O.

5pa

CMOS 2.4

GHz

RF-Switch for

Wireless

Communications

Mekanand P., Prawatrungruang P., and Eungdamrong D. School of Communications, Instrumentations & Control Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, Thailand Phone: (+662) 501-3505 Ext. 1808, FAX: (+662) 501-3505 Ext. 1801
Abstract In RF transceiver, the RF switch is used to select the operation for an antenna between working as a receiver or transmitter. Each mode of operation generates some loss due to the transistors used in the switching operations. Therefore it is essential to design a switch that has minimal impact on the This paper proposes a 2.4 GHz CMOS T/R signal. (Transmit/Receive) Switch with low insertion loss and excellent control voltage. Simulation results of the switch design demonstrate an insertion loss of 1.102 dB for receiving mode and 1.085 dB for transmitting mode. Both modes can operate using a control voltage of only 1.2 V. In addition, the switch exhibits a high 1 dB compression point (P1dB) of 25.33 dBm.
-

D.D.D.X.X.X

..-.... .-...-.-.-.;

I.

....D.D ..Fig.1: The CMOS used in the simulation.

Keywords - CMOS, T/R Switch, RF transceiver

1. Introduction
There has been a growing demand for RF switches as time division duplexing (TDD) is increasingly used for wireless applications such as IEEE 802.11 systems [1]. As a result, many different technologies exist for implementing the switching circuits. Traditionally, PIN diodes have dominated due to their excellent small signal performance and linearity [2]. However, power consumption and size becomes very important issues for PIN diode [3]. As a result, topics related to the solution of this problem are becoming a popular research field. As CMOS technologies continue to evolve towards lower supply voltages [4], CMOS RF switches are a great promising solution for the low-cost and low-power [5] requirements of modern wireless circuits and are gradually replacing more and more PIN diodes and MESFETs in RF systems [6]. CMOS technology can be use to operate wireless systems up to 5.0 GHz [7] and they are attractive for portable devices [5]. By applying CMOS Technology, a switch can be constructed by paralleling a NMOS and a PMOS device as shown in Fig. 1. The advantage of using a CMOS switch instead of a single channel MOS switch is the dynamic range. This dynamic range in the ON state is greatly increased, which allows a full signal-swing [4]. The goal of this paper is to propose a fully functional, highly integrated, 2.4 GHz CMOS switch with low insertion loss, low control voltage, and high PldB.

2. Switch Design and Operations

The switch design is asymmetric to accommodate the different linearity and isolation requirements in its operation modes [7]. The switch can operates in either the transmit mode with power transmitted from the Power Amplifier (PA) to the antenna, or the receive mode with the power delivered from the antenna to the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) [8] as shown in Fig.2.
LNA
Antenna 1 Rx

T/R Switch

Fig.2: The T/R Switch is located in the front-end of the radio transceiver.

The transceiver has a LNA that provides a 50Q input impedance [9]. Recent publications show a trend of integrating the LNA, PA, and T/R Switch on the same chip [10]. In addition, studies have shown that it is feasible to

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

implement RF single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches in 0.5im CMOS [11].

4. Proposed CMOS T/R Switch

The proposed TR Switch involves the use of four CMOS. When the switch acts as a transmitter, CMOS 1 and CMOS 4 are switched on, and the signal makes its way to the antenna as shown in Fig.5. On the other hand, when the switch acts as a receiver, CMOS 2 and CMOS 3 are switched on, and the signal received from the antenna makes its way to the receiver. In order to increase the linearity of the switch, the gate is often biased using a large resistor [12]. Furthermore, this switch also integrates two bypass capacitors to allow DC biasing of the receiver and transmitter nodes of the switch [11]. Drain and source DC biasing reduce the insertion loss by reducing the source/drain to body junction capacitance and RF signal coupled to the substrate [6]. In addition, power handling capability can be improved [ 12].

3. Single Channel T/R Switch

One problem that occurs in the front-end of a radio transceiver is how to switch antenna's modes of operation. This is usually solved with a T/R switch. The switch selects either transmit or receive mode by changing the polarity of the control voltage located at the transistor's gate [1]. When the switch acts as a receiver, transistors M2 and M3 are switched on. On the contrary, when the switch acts as a transmitter, transistors MI and M4 are switched on. While transistors MI and M2 play the major role for switching operations, M3 and M4 are employed in order to improve the isolation [5] as shown in Fig.3.

.....

..

....

-!

: vi

Fig.3: Single channel T/R Switch.

Referring to Fig.4, the channel resistance, RC1 and RC2, and the substrate resistance, RB1 and RB2, are the main sources of loss in the transistor. The source and drain parasitic junction capacitors, CSB and CDB, can also lead to significant losses [11], especially as the frequency of operation increases. The linearity of the MOSFET switch is limited for large signal swings due to conductivity modulation caused by a changing gate-source (Vgs) and drain-source (Vds) voltage for a large signal input.

Fig.5: Proposed CMOS T/R Switch.

5. Simulation Results
In order to have a power efficient transceiver without degrading its sensitivity, the losses in the switch must be low [9]. Main characteristics of an RF switch are insertion loss and PldB [11]. The insertion loss is defined as the ratio between the power available from source and the power delivered to load and its formula is shown in (1) [4]:

SOUJRCE

GATE

DRAIN

Insertion Loss (dB) = -20 logl0 ( Ot ) AKn

(1)

RB1

RB2

The waveforms shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7 are the results from the single channel T/R switch acting as a receiver and transmitter, respectively. The input signal has amplitude of 1 tV and frequency of 2.4 GHz. The insertion loss is 1.881 dB and 1.872 dB for receiver and transmitter mode respectively.

Fig.4: The NMOS.

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

.utpIt

Fig.6: Simulated input and output waveform of the single channel T/R Switch acting as a receiver.

Fig.9: Simulated input and output waveform of the CMOS T/R Switch acting as a transmitter.

The PldB is the point at which the input level at which the small signal gain has dropped by 1 dB. At this point, the intermodulation products begin to emerge as a serious problem [13]. In Fig.10, the Pin versus Pout graph is shown. CMOS RF switches can provide higher PldB at high frequencies [6]. The results provide a high PldB of 25.33 dBm.
40
tput

20-

Fig.7: Simulated input and output waveform of the single channel T/R Switch acting as a transmitter.

Using the same input signal for the CMOS T/R Switch, the insertion loss is 1.102 dB and 1.085 dB for receiver and transmitter mode, respectively. The control voltage of 1.2 V is chosen for optimum insertion loss and PldB, as well as for long-term reliability [12]. The waveforms for each mode are shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9.
-40-40

Pin

40

Fig.10: Pin versus Pout.

tp"t

- C3T

---------

-r--------- ---

--

--

----r-----

-----

-r---

--S-

----------I

Fig.8: Simulated input and output waveform of the CMOS T/R Switch acting as a receiver.

Table 1 compares the performance of the single channel T/R Switch with the proposed CMOS T/R Switch. Using the CMOS T/R Switch, the insertion loss in both the receiver and transmitter modes reduces greatly to only 1.102 dB and 1.085 dB respectively. Single channel T/R Switch exhibits a higher loss of 1.881 dB and 1.872 dB for receiver mode and transmitter mode respectively. In addition, the control voltages at the CMOS transistor's gates are operational at only 1.2 V, making it favorable to implement in portable devices. Single channel T/R Switch uses a higher control voltage of 5.0 V.

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

Table 1: Single Channel T/R Switch VS CMOS T/R Switch

REFERENCES
[1] Chang-Ho Lee, Bhaskar Banerjee, and Joy Laskar, "Novel T/R Switch Architectures for MIMO applications", IEEE, 2004. Skyworks Solutions Inc., Application note, APN1002, "Design with PIN Diodes." D. Kelly, "Integrating Next Gen CMOS Designs in GSM FrontEnds," Wireless Design & Development, pp. 18-22, Sept. 2004. A. Galhardo, J. Goes, and N. Paulino, "Novel Linearization Technique for Low-Distortion High-Swing CMOS Switches with Improved Reliability", IEEE, 2006. Robert H. Caverly and Gerald Hiller, "A Silicon CMOS Monolithic RF and Microwave Switching Element". Jonghoo Park and Zhenqiang Ma, "A 15 GHz CMOS RF Switch Employing Large-Signal Impedance Matching", IEEE, 2006. Niranjan Talwalkar, C Patrick Yue, and S. Simon Wong, "Integrated CMOS Transmit-Receive Switch Using LC-Tuned Substrate Bias for 2.4-GHz and 5.2-GHz Applications. Niranjan Talwalkar, C. Patrick Yue, and S. Simon Wong, "An Integrated 5.2GHz CMOS T/R Switch with LC-tuned Substrate Bias", Stanford University, Stanford, CA, IEEE, 2003. J.P. Carmo, P.M. Mendes, C. Couto, and J.H. Coreia, "A 2.4-GHz RF CMOS transceiver for wiles sensor applications". D. Su, M. Zargari, P. Yue, S. Rabii, D. Weber, B. Kaczynski, S. Mehta, K. Singh, S. Mendis, and B. Wooley, "A 5 GHz CMOS transceiver for IEEE 802.11a wireless LAN," in IEEE Int. SolidState Circuit Conf. Dig. Tech. Papers, Feb. 2002, pp.92-93. Feng-Juan Huang and Kenneth K. 0, "Single-Pole Double-Throw CMOS Switches for 900-MHz and 2.4-GHz Applications on pSilicon Substrates", IEEE, 2004. Feng-Juan Huang and Kenneth K. 0, "A 0.5-pm T/R switch for 900-MHz wireless applications," IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 36. Pp. 486-492, Mar. 2001. Joseph J. Carr, "RF Circuit Design", McGraw Hill, 2001.

Single Channel T/R Switch

Insertion Loss (receiver mode) InsertionLoss (transmitter mode) 1.881 dB 1.872dB

CMOS T/R Switch

1.102 dB

[2]
[3]

1.085 dB
1.2 V

[4] [5]

Control Voltage

5.0 V

[6]

6. Conclusion
A 2.4 GHz CMOS T/R Switch was designed with low insertion loss, low control voltage, and high PldB for radio transceiver compatible with wireless 802.11 systems. The switch exhibits insertion loss of 1.102 dB and 1.085 dB for receiver and transmitter modes, respectively. In addition, the control voltage uses only 1.2 V to switch between different modes and it also exhibits a high PldB of 25.33 dBm. From this design, it can demonstrate that T/R switches at radio frequency can be realized with CMOS for better performance. Furthermore, the switch can be integrated into Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO) systems that operate at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz frequencies.

[7]

[8]
[9] [10]

[11] [12] [13]

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008