ECE 265A – Winter 2019

Lecture 19
Transmitter Architecture

Vincent Leung

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 1

 Outline

 Direct-conversion transmitter
o Illustration: SSB mixing & asymmetric RF spectrum
o I/Q mismatch
o Carrier leakage
o Baseband nonlinearity
o RF nonlinearity
o Oscillator pulling
• Modern direct conversion transmitter
• LO generation by mixer
 Heterodyne transmitter
o Sliding-IF transmitter
o Mixing spurs
o SSB heterodyne (“image-reject” architecture)

Ref: Razavi text: page 226-248

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 2

 Direct conversion transmitter

 RF transmitter performs modulation, up-conversion, and power

amplification. The quadrature baseband signals are given by*:
o , ; ,

 A RF narrow band signal is given by:

o
o
 Known as the direct-conversion transmitter, its operation is like
“reversing” the operation of a direct-conversion receiver.
o It directly translates the baseband spectrum to RF carrier by
“quadrature up-converter”.
(note: sum/ subtract is simply chosen
for convenience – doesn’t matter.)

* Digital bits are oversampled, pulse-

shaped in the digital domain. The _
baseband waveform is produced by a
DAC (and reconstruction filter).

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 3

 What happens? (SSB mixing)

 If , and ,


 The above quadrature up-conversion is also known as
“single sideband mixing”. Let’s look at the “1st” of its
two elements:

 This is a “double sideband mixing”. Similarly, the 2nd-term is given by:

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 4

 Illustration of SSB mixing

𝟎. 𝟓𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝟎. 𝟓𝐜𝐨𝐬

𝐜𝐨𝐬
𝜔
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝜔
0 𝝎𝒊𝒏

𝟎. 𝟓𝐜𝐨𝐬

𝜔
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝐬𝐢𝐧

𝜔
0 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝟎. 𝟓𝐜𝐨𝐬 −𝟎. 𝟓𝐜𝐨𝐬

𝜔
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 5
 Illustration of Asymmetric spectrum

 If , and ,

o
* This can be thought as a single freq component of
QPSK modulated baseband (𝛼 = ±1). The cos() and 𝟎. 𝟓𝜶𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝟎. 𝟓𝜶𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬
sin() are chosen for convenience – it would not change
the discussion.
𝜔
𝜶𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝜶𝟏 + 𝜶𝟐
𝐜𝐨𝐬
𝜔 𝜶𝟏 − 𝜶𝟐 𝟐
0 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝐜𝐨𝐬
𝟐
𝜔
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝜶𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧
𝟎. 𝟓𝜶𝟐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 −𝟎. 𝟓𝜶𝟐 𝐜𝐨𝐬
𝜔
0 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝜔
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏 6
 I/Q Mismatch  Constellation (EVM)

 I/Q mismatch in direct-conversion receivers results in “cross-talk”

between the quadrature baseband outputs.
 As studied before (in Assignment 4, Q4), the QPSK signal is given by
(where and assume values):
o
o
 The nonideal constellation points ( and ) are calculated as:

* * with cross-talk

𝜶𝟏

𝟏 + 𝝐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒄 𝒕 + 𝜟𝜽
𝒙(𝒕)

𝜶𝟐

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 7

 I/Q Mismatch  Unwanted sideband

 One can quantify the I/Q mismatch in a transmitter by studying the

“unwanted sideband”. To that end, we apply these to the baseband:
o , and ,

 With I/Q mismatch, the output is:

o
 Note that ideally ( and ), we have the “desired” sideband
o i.e., an up-converted tone
 However, with finite gain and phase mismatch, we shall decompose
into the desired and “undesired” sidebands, and compare their
powers:
𝒙𝑩𝑩,𝑰 (𝒕) = 𝑽𝒐 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕)
𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝝎)
𝟏 + 𝝐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒄 𝒕 + 𝜟𝜽
𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)
_
𝜔
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝒙𝑩𝑩,𝑸 (𝒕) = 𝑽𝒐 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕)
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 8
 I/Q Mismatch – calculation





o We will decompose the mixing components into the upper/ lower sidebands:

o We can now see that each line can be written into a component.
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 9
 I/Q Mismatch – calculation
o Now, we can see the upper and lower sidebands as follows:

o Re-grouping them, we arrive at:

 The power of the two sidebands (at ) are*:

* Note: this power calculation is a “special” (simpler) case of

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 what was presented on Lecture 18, page 6. Here, 𝜃 = 90 10
 I/Q Mismatch  Unwanted sideband

 The ratio of the power of the unwanted sideband to that of the wanted
sideband is given by:
( )
o
( )

 This is identical (except inverse) of the IRR derived for the image-reject
receiver under mismatch. We may even call the unwanted sideband the
“image” of the wanted sideband with respect to the carrier frequency.
o In practice, -30dB is sufficient to ensure acceptable constellation.

𝑽𝒐 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕) = -30dB

𝑷𝑼𝑺𝑩
𝟏 + 𝝐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒄 𝒕 + 𝜟𝜽
𝑷𝑳𝑺𝑩 -35dB
_
𝜔 -40dB
𝝎𝒄 − 𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝝎𝒄 + 𝝎𝒊𝒏
𝑽𝒐 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝎𝒊𝒏 𝒕) -45dB

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 11

 Carrier Leakage

 When DC offsets exist at the analog baseband or at the input stage of

upconversion mixer, carrier leakage can occur:
o
o
 Carrier leakage is quantified as:

o Relative carrier leakage

( )

𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝓) +

𝑽𝒐𝒔𝟏
𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)
𝑽𝒐𝒔𝟐

𝑨 𝒕 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝓) +

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 12

 Discussion on Carrier Leakage (1)
 For some standards (such as CDMA/ WCDMA), transmitter output power
must be varied across a wide range (>50dB) to avoid the “near-far” effect.
o For code-domain multiplex, mobile units (transmitters) must lower their
power as they come closer to the base-station (receiver), so that all Rx
levels are similar (within 1dB, no one unit overwhelms all other).
 To this end, Rx monitors the signal strength corresponding to each Tx, and
periodically sends a power adjustment request to each user.
o If Tx gain is controlled (lowered) by baseband circuits, carrier leakage
may dominate the Tx power. Relative carrier leakage shall be
maintained at <-20dBc to -30dBc over 74dB of gain control
Rx

Tx

Mobile
unit

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 13

ISSCC 2003 Carrier leakage suppression in direct-conversion WCDMA Tx.
 Carrier leakage suppression

 Carrier leakage mitigated by:

 Careful balanced design
 Gain distribution among baseband/RF
 I/Q baseband offset calibration

< -25dBc over 74dB gain

ISSCC 2003 Carrier leakage suppression in direct-

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 conversion WCDMA Tx. 14
 Discussion on Carrier Leakage (2)

 Carrier leakage distortions (shifts) the signal constellation. Take the QPSK
signal as an example:
o

o and

 As a result, the constellation points are shifted horizontally (by ) and

vertically (by ), degrading EVM.
o Having a large baseband signal helps reduce the EVM, circuit linearity
permitting.

𝜶 𝟏 𝑽𝒐 +

𝑽𝒐𝒔𝟏
𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)
𝑽𝒐𝒔𝟐

+
𝜶 𝟐 𝑽𝒐

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 15

 Baseband nonlinearity

 Unlike receivers, transmitter sense no “interferers”. However, excessive

nonlinearity in the baseband (port of upconversion mixers) can corrupt the
signal itself, or raise the adjacent channel power.
o

𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝓) 𝜶𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜶𝟑 𝒙𝟑

𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)

𝑨 𝒕 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝓) 𝜶𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜶𝟑 𝒙𝟑
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 16
 Discussion on baseband nonlinearity

 The term represents a threefold modulation index, thereby occupying a

larger bandwidth (e.g., for a GMSK signal)
o Recall GMSK is given by:
 For variable-envelope signals (e.g., QPSK or QAM), the may also
cause spectral regrowth.
o However, in most cases, as the baseband signal swings increase, the
PA output begins to compress before the baseband nonlinearity
manifests itself *.
𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝓) 𝜶𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜶𝟑 𝒙𝟑

𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)
* Similar to Rx, “Level diagram” is
employed to study signal amplitudes/ gain/
linearity along the transmitter chain. 𝑨 𝒕 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝓) 𝜶𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜶𝟑 𝒙𝟑

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 RF nonlinearity: “back-off”

 For variable envelope signals, Tx spectral

re-growth is the primary concern.
o In the design phase, using a one-tone
simulation, we can determine the Tx’s
1dB compression point.
o The average power of the signal should
be X dB (known as “back-off”) below
the 1dB compression point.
 Example: “The average power of 64-QAM
OFDM signal in 802.11a must remain about
8dB below P1dB of a given transmitter.
 Since the largest signal swing occurs at the
PA, a good Tx design should ensure that all
preceding stages must remain well below
compression as the PA approaches P1dB.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 18

 RF nonlinearity: 1dB compression

 Using results obtained in Lecture 9 (page 10), one can write:

o
 Assuming the compression is dominated by terms displayed above, then
the 1dB compression point is given by:

o , (recall: , )

 If , , (gain compression cancelled by expansion)

 For transmitter, it is more convenient to specify the output 1dB
compression point: (recall: , , )
o /
, ,

𝑨 𝒕 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝝓)
PA predriver PA

𝜶𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜶𝟑 𝒙𝟑 𝜷𝟏 𝒙 + 𝜷𝟑 𝒙𝟑 𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 (𝒕)

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 𝑨 𝒕 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝓) 19

 Oscillator pulling and modern Tx

 PA output (modulated signal) exhibits very large swings.

o This strong signal can couple to various parts of the system through Si
substrate, package parasitics, and traces on the PCB.
 The leaked PA signal tends to modulate the oscillator (VCO) through
“injection pulling”, causing lots of spurs on its spectrum.
 Therefore, modern direct-conversion transmitters avoid an oscillator
frequency equal to the PA output frequency.
 The most common approach is using a div-by-2 circuit – it avoids injection
pulling, and naturally produces quadrature carrier frequencies.
o LO can still be pulled by PA’s 2nd harmonics – but usually a much less
severe issue.

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 20

 Alternative LO generation method

 The previous direct-conversion transmitter architecture requires VCO and

divider to operate at 2x the carrier frequency
o For cellular system (sub-6GHz), and with moderately advanced CMOS
process, this is not a problem*.
 But for really high-freq operation, one may generate LO by “mixing”:
o “Conceptually”, we can mix with its divided version ( ).
 Unfortunately, two components will be transmitted:
o Half of the power delivered to the antenna is wasted
o Power transmitted at unwanted frequency corrupts other channels/
bands (cannot be easily filtered)

(𝜔 = 𝜔 to avoid
injection pulling) desired (𝜔 )

* The design challenge and power consumption is worth the

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 simplicity & benefits of the direct-conversion transmitter.
21
 Alternative LO generation – SSB mixing

 As discussed earlier, we can generate a “quadrature SSB LO” by

performing “two quadrature mixing”:
o Note the frequency on each nodes (ref. to the RF carrier, ):

Direct conversion Tx
cos(𝜔 𝑡) cos 𝜔 𝑡

𝝎𝟏 𝝎𝒄

𝝎𝟐
𝝎𝒄
sin(𝜔 𝑡) sin 𝜔 𝑡 𝝎𝒄
sin(𝜔 𝑡) cos 𝜔 𝑡

𝟐
• 𝝎𝟏 = 𝟑 𝝎𝒄 to avoid injection pulling

𝟏 𝟐
• 𝝎𝟐 = 𝟐 𝝎𝟏 = 𝟑 𝝎𝒄
cos(𝜔 𝑡) sin 𝜔 𝑡
• 𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝟐 = 𝝎𝒄

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 22

 Discussion

 The previous LO generation scheme has some drawbacks:

o Not easy to design quadrature-phase oscillator ( )
o Gain/ phase mismatches will create residual sideband
o Need to watch out for harmonic-related spurs:

Desired (usb) •
𝟐
𝝎𝟏 = 𝟑 𝝎𝒄
unwanted (lsb) HD3 of 𝜔 𝟏 𝟐
HD3 of 𝜔 • 𝝎𝟐 = 𝝎𝟏 = 𝝎𝒄
𝟐 𝟑

• 𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝟐 = 𝝎𝒄
Not drawn to scale

 One may attempt different divider ratio (e.g., 1/4), and obtain different spur
profiles (and different trade-offs):
Desired (usb) •
𝟒
𝝎𝟏 = 𝟓 𝝎𝒄
Unwanted
(lsb) HD3 of 𝜔 𝟏 𝟏
HD3 of 𝜔 • 𝝎𝟐 = 𝟒 𝝎𝟏 = 𝟓 𝝎𝒄

• 𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝟐 = 𝝎𝒄
Not drawn to scale

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 23

 Heterodyne transmitter

 To avoid injection pulling, instead of “generating LO in 2-steps”, we can

perform “upconversion in 2-steps”  Heterodyne Transmitter
o This is the “dual” of the heterodyne Rx (in reverse)
o Quadrature baseband signals are up-converted to IF ( )
o The IF signal will be further up-converted to RF by (
o A bandpass (image-reject) filter will be needed to remove the
undesired sideband at

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 24

 Sliding-IF Tx

 Similar to its heterodyne Rx counterpart, we can generate the first LO by

dividing from a single oscillator (thus one synthesizer)
o The quadrature LO is naturally created by the divider
o Intermediate frequency ( ) “slides” as the channel moves ( )
 Carrier leakage
o The leakage at (by 1st mixer) needs to be tightly controlled
o The leakage at (by 2nd mixer) can be suppressed by the BPF – and
it would not impact the constellation and power control (since it is out-
of-channel, or likely out-of-band.)

* Note that here, 𝜔 is defined differently

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 from the previous page. 25
 Mixing spurs (1 of 2)

 Mixing spurs are created by:

 Harmonics of 1st LO
( , ,…)

 Harmonics of 2nd LO
( , ,…)

Harmonics of 1st LO

 The harmonics of 1st LO create IF

signal replica
 They roll off at 1/3, 1/5 ratio
Harmonics of 1st LO mix with 𝜔
 These replica are translated up
and down (by ), and the two
components at
superimpose.
 All other spurs at RF ( ,
) must be sufficiently
suppressed by the BPF.
𝟓𝝎𝟏
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 𝟐
− 𝝎𝟏 26
 Mixing spurs (2 of 2)

 Mixing spurs are created by:

 Harmonics of 1st LO
( , ,…)

 Harmonics of 2nd LO
( , ,…)

Harmonics of 1st LO
 The harmonics of 2nd LO mix with
the IF spectrum
 IF spectrum at is up-
converted by to
 IF spectrum at is up-
converted by to , etc.,
Harmonics of 2nd LO
mix with the IF spectrum  The wanted RF spectrum is
corrupted.
 Some IF filtering is necessary to
suppress the unwanted
sideband
© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 27
 Heterodyne Tx with double SSB mixers

 This arrangement can reject the lower sideband at

 As shown, only the upper sideband remain (image is rejected!)

𝜔 𝑡
cos(𝜔 𝑡/2) cos( + 𝜃)
2
sin(𝜔 𝑡/2)
cos(𝜔 𝑡)

−sin(𝜔 𝑡)
3𝜔 𝑡
cos( + 𝜃)
cos(𝜔 𝑡/2) 2

𝜔 𝑡
sin(𝜔 𝑡/2) sin( + 𝜃)
2

© Leung, ECE265A Winter 2019 28