ECE 770 Topic 16 - Winter 2016

ECE 770 Topic 16 - Nonlinear Microwave/RF Devices and Circuits

Instructor

Professor Slim Boumaiza

Description

The main focus of this course is on the application of Electromagnetic and Electronic concepts to the design and analysis of microwave nonlinear active devices (transistors, diodes) and circuits typically used in radio communications infrastructure. Topics covered include:

  • Review of linear active microwave circuits design
  • Fundamentals of Nonlinear Circuits
  • Nonlinear Active Devices Modeling
  • Nonlinear Circuit Analysis
  • RF Power Amplifiers
  • Linearization Techniques
  • Advanced RF Transmitters Topologies

Although, this course focuses on the technology of discrete RF and microwave circuit design, examples of integrated circuits will also be presented to show the two worlds.

Objectives

Students are expected to be able to design and analyze various nonlinear active microwave circuits after successful completion of the course work. For that, this course aims to provide fundamentals of modeling/analysis/simulation techniques for RF/Microwave devices and circuits. It introduces various design principles and methods of practical nonlinear circuits.

Prerequisites

  • Basic knowledge in Electromagnetic and analog Electronic
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering course “Microwave and RF Engineering” (ECE 473 or ECE 671) or equivalent, or permission of the instructor

Design project

Each student will have a design project dealing with the design of a particular nonlinear RF active circuit with realistic specifications. The design project requires that the student use RF CAD software Agilent's Advanced Design System.

Course content

Course content
Detailed Description Lecture hours
Review of linear microwave circuits:
  • matching networks
  • gain circles
  • stability circles
  • noise circles
3 hours
Nonlinear circuit analysis:
  • spectral domain analysis
  • time domain analysis
  • Newton-Raphson Method
  • harmonic balance analysis
4.5 hours
Nonlinear active device modeling:
  • small signal equivalent circuits
  • nonlinear I-V and C-V models for MOSFETS
  • nonlinear models for GaAs MESFETs and HEMTs
  • nonlinear bipolar device modeling
  • load-pull techniques
4.5 hours
RF power amplifiers (PA) for wireless communications:
  • practical design of linear RF PAs
  • overdriven PAs and Class F mode
  • switching mode PA
  • power amplifier bias circuit design
9 hours
Nonlinear effects in RF PAs and linearization techniques 4.5 hours
Power efficiency enhancement techniques 4.5 hours
Advanced Transmitters Architectures 3 hours
Other RF transmitters components 3 hours

References

  • Steve C. Cripps, RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communications, Second Edition, Artech House, ISBN: 1-59693-018-7
  • Stephen A. Maas, Nonlinear Microwave and RF Circuits, Second Edition, Artech House, ISBN: 1-58053-484-8
  • Andrei Grebennikov, Nonlinear Microwave and RF Circuits, First Edition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0-07-144493-9