RFWild - Measurements, Modeling, Microelectronics Modeling

RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
General Presentation
Antonio Augusto – antoniosouza@cear.ufpb.br
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Outline
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
• About us:
– Device characterization: a bit of (our) history...
– The (current) Team
– Infrastructure at our disposal
• Activities :
– Accomplished
– Under development
– About to start
• Conclusion and Perspectives
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Device characterization
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
If someone has just built a brand new and promising
device, how can a designer make a state of the art
circuit with it?
Simulation models are generally built upon
MEASUREMENTS!
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Device characterization
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Example from
a real project:
GaAsSb/InP Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor
40 GHz Oscillator
60 GHz Power Amp.
Characterization setup
Electrothermal model
of the
transistor
LAURENT, S.; Lisboa de Souza, A.A.; NALLATAMBY, J.C.; Prigent, M.; NODJIADJIM, V.; RIET, M.
Design and fabrication of a 45GHz MMIC oscillator based on InP/GaAsSb/InP DHBT
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Device characterization
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Ok, you have access to “well known someone else´s”
simulation models...
But how can you be sure the model is realistic in your
particular application?
How can you optimize a circuit if the model points to
the wrong way?
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Device characterization
Example of particular
scenario:LF Noise in
pumped devices
Pink curve is the commonly
accepted model.
Measurement is in blue!
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Noise
around DC
Noise
around the
carrier
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Lisboa de Souza, Antonio Augusto ; Dupouy, Emmanuel ; Nallatamby, Jean-Christophe ; Prigent, Michel ; Obregon, Juan .
Experimental characterization of the cyclostationary low-frequency noise of microwave semiconductor devices under large signal operation
Device characterization
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Ok, OK, the model is realistic... But have you
simulated enough for a proof of concept?
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PCB measurements
Die Simulation
On-wafer
measurements
Die Simulation
Elmo Sette, Ranieri Saldanha, Antonio Souza, Emmanuel Dupouy
Design and characterization of a 2.4 GHz LNA in 180 nm CMOS Technology
In the path from Device to Application,
Characterization is a very important Tool!
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The (current) Team
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Research Group formally created in 2013
Elmo Sette
Undergraduate
LNA
Emmanuel Dupouy
Ninja of Oscillators
Antonio Augusto
The eldest
Noise in Devices
Bruno Winkeler
Graduate
RF Front-end
Rafael Ângelo
Graduate,
Oscillators
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Infrastructure at our
disposal
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Suss EP6 Manual
wafer probe station*
•2 GSG (125 µm) probes
•2 DC probes
•Calibration substrate and
connections up to 50 GHz
* Belongs to UFCG, but thanks to Prof.
Raimundo Freire, it is being shared
among UFCG, UFPB and IFPB.
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Infrastructure at our
disposal
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
We have a very good signal
analyzer (DC – 2.65 GHz)!
•LF Noise characterization (up to 1 MHz)
• (RF) Phase noise characterization (-120dBc@10kHz!)
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Infrastructure at our
disposal
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
PNA-X 13.5 GHz 4 ports
IxV tracer, 2 channels
DC/ pulsed
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Infrastructure at our
disposal
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
We have a very good LF differential
amplifier (16 Hz – 40 MHz):
0.5 nV/rtHz@100 KHz
Keysight 346A (10 MHz – 18 GHz)
for LNA characterization
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Infrastructure at our
disposal
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
We have built our own FARADAY CAGE:
My children´s
vacation!
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Activities accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Microelectronics:
2012
1st RF IC completely
designed in Paraíba
(VCO 2.4 GHz)
Phase noise was better than what we could
measure at that time. Simulations showed -115
dBc/Hz @ 100 KHz. We recently measured about
-110dBc/Hz @ 100 KHz (non ideal conditions).
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Activities accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Microelectronics:
2014
1st Demonstrator of 2.4 GHz
Oscillator at UFPB. To the best
of our knowledge, it is the 1st
Demonstrator of an Integrated
RF Oscillator designed in the
Northeast of Brazil!
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Activities accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Microelectronics:
2015
1st Demonstrator of 2.4 GHz LNA
at UFPB
(Gain = 8 dB, NF to be measured)
To the best of our knowledge, it is
the 1st Demonstrator of an
Integrated LNA designed in the
Northeast of Brazil!
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Activities accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Instrumentation:
Energy-autonomous wind speed smart sensor
(Jeanne Braquehais) 2014 I2MTC. p. 931-935.
Starts to operate at around 3,5 m/s!
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Activities accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Instrumentation:
Flexible A/D Converter Architecture Targeting Sparse Signals
(Verônica Silva) 2014 I2MTC. p. 1496-1500.
2x fewer samples for the same SNR in ECG!
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Activities (almost)
accomplished
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
•R&D project for directly helping people:
Patent deposit of a System to help deaf parents to know when their
child is crying
DISPOSITIVO PARA RECONHECIMENTO DE CHORO DE BEBÊ
ATRAVÉS DE PROCESSAMENTO DIGITAL DE SINAIS COM UNIDADE
VIBRATÓRIA PARA ALERTA DE RESPONSÁVEIS: BR102015012753-7
07/August/2015
Prototype:
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Activities under
development
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Noise in devices: From device to low noise circuits
Rafael Ângelo
Characterization and modeling of new
devices
Conversion of Current Fluctuations into
Voltage Fluctuations is still an open topic
Low and high frequency (dedicated)
terminations may help reducing phase noise
Special instrumentation and techniques
are necessary for prooving (new) concepts!
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Activities about to start
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
RF Front-end: Impact of parasitics,
differential architectures
Elmo Sette
Bruno Winkeler
Towards “first PCB” with electromagnetic
simulations
Single Ended x Differential architectures
Measurement techniques for differential RF
circuits
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Activities about to start
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Power oscillators/VCOs: Efficiency and low phase
noise for the same price?
Emmanuel Dupouy
Classical architecture: Oscillator/VCO + PA,
some implementations as a “single piece”
Phase noise x output power: same
direction?
How far can we optimize “both”?
High efficiency and “very bad” phase noise
still usefull for WPT?
Antonio Augusto
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Conclusion
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Main conclusion: we like to celebrate! And we are
ambitious and motivated to move to more complex
and applied topics!
Collaboration for mutual benefits are welcome.
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RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
RFWild - Measurements,
Modeling, Microelectronics
Thank you!
Contact: antoniosouza@cear.ufpb.br
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