RF Impairments

RF IMPAIRMENTS:
future mobile networks for supporting more users, which require low complexity
and inexpensive transceivers. These may use non-ideal low-cost radio frequency
(RF) components to address these requirements with a long operational lifetime.
However, more imperfections can happen with such components because of
manufacturing errors, aging, and other reasons, thus introducing RF impairments.
In terms of generating RF impairments, one of the most critical analog components
is the oscillator, which generates a reference signal for frequency and timing
synchronization. However, non-ideal imperfections and time-domain instabilities
of the oscillator are the sources of significant impairments, including phase noise
(PN), carrier frequency offset (CFO), and in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q)
imbalanceFig. 2. These impairments cause in-band and out-of-band distortions. In-
band distortions fall inside the operating bandwidth and destroy the system’s
performance, e.g., they destroy the orthogonality of subcarriers in orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems and introduce inter-carrier
interference (ICI). In contrast, out-of-band distortions fall outside the operating
bandwidth. spectrum spreading results in interference to adjacent channels. Due to
these distortions, the system performance significantly degrades. This degradation
can manifest in several ways: (1) a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and
increase the bit error rate (BER), (2) an increase of the EVM because of phase and
amplitude distortions in the signal constellation, (3) a decrease in achievable rates
and increase in outages, and (4) a reduction in the quality of channel estimations.
PN occurs when the oscillator cannot generate pure sinusoidal waves with the
Dirac spectrum. This spectral widening happens because of rapid, short-term,
random fluctuations in the carrier wave phase generated by oscillators in up-
conversion or down-conversion processes of the baseband signal and radio
frequency chain.
The CFO occurs when the down-converting local oscillator in the receiver does not
perfectly synchronize with the received signal’s carrier. CFO causes a rotation and
an attenuation of transmit symbols and thus introduces intersymbol interference
(ISI) and ICI in single-carrier (SC) and multicarrier systems. Since the CFO shifts
the signal in the frequency domain, it breaks the mutual orthogonality between
OFDM subcarriers, and each subcarrier interferes with the remaining subcarrier
signals. Thus, OFDM systems are especially susceptible to the CFO. If the receiver
does not estimate correctly and compensate the CFO before data detection, the
BER of OFDM systems will increase.
The IQ modulator and demodulator are part of the RF front-end of wireless
transceivers to transform the complex baseband signals to passband centered at the
carrier frequency and vice versa. There are two widely used receiver structures:
superheterodyne and direct-conversion (or zero-intermediate frequency (IF)). The
superheterodyne receiver performs two stages to down-convert an RF received
signal to a baseband signal. The first stage transforms the received signal into a
low-frequency IF signal using a low-noise amplifier, a mixer, and band-pass filters.
The resulting IF signal is converted to baseband signal through the IQ demodulator
with an in-phase local oscillator, quadrature-phase local oscillator, two mixers, and
low-pass filters. In contrast, the direct-conversion receiver translates the RF signal
directly to the baseband signal in one stage through the IQ demodulator. Compared
to the superheterodyne structure, the direct-conversion scheme is more attractive
for RF designs. Ideal IQ modulators and demodulators provide two orthogonal
channels for the complex signal’s real and imaginary parts. However, mismatches
between I and Q branches destroy this orthogonality and lead to IQ imbalance,
which degrades the signal quality. We can attribute the mismatches to fabrication
process variations, including doping concentration, oxide thickness, mobility, and
geometrical sizes over the chip.
Harmful impacts of the PN on the wireless performance strongly motivate the
estimation and compensation algorithms for mitigating PN effects. We can classify
the existing estimators as pilot-aided or blind techniques. Pilot-aided PN estimators
use well-designed training symbols or pilot and data symbols at the expense of
bandwidth efficiency. Indeed, in this approach, prior knowledge in the receiver is
deployed to estimate the PN. In contrast, in the blind methods, prior knowledge is
not available in the receiver. These techniques improve spectral efficiency since
many pilots’ transmission is not required, while for satisfactory performance, they
often require numerous symbols.
RF FRONT END DESIGN:

The RF front end consists of all circuitry needed to interface between antennas and the digital
section in an RF system. The digital block contains the processor that sends and receives data,
which then needs to interface with the RF source and supporting circuitry in the signal chain.
The RF front end contains several components that work together to ensure signal integrity
throughout the signal’s bandwidth. This includes preparing a signal for transmission, as well as
receiving and demodulating a signal received on the Rx side.
The baseband part involves modem (modulator and demodulator). The RF part
involves transmitter and PA (Power Amplifier) in the uplink and receiver and LNA
(Low Noise Amplifier) in the downlink chain.
RF Front end mainly refers to LNA and PA modules used between antenna and
RF transceiver. In few cases, entire RF part till baseband section is also
considered as RF Front end. There are ICs available which house only LNA and
PA functionalities.
As mentioned RF front end refers to modules near the antenna where as RF
back end refers to modules far from the antenna.
Hence RF back end refers to baseband processing modules which converts
modulated IF to I and Q signals and vice versa.
The RF front end is generally defined as everything between the antenna and the digital
baseband system. For a receiver, this "between" area includes all the filters, low-noise
amplifiers (LNAs), and down-conversion mixer(s) needed to process the modulated signals
received at the antenna into signals suitable for input into the baseband analog-to-digital
converter (ADC). For this reason, the RF front end is often called the analog-to-digital or
RF-to-baseband portion of a receiver.
he RFFE in a UE is made up of a number of key components:
 The antenna(s) and antenna tuner(s)

 Band Select, Duplexers: filters, duplexers, diplexers, and switches used for
frequency control
 Transmitters and RF Power Amplifiers (Tx/PA’s)
 Receivers and Low-Noise Amplifiers (Rx/LNAs)
OFDM:
When symbol time is lesser than the delay spread it leads to ISI. As bandwidth B
increases our symbol time 1/B decreases. Then it will less than delay spread.
Principle to overcome ISI,Instead of using entire BW at once we can split in to
multiple sub-bands(sub-carriers).Each sub-band place a sub-carrier.
Total no.of sub-carriers=N
BW of each sub-carrier =B/N
Symbol time =N/B
System with multi-carriers are called as MC Modulated system.,which is basis for
OFDM.

RF Impairments

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RF IMPAIRMENTS:

RF FRONT END DESIGN:

he RFFE in a UE is made up of a number of key components:

 The antenna(s) and antenna tuner(s)

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