All-Digital RF I/Q Modulator

作者：Alavi Morteza S^*; Staszewski Robert Bogdan; de Vreede Leo C N; Visweswaran Akshay; Long John R

来源：IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2012, 60(11): 3513-3526.

DOI：10.1109/TMTT.2012.2211612

• Balun
• class-E power amplifier
• digital power amplifier (DPA)
• digital-to-RF-amplitude converter (DRAC)
• in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator
• MOS switch
• RF digital-to-analog converter (RF-DAC)
• transformer
• transmitter

We present a new all-digital RF in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator, in which the orthogonal summing of the I and Q phase data signals is performed in separated interleaved time slots. By employing a 25% duty cycle for the I and Q signals, the modulator can directly reconstruct the continuous-time RF output signal using four digital switch arrays with a power combiner. To verify the proposed concept and its related design procedure, a 65-nm CMOS prototype is implemented. This prototype achieves 12.6-dBm peak output power with 20% peak drain efficiency at 2 GHz. The corresponding error vector magnitude (EVM) for a quadrature phase-shift keying constellation is 3.95% without any predistortion, while providing 6-dBm output power in a 64 quadrature amplitude modulation constellation with a related EVM and drain efficiency of 2.36% and 10%, respectively. The proposed circuit can be used as a pre-driver or a final transmit stage. The first-ever truly all-digital I/Q RF digital-to-analog converter prototype is thus experimentally demonstrated.

• 出版日期2012-11