High-Linearity Low Noise Amplifiers and Receivers for Global Positioning Systems
Date
2021-08-31
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Abstract
The presence of radio frequency (RF) interference undermines the operating capability of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receivers. To address RF interference, often GPS receivers employ surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters and in certain cases cavity filters. But even when these high-quality filters are present in the receiver chain, GPS receivers are still susceptible to RF interference. This is particularly the case when the receiver RF front-end is fabricated in deep-submicron CMOS technology. Improving the resilience of CMOS GPS receivers to RF interference requires an RF voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with low-phase noise. Lowering phase noise reduces the reciprocal mixing of interference into the desired signal band. This thesis examines the feasibility of achieving low-phase noise in CMOS VCOs operating at frequencies above 10 GHz. To demonstrate the feasibility a novel method for reducing phase noise is introduced to a CMOS differential Colpitts VCO. This VCO is designed in simulation and fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology as part of a highly-linear low-noise GPS receiver (HLR). The 65 nm CMOS VCO achieves a phase noise of -117.52 dBc/Hz an offset frequency of 1 MHz from the 12.6169 GHz carrier frequency while consuming 24 mW of DC power and the Figure of Merit is 185.7 dBc/Hz. The VCO frequency has continuous tuning from 12.516 GHz to 13.7 GHz. In addition, the 65 nm CMOS LNA that is part of the HLR achieves an S21 >11 dB and S11 <-10 dB at a frequency of 1.57542 GHz. The LNA input 1 dB compression point at 850 MHz and 1.7 GHz are respectively -6.5 dBm and -3.5 dBm with a 1.2 V DC supply voltage.
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Keywords
Phase noise, Voltage Controlled Oscillator, Colpitts Oscillator, GPS, LNA, ESD Protection
Citation
Navaratne, D. P. (2021). High-Linearity Low Noise Amplifiers and Receivers for Global Positioning Systems (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.