2019 Symposia on
VLSI Technology and Circuits

Short Course 2

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Monday, June 10, 2019 (Suzaku I)

Advanced 5G Circuits, Systems and Applications

Organizers: 
Ho-Jin. Song, POSTECH
Alvin Loke, TSMC

The course demystifies recent advances in 5G wireless circuit technologies covering transceivers, PLL, Filter, MIMO beam forming, as well as system architectures and applications.

8:25 Introduction
8:30 5G Real and Future, Takehiro Nakamura, NTT Docomo, Inc.

Abstract:
Many mobile communication operators including NTT DOCOMO plan to launch 5G commercial services in 2019 or 2020, and it is important to identify reality of 5G in industries. In this presentation, DOCOMO’s views on reality of 5G in terms of time plan, NW migration scenarios, spectrum deployment scenarios, performance, etc. And, updates on DOCOMO’s 5G trial activities with variety of vertical industry players to create 5G applications will be presented, also. Finally, our views on further evolution of 5G will be presented.

9:20 mmWave RFIC Technologies for 5G Infrastructure Applications, Sung-Gi Yang, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Abstract:
5G systems are now being launched by the leading telecommunication companies from last year for both below-6GHz and above-6GHz bands and this gives a big opportunity to the mmWave RFIC technology for mobile devices and infrastructure systems. In this presentation, we will give an overview of the mmWave RFIC technologies mainly focused on the 5G infrastructure applications. First, the RF system requirements for the 5G NR standards will be reviewed briefly. Then, we will introduce several considerations in the selection of IC process, RF architecture, chipset partition and interface, packaging and antenna connection, IC block designs, and so on, in order to achieve the best system solutions in the aspect of RF performances, power consumption, size, and cost. At the end, we will review a few IC implementation examples currently published up to date, including Samsung Network’s solutions that have been applied for the pre-5G and 5G NR basestation and CPE systems already installed in the fields.

10:10 Break
10:40 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Save Moore’s Law in 5G Era, Hyung-Jin Lee, Intel Corp.

Abstract:
For more than 50 years, Moore’s law has been driving the landscape of the semiconductor industry including the mobile market mainly motivated by an economic reason, such as the increasing number of transistors per cost. The same quest remains uncompromised for the 5G era despite the proliferation of frequency bands, Carrier-Aggregation and MIMO. The 5G market is very lucrative and strategically important for many companies, but design challenges are expected to continue intensifying as more bands and CA combination keep getting added. Nevertheless, the cost efficiency formulated by Moore’s law would still be one of the most competitive advantages for any market leaders. This presentation describes 5G link requirements and beamforming system architecture. We then cover the recent silicon technology improvement to match the 5G mmWave performance requirement with advanced silicon scaling along with CMOS circuit design techniques for power-efficient implementation of mmWave applications. Finally, we review the state-of-the-art assembly technology to extend the life of Moore’s law for the mobile industry, the most stubborn industry against silicon scaling due to higher performance expectations and sizable passive components.

11:30 Multi-Band, Low-IPN LO Generation for 5G and Beyond, Jaehyouk Choi, UNIST

Abstract:
In recent years, high-quality contents for VR/AR and 3D video and high data-traffic services of massive IoTs are stimulating people’s appetite and demanding 5G mobile that can provide an ultra-wide data bandwidth. In practical models of 5G network, where the interoperability between mmW-band and sub-6GHz network is the key, how efficiently cover a wide range of spectrum from hundreds MHz to mmW-band is important. Along with this, to comply with the stringent EVM requirements of high-order modulations over a wide channel bandwidth, the generation of local-oscillating (LO) signals becomes a challenging task. In this presentation, design challenges of LO-generating circuits are looked over. Then, we introduce several solutions to address these challenges. An efficient architecture that can concurrently generate ultra-low IPN mmW-band and sub-6-GHz signals is proposed. In addition, new design techniques of key building blocks, such as a reference-frequency doubler, an injection-locking frequency multiplier, a charge-pump PLL, and a digital sub-sampling PLL, are presented.

12:20 Lunch
13:10 Acoustic Filter for 5G Smartphones, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Skyworks

Abstract:
In recent years, due to high performance and multiband applications of mobile communication devices, there is an increasing need for improvement in characteristics and miniaturization of filters that are used. Acoustic filters using surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) are widely used for smartphones. In this presentation, we will give an overview of the design and characteristics of acoustic filters provide insight into future development for 5G. First, we will review the fundamental principle of the resonator in the SAW filter and the BAW filter and its filter design, and Q value and coupling coefficient, which are key parameters required for determining the characteristics. Next, we will explain the temperature compensation technology necessary to improve the characteristics. As the number of frequency bands increases, there is interest in learning how to suppress the temperature drift of the filter, which is needed for the current filter design. We will focus on the spurious as a problem in the temperature compensating filter and its suppression method in detail. We will conclude with a discussion of examples of characteristics of acoustic filters, mainly SAW filters, incorporating these methods.

14:00 Substrate Material and Packaging Technology for 5G Millimeter Wave Communication, Kaoru Sudo, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Abstract:
To correspond a rapid growing traffic, the specifications of 5th generation mobile network (5G) have been discussed in 3GPP. 5G NR is including mm Wave technology. The transmission loss of the traces and antennas will be drastically large in mm Wave. In this presentation, we will give two technologies for the development of mm Wave RF devices. One is low loss substrate technology and the other is packaging technology with RF-IC and antennas. In the substrate technology, not only the dielectric loss but also the metal treatment (e.g. surface roughness) will be discussed. Regarding packaging technology, the packaging structure with short trace between antennas and RF-IC will be introduced. The cost target of the devices and productivity in the factory are important for the development of the productions for commercial market (e.g. smart phone). We will conclude with a discussion of examples from industry that have include these technologies.

14:50 Break
15:10 Beamforming Circuits, Systems, and Operations for 5G MIMO Systems, Hua Wang, Georgia Institute of Tech.

Abstract:
Beamforming is one of the central concepts in the 5th Generation wireless MIMO systems. It utilizes antenna arrays to simultaneously achieve spatial filtering of unwanted interferences and highly directional communication of desired signals. In this presentation, we will give an overview of advances in beamforming circuits, systems, and operations, by covering different architectures of analog beamforming, digital beamforming, and hybrid beamforming as well as their pros and cons in various application scenarios. Moreover, 5G mm-Wave MIMOs often rely on pencil-sharp beams to compensate high path loss, posing major challenges in transmitter/receiver alignments in reality. Further, many mobile 5G applications, such as vehicle-based sensing/communication and AR/VR, require dynamic beamforming and tracking of multiple desired signals and interferences with unknown or fast-changing AoAs in congested and complex electromagnetic (EM) environments. Therefore, we will introduce recent work on autonomous MIMO beamforming that addresses these challenges in mobile 5G systems. In addition, inevitable element coupling in an antenna array leads to beam-dependent antenna impedance variations that have profound and adverse effects on the frontend electronics. We will present some studies of such antenna variations on power amplifiers and low noise amplifiers. We will conclude with several design examples to demonstrate these beamforming architectures.

16:00 Built-In Test and Calibration of Phased Arrays, Brian Floyd, NC State Univ.

Abstract:
RF and millimeter-wave phased arrays employ multiple antennas and phase-shifting circuit elements to provide beamsteering capabilities and increased antenna gain. Test and calibration of these array is challenging, due to the large number of high-frequency inputs/outputs, the large number of phase and amplitude states, and the need for chip-level, package-level, and antenna-level characterization. Built-in self-test (BIST) can be used to address these challenges; however, solutions should ideally enable in-situ testing of the array with small test circuit overhead. In this talk, state-of-the-art approaches to phased-array BIST will first be reviewed, including on-chip versus free-space measurement, sequential versus parallel testing, scalar versus vector detection, and direct versus coded measurement. Two BIST approaches will then be presented in depth along with representative hardware results. The first approach employs an on-chip test channel to inject or extract signals from the full array to enable sequential measurement of each element’s vector response using an on-chip receiver with coherent in-phase/quadrature-phase mixers. Representative measurements indicate excellent accuracy when compared to network analyzer measurements. The second approach, called code-modulation embedded test (CoMET), uses a similar on-chip test channel, but applies code modulation using the phase-shifters to enable parallel measurement of each element’s vector response using simple power detectors. Measurements indicate that CoMET provides up to 0.3 dB gain accuracy and 1 degree phase accuracy. Further, a calibration loop employing CoMET enables a 10-GHz eight-element array which is packaged and connected to a linear antenna array to achieve seven-bit phase resolution with a near-ideal measured antenna pattern.