LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER PERFORMANCE STUDY FOR...

LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER PERFORMANCE STUDY FOR WIRELESS MAN

BASED ON IEEE 802.16A STANDARD

MAZHANIZA BINTI MAZUMIL

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Master of Engineering (Electrical – Electronics and Telecommunications)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

MAY 2007

iii

“To my beloved family and friends, thanks for being there, throughout this journey”

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. It is by God

willing; I was able to complete this project within the time given. Here, I would like

to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to my project supervisor,

Professor Dr. Tharek Abdul Rahman for his invaluable guidance, advice and support

towards completing this thesis succesfully.

Besides, I also thank to laboratory technician, Mr. Mohamed Abu Bakar,

postgraduates, undergraduates and the staffs of Wireless Communication Centre in

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia who have directly or indirectly assisted me in this

project. My deepest gratitude also goes out to my examiners, P.M. Dr. Jafri bin Din

and Dr. Nor Hisham bin Hj. Khamis for their constructive comments and suggestions

in evaluating my project

A special thank to research Master student, Mr. Waeil for his guidance and

support in this project.

Finally, I would like to express my warmest gratitude to my parents for their

support and encouragement.

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ABSTRACT

In a rapid expanding worldwide wireless communications industry today, the

demand for Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) systems is growing very

fast as well. New WMAN system based on IEEE 802.16a standard delivers high

data rate with the optional bandwidth, better spectral efficiency, improved

performance under multipath fading conditions and less interference in low-mobility

wireless conditions than earlier systems. To support high data in the systems multi-

carrier modulation, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) is used. In

practice, component such as low noise amplifier (LNA) should be chosen based on

low cost. On the other hand, the effect of non-linear distortion must be considered

very carefully because the OFDM system is very sensitive to it. So, the WMAN

system must be tested and verified by using measurements so as to see the the system

meets the requirements of the IEEE standard. For RF receiver tests in particular, bit

error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER) are required. There are several possible

approaches to test the complete WMAN system. However, in this project, a special

method that combines test equipment and simulation software has been developed to

verify a low noise amplifier (LNA) prototype by measuring the bit error rate (BER)

and packet error rate (PER) performance. Comparison has been made between the

simulated and tested performances of LNA. The results show that the LNA is within

the specification and standard.

vi

ABSTRAK

Saban hari, permintaan terhadap sistem Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

(WMAN) meningkat dengan drastik selaras dengan industri komunikasi wayarles

yang pesat membangun. Sistem WMAN yang berasaskan piawaian IEEE 802.16a

mampu menghantar data pada kadar yang tinggi dengan pilihan berbagai kadar jalur

lebar, kecekapan spektra yang lebih baik, persembahan yang lebih

memberangsangkan dan kurang interferen berbanding dengan sistem sebelum ini.

Untuk membekalkan kadar data yang tinggi, satu teknik dinamakan Orthogonal

Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) digunakan. Secara praktik, komponen

seperti low noise amplifier (LNA) perlu dipilih berdasarkan kos yang rendah. Pada

masa yang sama, kesan seperti non-linear distortion harus diambilkira dengan teliti

kerana sistem OFDM sangat sensitif terhadap kesan seperti ini. Oleh itu, sistem

WMAN harus diuji dan ditentusahkan untuk memastikan sistem berada pada taraf

piawaian IEEE yang diingini. Bagi penerima frekuensi radio, persembahan seperti

bit error rate (BER) dan packet error rate (PER) perlu diperoleh. Terdapat pelbagai

cara untuk menguji satu sistem WMAN. Walau bagaimanapun, dalam projek sarjana

ini, satu kaedah unik yang menggabungkan peralatan dan perisian simulasi

dibangunkan untuk menentusahkan LNA dengan mengukur persembahan BER dan

PERnya. Perbandingan dibuat di antara keputusan persembahan yang diperoleh dari

simulasi dan dari pengujian terhadap LNA ini. Keputusan menunjukkan LNA yang

diuji berada pada taraf piawaian dan spesifikasi yang diperlukan.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

TITLE i

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENT vii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF SYMBOLS xiii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES xviii

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Project Background 2

1.3 Problem Statement 4

1.4 Objective 4

1.5 Project Scope 5

1.6 Project Contribution 6

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Project Overview 7

2.2 RF Receiver Architecture 9

2.2.1 Superheterodyne Receiver 10

2.3 Amplifier 11

2.3.1 Low Noise Amplifier 13

2.3.2 IF Amplifier 14

2.4 Mixer 14

2.5 Oscillator 16

2.6 Filters 18

2.6.1 Band-Select (BS) Filter 19

2.6.2 Image-Reject (IR) Filter 19

2.6.3 Channel Select (CS) Filter 20

3 METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Introduction 21

3.2 Instrument and Tools 22

3.2.1 ADS 2002C 22

3.2.2 89600S Vector Signal Analyzer 23

3.2.3 E4438C ESG Vector Signal Generator 24

3.3 Procedures 24

3.3.1 Concept Diagram 25

4 RF RECEIVER PERFORMANCE

MEASUREMENTS

30

4.1 Introduction 30

4.2 BER Definition 31

4.3 Eb/No Definition 32

4.4 PER Definition 36

ix

5 SIMULATION AND MEASUREMANT SETUP 38

5.1 Introduction 38

5.2 Setup on Hardware and Software 39

5.2.1 Setup on E4438C Vector Signal Generator 39

5.2.2 Setup on 89600S Vector Signal Analyzer 40

5.2.3 Setup on Agilent 89600 VSA software 40

5.2.4 Setup on ADS 2002C 42

5.3 Simulation Setup 42

5.3.1 Simulation 1 43





5.4 Device Under Test (DUT) Setup 55

6 RESULT AND ANALYSIS 56

6.1 Introduction 56

6.2 Label of Graph 56

6.3 Analysis of Result 58

7 CONCLUSION 65

7.1 Future Work 67

REFERENCES 68

APPENDIX A 70

APPENDIX B 72

APPENDIX C 73

APPENDIX D 74

APPENDIX E 75

x

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE

6.1 Explanation on types of performance 57

6.2 Explanation on simulations 57

6.3 Labeling of traces according to the type of performance

and simulation

57

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE

1.1 Superheterodyne Receiver 5

2.1 Verification of specification for the RF front-end

subsystem

10

2.2 Amplifier with power gain G 12

2.3 A Generalized mixer model 15

2.4 Example of a mixer downconverter system 15

2.5 Example of a mixer upconverter system 16

2.6 The spectrum (fundamental and harmonics) of a square

wave with phase noise sidebands. The inset shows the

effect of the sidebands in the time domain: jitter

18

3.1 89600 VSA 23

3.2 Agilent E4438C ESG Vector Signal Generator 24

3.3 Simulation on RF Receiver for BER and PER

Performance

25

3.4 Simulation on RF Receiver for BER and PER

Performance using Captured Signal (sdf file format)

25

3.5 Simulation on RF Receiver (except LNA is real) for

BER and PER Performance

27

3.6 Simulation on the LNA only for BER and PER

performance

28

3.7 BER and PER measurement for LNA 28

4.1 Typical RF Communication System Receiver Block

Diagram

32

5.1 Signal from 89600S VSA is captured back to 44

xii

simulation platform and saved as SDF file

5.2 Signal from source is downloaded to E4438C ESG 48

5.3 Signal from 89600S VSA is captured back to

simulation platform and saved as SDF file

48

5.4 Signal from SDF file is brought back to ADS 2002C to

perform the rest of simulation

49

5.5 Signal enters an AWGN channel before passing

through BS filter and downloading to ESG 4438C

51

5.6 Signal from SDF file is brought back to simulation

platform to perform the rest of the simulation with the

exclusion of band select filter and one of the LNAs

from RF receiver block

51

5.7 Simulation of LNA only for overall BER and PER

performance

53

5.8 First part of simulation 5 where the signal passes

through an AWGN channel before being downloaded

54

5.9 Second part of simulation 5 where signal that captured

as SDF file is measured for its BER and PER

performance

54

6.1 Result on RF receiver for BER performance (20 MHz) 61



6.4 Result on RF receiver for PER performance (20 MHz) 62



6.7 Comparison of BER performance between simulation

1, simulation 2 and simulation 3

63

6.8 Comparison of PER performance between simulation

1, simulation 2 and simulation 3

63

6.9 Comparison of BER performance between simulation 4

and simulation 5

64

6.10 Comparison of PER performance between simulation 4

and simulation 5

64

xiii

LIST OF SYMBOLS

Eb - Energy-per-bit

F - Noise Figure

Fcenter - Center Frequency

FIF - Frequency IF

fLO - Frequency Local Oscillator

FRF - Frequency RF

G - Gain

Kvco - Tuning Constant

N - Noise

NBW - Receiver Noise Bandwidth

NO - Noise Density

Pin - Input Power

Pout - Output Power

R - Data Rate

S - Signal

T - Temperature

Tb - Bit Time

Vcarrier - Carrier Voltage

Vout - Output Voltage

Vtune - Tuning Voltage

ωosc - Angular Frequency

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

ADS - Advanced Design System

AP - Access Point

AWGN - Additive White Gaussian Noise

BER - Bit Error Rate

BS - Band Select

CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access

CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check

CS - Channel Select

DC - Direct Current

DSL - Digital Subscriber Line

DSSS - Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

DUT - Device Under Test

ESG - Electronic Signal Generator

EDA - Electronic Design Automation

FET - Field effect transistor

FER - Frame Error Rate

GPIB - General Purpose Interface Bus

3G - Third Generation

GP - Good Packet

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer

IF - Intermediate Frequency

IMD - Intermodulation Distortion

xv

IPTV - Internet Protocol Television

IIP3 - Input at Third Order Intercept Point

IR - Image Reject

LNA - Low Noise Amplifier

LO - Local Oscillator

LOS - Line of Sight

MAC - Medium Access Control

NF - Noise Figure

OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

PE - Probability of Error

PER - Packet Error Rate

PSDU - Physical Sublayer Service Data Units

QPSK - Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

RF - Radio Frequency

SDF - Standard Data Format

SNR - Signal-to Noise Ratio

TD-

SCDMA

- Time Division-Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple

Access

UNII - Unlicensed National Information Structure

USB - Universal Serial Bus

VOIP - Voice over Internet Protocol

VSA - Vector Signal Analyzer

WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy

WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

Wi-FI - Wireless Fidelity

WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network

WMAN - Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER (LNA) Datasheet 70

B Behavioural Model for RF Tranceiver Modeling 72

C RF Transceiver Model 73

D Instrument Setup 74

E RF Tranceiver Prototype 75

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Due to the development of communication technology, the wireless

communication system grows rapidly to compete in the world market. Nowadays,

many systems in wireless communication have been introduced for a variety of

application such as wireless internet, 3G, Bluetooth, EDGE and many more. There

are many reasons why this technology becomes important today. For areas poorly

served by wired infrastructure, wireless is a good alternative to overcome this

limitation. Wireless MAN (IEEE 802.16a) is a standard for MANs (metropolitan-

area network), as opposed to the LANs (local-area networks) served by the more

well-known Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity). Wireless MAN is introduced to improve

wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11a) standard by providing increased bandwidth and

stronger encryption.

With coverage of areas ranging up to 30 kilometers radius, wireless MAN

enables delivery of broadband services to residential and small-to-medium-sized

business customers, and large corporations in urban, suburban and rural areas

without requiring direct line-of-sight. Wireless MAN is not introduced to replace the

2

wireless LAN. The purpose of designated is to extend the wireless LAN application

that can connect IEEE 802.11a hotspots with each other and to other parts of internet.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is adopted in wireless

MAN to support high data rate up to 70Mbps for internet access. Wireless MAN uses

of OFDM and scheduled MAC allows wireless mesh network to be more robust and

reliable.

1.2 Project Background

Wireless MAN is a standards-based wireless technology providing high-

speed data and voice services in networks covering long distances and wide ranges

without the need for direct line-of-sight with a base station. Therefore, a high

complexity in the digital system part as well as very accurate signal processing in the

analog RF subsystem is required. High transmission rates within band limited radio

channels affect the growing complexity of the devices and require the following [4]:

i) very high transmission frequencies must be used

ii) sophisticated modulation and coding technologies are used to achieve a high

spectral efficiency

iii) high requirements for the RF front-end (robustness against interferer, adjacent

channels and high linearity

The additional requirements such as low power consumption and low costs

must take into consideration for system designed. System level simulators like ADS

(Advanced Design System) or MATLAB can be implemented to build an executable

specification.

3

Wireless MAN can cover a large geographical area without line of sight with

higher data rate transmission by introducing OFDM technique. The high

transmission data rate needs high requirements for RF front end. The performance of

the RF subsystem will be tested by using ADS (Advanced Design System)

simulation tool. The signal from ADS must be captured by ESG (Electronic Signal

Generator). The system must be verified by Vector Signal Analyzer.

Recently, the performance test of RF subsystem has been done by

undergraduate student from Wireless Communication Centre (WCC) of Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for wireless LAN standard. IEEE 802.16a extends this

coverage while offering the features consistent with the stringent demands of

operators in a wide variety of deployment scenarios. The Wireless MAN technology

fills a critical need in the end-to-end wireless network by bridging the gap between

IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs and the wide area network.

Wireless MAN standard published [12] on 1 April 2003 for urban area

coverage wireless access addresses frequencies from 2-11GHz including licensed

and unlicensed bands. This project will be focused on unlicensed band with upper

U-NII 5.725-5.825 GHz frequency. This band is allocated for the use of indoor

links. The RF transceiver has been designed with a selected architecture of

superheterodyne receiver and two-step transmitter. The modeled of RF transceiver

has been analyzed in the Advanced Digital System (ADS) 2002C software for

system characteristic and performance [4]. This project extends the limited benefits

offered in Wireless LAN by doing some modification in the AWGN channel for

wireless LAN. The same concept with WLAN is applied. Wireless MAN is a new

wireless internet standard. ADS 2002C software does not support the Wireless MAN

system itself. Therefore, the same wireless LAN source will be used instead of

Wireless MAN source. The IEEE 802.16a standard specifies channel size ranging

from 1.25 up to 20MHz [1] with many options in between. The unique method is

implemented in this project by doing the simulation for the multiple channel

bandwidths which the 5MHz, 10MHz and 20MHZ are chosen to see the performance

4

of overall RF receiver. The best performance of these three bandwidth range is used

as a project based for the next steps of simulation.

1.3 Problem Statement

Major problem in RF System will certainly degrade the performance of RF

system are nonlinearity and Noise. The nonlinearity phenomena are harmonic

generation, intermodulation distortion (IMD), gain compression and spurious

response. The noises are thermal noise, phase noise and image noise. These

problems will affect the RF system. So, the early intention of this project is to judge

how these nonlinearities and noises will affect the RF system by measuring the BER

and PER performance.

Normally, after a RF transceiver has been designed, the system will be tested

and verified. This is to ensure the standard of the system as well as its reliability. A

powerful instrument as well as simulation software will be implemented. In this

project a unique method need to be identified to complete the task of verification.

1.4 Objective

The objective of this project is to perform simulation and measurement on a

RF receiver including the system and subsystem level analysis as well as verification

of its subsystem in wireless MAN based on IEEE 802.16a standard

5

1.5 Project Scope

Generally in radio transmitter receiver, the system is divided into two

sections, analog section and digital section. Analog section consists RF part and IF

part. Second section is digital part. All the baseband processing such as

demodulating, channel decoding and deinterleaving is done in this part. This project

is focused on RF part consist of main components such as low noise amplifier,

mixer, amplifier, filters (band-select filter, image-reject filter and channel select

filter), and local oscillator.

A wireless MAN superheterodyne receiver might look likes a block diagram

shown in figure 1.1. The performance for the subsystem to be studied is LNA. This

project will cover some important features and specifications of Wireless MAN that

will be focused on fixed broadband access and the concepts and techniques of LNA

including the simulation by using ADS and testing to obtain the performance of the

system. LNA will be verified for its specification and standard.

Antenna

Figure 1.1: Superheterodyne Receiver

In IEEE 802.16a standard, three frequency bands are available for U-NII

band. There are lower U-NII band (5.150-5.250 GHz), middle U-NII band (5.250-

5.350 GHz) and upper U-NII band (5.725-5.825GHz) where the maximum allowable

IF Cable

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output power are 40mW (16.02dBm), 200mW (23dBm) and 800mW (29dBm)

respectively. In wireless MAN, the transceiver under study is using the upper band

for its frequency operation.

1.6 Project Contribution

As mentioned earlier, this project is extended from undergraduate student by

doing some modification of Wireless LAN source. So, the same concept as WLAN

will be implemented in this project. This is continuative work of the previous

researcher which is to design, simulate and measure a RF transceiver operating at

5.725-5.825 GHz. This is then lead to the important purpose purpose of the project

which is to verify the real subsystem of the designed RF transceiver.

In short, at the end of the project, the overall system level performance of the

RF receiver will be obtained by simulation. The performance of BER and PER with

minimum noise must be achieved as a result of this WMAN system. After the

simulation has been done, the real subsystem of the RF receiver –low noise amplifier

will be verified for its specification and standard. So, the results in simulation will

then become the reference for the verification process. Hence, a method of

verification is identified and this will become a very useful way for the other similar

design and development of such transceiver or other typical devices.

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