively low yields. This results in significant increase in NRE cost, especially when considering that mask set costs increase exponentially as feature size scales down. Furthermore, additional spins could lead to missing important market windows, particularly with the decreasing life cycles of semiconductor products.;In addition to the complexity of highly integrated radio transceiver, RF performance is highly susceptible to random variations in process and operating conditions. Such variations do not scale with the process. Worst-case corner simulations often lead to over-design and increased power consumption. RF models, package models and design kits are based on certain assumptions that severely limit design space exploration. All these factors prohibit first-time-right silicon.;This thesis work aims to address these issues by presenting design techniques leading to first pass success and taking advantage of the increased integration of digital, analog and RF. Through the exploitation of advances in the digital baseband, this dissertation proves that it is possible to calibrate the noise of the analog and RF front end. Through careful design and circuit feedback, it is also possible to calibrate the other important parameters in the RF front end, such as input matching, gain and linearity. |
