Description
Date depot: 5 avril 2024
Titre: Digital-Intensive RF Transmitters for Future Generation Wireless Communications
Directeur de thèse:
Hassan ABOUSHADY (LIP6)
Directeur de thèse:
Aziz BENLARBI-DELAÏ (GeePs (EDITE))
Domaine scientifique: Sciences et technologies de l'information et de la communication
Thématique CNRS : Signal et communications
Resumé: The fifth generation (5G), currently being deployed, aims at connecting everything: people, cars, homes, devices and machines. The sixth generation of mobile communications (6G) is being planned for 2028. Among several key enabling technologies for the 6G revolution, human-machine interfaces (HMI) , Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ultra-high-performance wireless communications [1,2,3]. Modern wireless communication systems (5G, 6G, …) are based on Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) systems. MIMO systems significantly increase the complexity of RF transceivers. This complexity significantly increases the power consumption of these transceivers and more specifically the transmitter which contains the most power consuming block: the Power Amplifier (PA).
The PA used to be considered as a self-contained block with well-defined input-output relationship and interface [4,5]. However nowadays, for a low-power design, the PA is co-designed with the digital RF and baseband circuits. Such an approach is becoming viable thanks to the formidable advances in the silicon technologies that allow the processing of RF signals in the digital domain. This new paradigm can be nominated as a Digitally-Intensive RF transmitter (DRFTx) [5,6,7] .
The Ph.D. candidate will design, fabricate and measure an integrated circuit of Digitally-Intensive RF transmitter suitable for future Generation Wireless Communication systems. The circuit should contain the RF switching PA as well as the digital RF in an advanced technology node. There are many challenges to the design of DRFTx related to: the generation of the 1-bit RF signal for the switching PA, beamforming techniques and PA linearization circuits. The objective of this thesis is to investigate MIMO RF transmitter architectures for future generation wireless communications.
The LIP6 laboratory has a large experience in the design and implementation of RF and digital integrated circuits in advanced technology nodes [8]. The LIP6 has also a very good experience in Sigma-Delta modulators [9], a popular technique to generate 1-bit oversampled signals which can be used in switched PA. The GEEPS laboratory has an excellent experience in modeling, design and measurement of RF systems [10] and in AI-based PA linearization techniques [11].
The prospective student should be highly motivated and should have strong knowledge in the design of RF/analog and digital integrated circuits with a solid background in digital communication. Knowledge in artificial intelligence is a plus.
Bibliography
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[2] H. Viswanathan and P. E. Mogensen, "Communications in the 6G Era," in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 57063-57074, 2020.
[3] Z. Zhang et al., "6G Wireless Networks: Vision, Requirements, Architecture, and Key Technologies," in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 28-41, Sept. 2019.
[4] E. C. Strinati et al., "The Hardware Foundation of 6G: The NEW-6G Approach," 2022 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit), Grenoble, France, 2022, pp. 423-428.
[5] E. McCune, "A Technical Foundation for RF CMOS Power Amplifiers: Part 1: Key Power Amplifier Issues," in IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 81-85, Summer 2015.
[6] K. Cho and R. Gharpurey, "A Digitally Intensive Transmitter/PA Using RF-PWM With Carrier Switching in 130 nm CMOS," in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 1188-1199, May 2016.
[7] Y. Shen et al., "A fully-integrated digital-intensive polar Doherty transmitter," 2017 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC), Honolulu, HI, USA, 2017, pp.
[8] A. Sayed, T. Badran, M. -M. Louërat and H. Aboushady, "A 1.5-to-3.0GHz Tunable RF Sigma-Delta ADC With a Fixed Set of Coefficients and a Programmable Loop Delay," in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, vol. 67, no. 9, pp. 1559-1563, Sept. 2020.
[9] A. Ashry and H. Aboushady, "A 4th order 3.6GS/s RF Sigma-Delta ADC with a FoM of 1pJ/bit", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I, TCAS-I, Volume 60, No. 10, pp 2606 - 2617, October 2013.
[10] A. Jafari, T. Mavridis, L. Petrillo, J. Sarrazin, M. Peter, W. Keusgen, P. De Doncker, A. Benlarbi-Delai, "UWB Interferometry TDOA Estimation for 60-GHz OFDM Communication Systems," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 15, pp. 1438-1441, 2016,
[11] S. Wang, P. Maris Ferreira and A. Benlarbi-Delai, "Physics Informed Spiking Neural Networks: Application to Digital Predistortion for Power Amplifier Linearization," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 48441-48453, 2023.