RF Transceiver (Smartphone Architecture) Part 1

Course 285

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Summary

Corporate Exclusive Course - Part 1 of 2

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With an explosion of wireless mobile devices and services, Wireless system designers have been facing the continuously increasing demand for high data rates and mobility required by new wireless applications and therefore have started research on fifth generation wireless systems that are expected to be deployed 2020. Future challenges facing these potential technologies are the significant increase in the complexity of RF cellular handset communication systems that use massive MIMO and cognitive radio networks.

This course is intended for engineers wanting to learn about the fundamentals of handset RF architectures, including aspects of the radio design covering the entire signal chain from the RF input (High performance passive/active circuits for RF/mm-wave front-ends) to the A/D Digital interface. The aim is understanding system design methods to dissect the different radio architectures with emphasis on the physical layer (RF) for the most advanced commercial LTE and the new MIMO-5G systems.

Learning objectives

Upon completing the course you will be able to:

  • Gain in-depth understanding of the trade-offs between Digital Modulation Techniques and RF Performance and how this relates to system level performance metrics (e.g. C/No, BER, BLER, RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ)
  • Interpret key customer requirement specs (CRS) such as Noise figure (NF), Sensitivity, Spurious free Dynamic range, P1dB - IM2 - IP2 - IM3 - IP3 - Cascaded IIP3, Power Added Efficiency (PAE), Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR), Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), EVM, AM-AM/AM-PM
  • Understand the trade-offs between block-level performance, choice of radio architectures and overall system performance (e.g. power, area and cost) in relation to a given communication standard
  • Appreciate the improved performance offered by MIMO techniques, advanced RF front ends and Smart Antenna Solutions.
  • Understand architecture trade-offs for Active/Passive circuits for RF/mm-wave front-ends

Target Audience

RF and baseband IC engineers, system architects, test and product engineers. Technical managers who would like to get exposure to RF smartphone technology.

Outline

Day 1

Cellular Architecture Evolution
 • The 1G to 5G Evolution • Performance comparisons • Architectures differences • Key technologies for wireless networks • Advantages and disadvantages of high frequency networks for high speed data transmissions
Key Digital System Requirements for RF Handsets
 • Why digital • Defining performance standards • Bit Error Rate (BER) Block Error Rate (BLER), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) • Data rates, symbol rates, Eb/No and C/N ratios Vs Proportional Fairness scheduling • Trade-offs between Digital modulation techniques and RF performance
Key RF System Requirements for RF Handsets
 • Noise figure (NF) • Minimum Detectable Signal (MDS)/Sensitivity • Spurious Free Dynamic Range • Intermodulation distortion • Calculations: P1dB-IIP2-IM3-IIP3 • Phase noise • RMS phase error and EVM • Impact of RMS phase error on BER • Desense/Blockers
Modulation Techniques
 • QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM • FFT/iFFT, FDMA, OFDMA • BER performance and mathematical representations
Tx- Transmitter Performance Parameters
 • Linear Vs non-Linear • Classification • Analysis Power Added Efficiency (PAE) • Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR) • Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) • Static and Dynamic EVM • Optimizing IP3 and ACPR • Out of Band Noise (OOB) • Load Line Analysis