RF ICs and RF ICs and

mm-Wave ICsmm-Wave ICs

Saurabh Sinha, PhD (Eng)Saurabh Sinha, PhD (Eng)

Microelectronics & Electronics GroupUniversity of Pretoria, South Africa

Saturday 22 April 2023

Departement Elektriese, Elektroniese & Rekenaar-IngenieursweseDepartment of Electrical, Electronic & Computer EngineeringKgoro ya Merero ya Mohlagase, Elektroniki & Bointšinere bja Khomphutha

Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics

CEFIM

Founded in 1981 after receiving a

grant fromCarl and Emily Fuchs

(1972 to 1981 Institute for

Microstructures)

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Director & Professor: Prof. Monuko du Plessis, Pr Eng (INSiAVA (Pty) ltd)

Associate Professor: Prof. Saurabh Sinha, Pr EngLecturers: Johan Schoeman

Jannes VenterJunior lecturers: Hannetjie Nell

Bongani MabuzaLindani Tshibe (part-time)

Post-Docs.: Dr Jevgēņijs Golovins (Latvia)[Vacancy]

Visiting researchers: Dr Alina Cismaru (IMT, Romania)Dr Alexandra Ştefănescu (IMT, Romania)

Researchers: Alfons Bogalecki (INSiAVA (Pty) ltd)Marius Goosen (INSiAVA (Pty) ltd)

Project manager: Gerrie Mostert (INSiAVA (Pty) ltd)

#Postgraduate students (PhD and MEng/MSc): Approx. 20

#Undergraduate project students (BEng Year IV): Approx. 20

The Microelectronics & Electronics Research Group

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Postgraduate Courses

EIN 732 Introduction to Research Prof. J.A.G. MalherbeEME 732 Analogue Electronic Design Prof. M. du PlessisEDG 780 Digital Electronic Design

Prof. S. Sinha, Mr J. Schoeman, Mr P.J. Venter

DPSS, CSIREMK 732 Communication Electronics Prof. M. du PlessisEPT 732 Research project – Theory Study leader/Student dependentERL 732 Research project – Design and laboratory Study leader/Student dependent

– EEY 890/1 Dissertation (MEng / MSc)

– EIN 990/1 Thesis (PhD (Eng) / PhD)

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Focus Areas & International Research PartnersCMOS / Si device manufacture INSiAVA (Pty) ltd Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA Others

RF, RF MEMS and mm-wave ICs IMT, Bucharest, Romania Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany University of Electronic Sciences and Technology, China Sogang University, South Korea ICE Laboratory, Georgia Tech., USA Non-linear RF Lab, Ohio State University, USA

MEMS simulation and manufacture IMTEK, University of Freiburg, Germany Others

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Peer-reviewed Research Outputs

Year BookChapter(s)

in booksJournals

(Published)Journals

(Accepted)International Conferences

Local Conferences

2005 2 4 8 42006 1 8 4 42007 8 2 122008 2 3 92009 1 3 8 10 262010 7 8

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Aspects of RF System Integration

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A [CMP] Wafer

Europractice (Belgium)MOSIS (USA)CMP (France)

AMS AMI

TSMCUMCIHPIBM

CSMCOMMIC

STIC FOUNDRIES

Prototyping○ IC Foundries

CEFIM

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RF Circuit Building Blocks

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Conservative versus Innovative Approach

• Hybrid system– 3D Structures– cm-Dimensions– Diversity of Materials– Good ac Isolation– Known good component yield– RF Ground Plane

• Integrated RF system– Planar, Quasi-2D Structures– Sub-mm Dimensions– VLSI Technology Material Set– Coupling through lossy Silicon– Integrated circuit yield– Quasi-Floating Ground

Innovative Approach

Low-loss substrateMicromachined structuresWafer-level packaging

Conservative Approach

Unaltered VLSI technologyCircuit level innovation

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System Component Statistics

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Hierarchy of RF Passives

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Discrete vs. Distributed

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Two Partition IC

Chip 1: RF SiGe HBT, IF CMOS; Chip 2 – Baseband analogue & digital (all CMOS)

High Performance Low-Power

Low Cost SiGe HBT

Analogue CMOS Digital CMOS

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Graduate Projects (2010)

Project Titles Student Course

1. A Low Phase Noise CMOS based Digital PLL Gert Veale M.Eng

2. A SiGe BiCMOS LNA for mm-Wave Applications Christo Janse van Rensburg M.Eng

3. A Temperature Stabilized High-Performance CMOS VCO for Ultra-Low Voltage Operations Johny Sebastian M.Eng

4. A Wideband Linear SiGe BiCMOS LNA for Ku-Band Receivers Marnus Weststrate M.Eng

5. A Zero IF Receiver for mm-Wave Applications Antonie Alberts M.Eng

6. Design Methods for Integrated Switching-Mode Power Amplifiers Mladen Božanić M.Eng

7. EEPROM Switches for Post-Assembly Tuning Bongani Mabuza M.Eng

8. Improving Gain Utilising Floating Shielding for Power Amplifiers at mm-Wave Frequencies Lindani Tshibe M.Eng

9. Improving Linearity Utilising Analogue Predistortion for Power Amplifiers at mm-Wave Frequencies Joe Valliarampath M.Eng

10. Modelling of transceiver propagation characteristics through an analogue SiGe BiCMOS circuit Wynand Lambrechts PhD (Eng)

11. Power Efficient High Speed Analogue-to-Digital Converter in SiGe BiCMOS Nicolaas Fauré M.Eng

12. Range and Sensitivity Improvement of Infrared Detectors Using CMOS Technology Johan Venter M.Eng

13. Reducing jitter utilising adaptive pre-emphasis FIR filter for high speed serial links Marius Goosen M.Eng

14. SiGe Based Multiple-Phase VCO Operating for mm-Wave Frequencies Deepa George PhD

15. Spurious Free Dynamic Range Enhancement of High Speed Integrated Digital to Analogue Converters Reeshen ReddyM.Eng (2011)

6 (African, Coloured, Indian)

9 Caucasian

159 (African, Coloured, Indian)

9 Caucasian

2010:

2011:

A 5 GHz VCO with 360° Variable Phase Outputs

Vector Sum

90°

VGA

VGA

+

In-phase

Quadrature

Vcontrol_I

Vcontrol_Q

+ -

+ -

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L1 L2

VDD

VTUNE

C1 C2D1 D2

T1 T2

IBIAS Cp

Lp

L1 L2

VDD

VTUNE

C1 C2D1 D2

T1 T2

IBIASCp vs

+

-

ITAIL

ICp

A 5 GHz SiGe CMOS Voltage Controlled Oscillator with Reduced Phase Noise

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Metal Layer Shunting (I)

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Metal Layer Shunting (II)

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Newer technologies (I)

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Newer technologies (II)

Minimum Line Width (m)

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Business Enterprises at University of Pretoria (Pty) Ltd (BE at UP) offers the Switch-mode Power Amplifier Design Tool and Inductance Calculator (PA Design Tool and Inductance Calculator).

As a result of a dissertation, a MATLAB script was developed, whereby the script/application can be used to design inductors for high frequency integrated circuit power amplifiers. The “PA Design Tool and Inductance Calculator” consists of two stand-alone applications: switch-mode power amplifier (PA) design tool for the design of Class-E and Class-F PAs (paprog.m); as well as an inductance calculator (indcal2.m) for the design of spiral inductors. Although the latter is meant to be used as an expansion of the former, it can also be used separately to design spiral inductors for any applications that might be needed: including DC-to-DC converters, low noise amplifiers (LNAs), etc. The tool has the ability to export complete PA design netlist in SPICE format recognised by most microelectronics design tools, including but not limited to Tanner Tools and Cadence Virtuoso. This netlist can be used in schematic generation and simulation and is therefore capable of handling complete PA design flow.

BE at UP is a company wholly owned by the University of Pretoria and provides and facilitates easy access to a multidisciplinary range of contract research and consulting expertise at the University.

For more information, please contact:Business Enterprises at University of Pretoria (Pty) Ltd (BE at UP)Ms Ilana Small Telephone: 012 420 5078/4245

E-mail: ilana.small@up.ac.za Website: www.be.up.co.za/pa-inductance-calculator

The software is a secondary outcome resulting from the dissertation of Mladen Božanić, a postgraduate student at the Carl & Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics (CEFIM), a centre of the Department of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa

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University of Pretoria○ Selected listing of funded projects (contract research)

• Grintek Ewation

– 2 Project (1-2 years)• A 5 GHz SiGe CMOS Voltage Controlled Oscillator with Reduced

Phase Noise (delivered)

• A Zero IF Receiver for mm-Wave Applications (contract awarded)

• Defence, Peace, Safety & Security (DPSS), CSIR

– Armscor (Origin: DoD)

– 5 Student Postgraduate Projects (1-2 years each)• A 5 GHz Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with 360° Variable

Phase Outputs (delivered)

• Reducing Jitter in High-Speed Serial Links (completed)

• A Linear SiGe BiCMOS LNA for Wide Band Receivers (completed)

• A SiGe BiCMOS LNA for mm-Wave Applications (in progress)

• Power Efficient High Speed Analogue-to-Digital Converter in SiGe BiCMOS (in progress)

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Feedback/questions

Prof. Saurabh Sinha, Pr Eng, SMIEEE

Carl & Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics

Dept.: Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering

University of Pretoria

Pretoria 0002

SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: +27-(12)-420-2950 / 082-777-6893

E-mail: ssinha@ieee.org

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