Analysis and reduction of spurs in fractional N frequency synthesizers for wireless applications

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Wireless communications is a multibillion dollar international business. At the core of any wireless device is the high speed radio frequency integrated circuit which implements the radio transceiver. Radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) form some of the key enabling technologies for any wireless device from a cell phone to a wireless local area network, global positioning systems (GPS), Blackberry pagers and many more. Intense research is still ongoing at the circuit level as improvements in radios are necessary to make RFICs more compatible with digital technologies, and provide lower power operation for longer battery life and at the same time increasing radio performance in order to deliver higher data rates to the user (for example 4G wireless networks). One of the key components necessary to designing a high performance radio necessary to meet the demands of new wireless applications is the frequency synthesizer. The frequency synthesizer is responsible for generating the reference needed to translate high frequency RF signals back to lower frequencies where the data can be recovered by the digital signal processor. Skyworks has identified the frequency synthesizer as a key enabling technology going forward. They are keenly interested in new improved architectures that will enable better performance to meet the ever increasing needs of more advanced radios. Additionally they are seeking new architectures which will be more compatible with digital complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes. This grant will support research to improve existing frequency synthesizer architectures through the development of advanced models capable of accurately modeling spurious performance. Once these effects are properly understood, then new architectures will be employed to improve performance which will be experimentally verified. The proposed project will help to ensure ongoing Canadian information technology research in wireless communication providing employment for scientists and engineers.