Area-Efficient Low-Power Radio Frequency and Millimeter Wave CMOS Integrated Circuits

面积高效的低功耗射频和毫米波 CMOS 集成电路

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-06048
• 负责人: Moez, Kambiz
• 金额: $ 2.26万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=708304
• 关键词: Area; Efficient; Low; Power; Radio

Area-Efficient Low-Power Radio Frequency and Millimeter Wave CMOS Integrated Circuits In the last two decades, the implementation of radio frequency (RF) building blocks of wireless transceivers along with the rest of systems on a single Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) silicon chip has enabled the low-cost integration of several wireless platforms in today's portable electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, wireless sensors, and many others. However, the RF part of the system typically occupies a significant portion of silicon chip area because of the necessity to use on-chip passive components particularly on-chip spiral inductors. In addition, RF circuits usually consume a significant portion of total chip power. Growing consumer demand for increased functionality at reduced cost and extended battery life necessitates greater research efforts on design and implementation of area-efficient low-power radio frequency and millimeter-wave (MMW) CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) and systems to lower microchip fabrication cost and reduce power consumption. The long-term objective of the proposed research is to develop new device, circuit, and system structures to enable economical CMOS-based solutions for widespread adoption of radio-frequency and mm-wave devices in mainstream consumer electronic products. To lower the cost of RF and MMW ICs, we plan to develop highly-linear low-noise transistor-based passive components (TBPCs) to replace their area-inefficient passive counterparts in major RF building blocks. These TBPCs such as active inductors emulate the electrical behavior of their passive counterparts only occupying a fraction of the chip area of their passive counterparts. Using the same concept, we plan develop new passive devices such as negative capacitors and inductors for which no passive alternatives exist in order to enhance the performance of RF/MMW circuits and systems. The TBPCs such as negative resistors and capacitors can potentially compensate for the losses and cancel the effect of parasitic capacitors of RF/MMW circuits resulting in gain enhancement, bandwidth extension, and lower power consumption. In order to extend the battery life of portable wireless devices, we plan to work on lowering the power consumption of RF/MMW circuits through development of RF circuits in the moderate inversion region where the ratio of transistor gain to the power consumption is the highest. In addition, fully integrated RF energy harvesting systems will be used to charge the device battery on the go to further extend the battery life of portable electronic devices. Finally, to enable new MMW wireless technologies become commercially available in mainstream electronic products, we aim to design and implement MMW integrated circuits in low-cost CMOS process. In this project, novel structures of RF/MMW devices, circuits, and systems will be developed for variety of applications including high-data-rate wireless communication, wireless sensors, biomedical imaging, security, and many others. As implemented in CMOS technology, these new devices lower the cost and reduce the size of final product making them economically feasible for mainstream consumers. We expect to create new knowledge in the field as the proposed devices will be developed to outperform the previously reported designs in terms performance, area efficiency, and power efficiency and consumption. This new knowledge can be commercialized by start-up companies or through licensing to established corporations and will be disseminated in respected publications to advance the research in the field. In addition, several graduate students will be trained throughout this project as integrated circuits and systems designers.

面积有效的低功耗射频和毫米波CMOS集成电路 在过去二十年中，无线收发器的射频（RF）构建块沿着系统的其余部分在单个互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）硅芯片上的实现已经使得能够在当今的便携式电子设备（诸如智能电话、平板电脑、无线传感器和许多其他设备）中低成本地集成若干无线平台。然而，由于必须使用片上无源元件，特别是片上螺旋电感器，系统的RF部分通常占据硅芯片面积的很大一部分。此外，RF电路通常消耗总芯片功率的很大一部分。消费者对以降低的成本和延长的电池寿命增加功能的需求不断增长，需要对面积高效的低功率射频和毫米波（MMW）CMOS集成电路（IC）和系统的设计和实现进行更大的研究工作，以降低微芯片制造成本并降低功耗。拟议研究的长期目标是开发新的器件、电路和系统结构，以实现经济的基于CMOS的解决方案，从而在主流消费电子产品中广泛采用射频和毫米波器件。 为了降低射频和毫米波集成电路的成本，我们计划开发高线性、低噪声的基于晶体管的无源元件（TBPC），以取代主要射频构建模块中面积效率低下的无源元件。这些TBPC，如有源电感器，模拟其无源对应物的电气行为，仅占用其无源对应物的芯片面积的一小部分。 使用相同的概念，我们计划开发新的无源器件，如负电容器和电感器，没有被动的替代品存在，以提高RF/毫米波电路和系统的性能。负阻、负电容等TBPC可以补偿射频/毫米波电路中的损耗，消除寄生电容的影响，从而提高增益、扩展带宽、降低功耗。为了延长便携式无线设备的电池寿命，我们计划通过在晶体管增益与功耗之比最高的适度反型区开发RF电路来降低RF/MMW电路的功耗。此外，完全集成的射频能量收集系统将用于在旅途中为设备电池充电，以进一步延长便携式电子设备的电池寿命。最后，为了使新的毫米波无线技术能够在主流电子产品中商用，我们的目标是设计和实现低成本CMOS工艺的毫米波集成电路。 在这个项目中，RF/MMW器件，电路和系统的新结构将被开发用于各种应用，包括高数据速率无线通信，无线传感器，生物医学成像，安全等。由于采用CMOS技术，这些新器件降低了成本，缩小了最终产品的尺寸，使其在经济上对主流消费者是可行的。我们希望在该领域创造新的知识，因为所提出的器件将在性能、面积效率、功率效率和功耗方面优于先前报道的设计。这些新知识可以由新成立的公司商业化，也可以通过向现有公司发放许可证的方式商业化，并将在受人尊敬的出版物上传播，以推动该领域的研究。此外，几个研究生将在整个项目中作为集成电路和系统设计师进行培训。