CMOS RF Circuit Design
Course 206
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Summary
The surge in demand for high performance and low cost wireless circuits has accelerated the shift to CMOS RFIC technology. As future wireless radios continue to push the available bandwidth and shift to mm-wave range, RF CMOS is expected to remain the predominant technology. This 3-day course will cover in depth the practical aspects of CMOS RF design at both the circuit and device level. The course will begin by an overview of the CMOS transistor and passives from RF perspective, analyzing key concepts in modeling and noise behavior. An overview of various RF circuit blocks highlighting design architectures and circuit implementation tradeoffs will be provided. This will include selected topics in designing low noise amplifiers (LNAs), mixers, voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) and power amplifiers (PAs). The course will provide insightful guidance in the circuit design process including transistor sizing, layout effects, parasitic reduction techniques and tradeoffs between various circuit topologies. The focus throughout this course will be on providing practical circuit design and implementation techniques utilizing numerous design examples.
Learning objectives
Upon completing the course you will be able to:
- Learn and utilize accurate RF CMOS transistor and passive models
- Understand various parasitic effects due to layout and substrate
- Arrive at an in-depth understanding of CMOS noise sources and account for them in various circuits
- Design, at the basic level, CMOS RF LNAs, mixers, VCOs and Pas
- Understand the tradeoffs in circuit architectures and how they translate to RF systems parameters
(e.g. noise figure, IIP3, phase noise, etc.)
- Design matching elements and utilize them in various circuit blocks
- Use simple back-of-the-envelope calculations to predict RF circuits’ performance
- Analyze the impact of CMOS technology scaling on various circuit blocks
Target Audience
RFIC and analog baseband design engineers, researchers and graduate students who are interested in designing CMOS RF circuits. In addition, RFIC engineers who specialize in GaAs and other III-V technologies will also find this course useful in learning how to transition to CMOS technology. Technical managers will also learn current technology limitations and future technology trends.