The demand for efficient and reliable high rate communication is ever increasing. In this thesis we study different challenges in such systems, and their possible solutions. A goal for many years has been to implement as much as possible of a radio system in the digital domain, the ultimate goal being so called software defined radio (SDR) where the inner workings of a radio standard can be changed completely by changing the software. One important part of an SDR receiver is the high speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and one path to reach this high speed is to use a number of parallel, time-interleaved, ADCs. Such ADCs are, however, sensitive to sampling instant offsets, DC level offsets and gain offsets. This thesis discusses estimators based on fractional-delay filters and one application of these estimmators is to estimate and calibrate the relative delay, gain, and DC level offset between the ADCs comprising the time interleaved ADC. In this thesis we also present a technique for carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. OFDM has gone from a promising digital radio transmission technique to become a mainstream technique used in several current and future standards. The main attractive property of OFDM is that it is inherently resilient to multipath reflections because of its long symbol time. However, this comes at the cost of a relatively high sensitivity to CFO. The proposed estimator is based on locating the spectral minimas within so-called null or virtual subcarriers embedded in the spectrum.~The spectral minimas are found iteratively over a number of symbols and is therefore mainly useful for frequency offset tracking or in systems where an estimate is not immediately required, such as in TV or radio broadcasting systems. However, complexity-wise the estimator is relatively easy to implement and it does not need any extra redundancy beside a nonmodulated subcarrier. The estimator performance is studied both in a channel with additive white Gaussian noise and in a multipath frequency selective channel environment. Interpolators and decimators are an important part of many systems, e.g. radio systems, audio systems etc. Such interpolation (decimation) is often performed using cascaded interpolators (decimators) to reduce the speed requirements in different parts of the system. In a fixed-point implementation, scaling is needed to maximize the use of the available word lengths and to prevent overflow. In the final part of the thesis, we present a method for scaling of multistage interpolators/decimators using multirate signal processing techniques. We also present a technique to estimate the output roundoff noise caused by the internal quantization.

This thesis strives to enhance the performance of delta-sigma modulators in two areas: increasing their speed and enabling their operation in a low voltage environment. Parallelism based on time-interleaving can be used to increase the speed of delta-sigma modulators. A novel single-path time-interleaved architecture is derived and analyzed. Finite opamp gain and bandwidth result in a mismatch between the noise transfer functions of the internal quantizers which degrades the performance of the new modulator. Two techniques are presented to mitigate the mismatch problem: a hybrid topology where the first stage uses multiple integrators while the rest of the modulator uses a single path of integrators and a digital calibration method. The input-feedforward technique removes the input-signal component from the internal nodes of delta-sigma modulators. The removal of the signal component reduces the signal swing and distortion requirements for the opamps. These characteristics enable the reliable implementation of delta-sigma modulators in modern CMOS technology. Two implementation issues for modulators with input-feedforward are considered. First, the drawback of the analog adder at the quantizer input is identified and the capacitive input feedforward technique is introduced to eliminate the adder. Second, the double sampled input technique is proposed to remove the critical path generate by the input feedforward path. Novel input-feedforward delta-sigma architecture is proposed. The new digital input feedforward (DIFF) modulator maintains the low swing and low distortion requirements of the input feedforward technique, it eliminates the analog adder at the quantizer input, and it improves the achievable resolution. To demonstrate these advantages, a configurable delta-sigma modulator which can operate as a feedback topology or in DIFF mode is implemented in 0.18μm CMOS technology. Both modulators operate at 20MHz clock with an oversampling ratio of 8. The power consumption in the DIFF mode is 22mW and in feedback mode is 19mW. However, the DIFF mode achieves a peak SNDR of 73.7dB (77.1dB peak SNR) while the feedback mode achieves a peak SNDR of 64.3dB (65.9dB peak SNR). Therefore, the energy required per conversion step for the DIFF architecture (2.2 pJ/step) is less than half of that required by the feedback architecture (5.7 pJ/step).

<p>This dissertation studies a state-of-the-art bandwidth-efficient coded modulation technique, known as bit interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID), together with various diversity techniques to dramatically improve the performance of digital communication systems over wireless channels.</p> <p>For BICM-ID over a single-antenna frequency non-selective fading channel, the problem of mapping over multiple symbols, i.e., multi-dimensional (multi-D) mapping, with 8-PSK constellation is investigated. An explicit algorithm to construct a good multi-D mapping of 8-PSK to improve the asymptotic performance of BICM-ID systems is introduced. By comparing the performance of the proposed mapping with an unachievable lower bound, it is conjectured that the proposed mapping is the global optimal mapping. The superiority of the proposed mapping over the best conventional (1-dimensional complex) mapping and the multi-D mapping found previously by computer search is thoroughly demonstrated.</p> <p>In addition to the mapping issue in single-antenna BICM-ID systems, the use of signal space diversity (SSD), also known as linear constellation precoding (LCP), is considered in BICM-ID over frequency non-selective fading channels. The performance analysis of BICM-ID and complex N-dimensional signal space diversity is carried out to study its performance limitation, the choice of the rotation matrix and the design of a low-complexity receiver. Based on the design criterion obtained from a tight error bound, the optimality of the rotation matrix is established. It is shown that using the class of optimal rotation matrices, the performance of BICM-ID systems over a frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading channel approaches that of the BICM-ID systems over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel when the dimension of the signal constellation increases. Furthermore, by exploiting the sigma mapping for any M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation, a very simple sub-optimal, yet effective iterative receiver structure suitable for signal constellations with large dimensions is proposed. Simulation results in various cases and conditions indicate that the proposed receiver can achieve the analytical performance bounds with low complexity.</p> <p>The application of BICM-ID with SSD is then extended to the case of cascaded Rayleigh fading, which is more suitable to model mobile-to-mobile communication channels. By deriving the error bound on the asymptotic performance, it is first illustrated that for a small modulation constellation, a cascaded Rayleigh fading causes a much more severe performance degradation than a conventional Rayleigh fading. However, BICM-ID employing SSD with a sufficiently large constellation can close the performance gap between the Rayleigh and cascaded Rayleigh fading channels, and their performance can closely approach that over an AWGN channel.</p> <p>In the next step, the use of SSD in BICM-ID over frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels employing a multi-carrier modulation technique known as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is studied. Under the assumption of correlated fading over subcarriers, a tight bound on the asymptotic error performance for the general case of applying SSD over all N subcarriers is derived and used to establish the best achievable asymptotic performance by SSD. It is then shown that precoding over subgroups of at least L subcarriers per group, where L is the number of channel taps, is sufficient to obtain this best asymptotic error performance, while significantly reducing the receiver complexity. The optimal joint subcarrier grouping and rotation matrix design is subsequently determined by solving the Vandermonde linear system. Illustrative examples show a good agreement between various analytical and simulation results.</p> <p>Further, by combining the ideas of multi-D mapping and subcarrier grouping, a novel power and bandwidth-efficient bit-interleaved coded modulation with OFDM and iterative decoding (BI-COFDM-ID) in which multi-D mapping is performed over a group of subcarriers for broadband transmission in a frequency selective fading environment is proposed. A tight bound on the asymptotic error performance is developed, which shows that subcarrier mapping and grouping have independent impacts on the overall error performance, and hence they can be independently optimized. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the optimal subcarrier mapping is similar to the optimal multi-D mapping for BICM-ID in frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading environment, whereas the optimal subcarrier grouping is the same with that of OFDM with SSD. Furthermore, analytical and simulation results show that the proposed system with the combined optimal subcarrier mapping and grouping can achieve the full channel diversity without using SSD and provide significant coding gains as compared to the previously studied BI-COFDM-ID with the same power, bandwidth and receiver complexity.</p> <p>Finally, the investigation is extended to the application of BICM-ID over a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system equipped with multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver to exploit both time and spatial diversities, where neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows the channel fading coefficients. The concentration is on the class of unitary constellation, due to its advantages in terms of both information-theoretic capacity and error probability. The tight error bound with respect to the asymptotic performance is also derived for any given unitary constellation and mapping rule. Design criteria regarding the choice of unitary constellation and mapping are then established. Furthermore, by using the unitary constellation obtained from orthogonal design with quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK or 4-PSK) and 8-PSK, two different mapping rules are proposed. The first mapping rule gives the most suitable mapping for systems that do not implement iterative processing, which is similar to a Gray mapping in coherent channels. The second mapping rule yields the best mapping for systems with iterative decoding. Analytical and simulation results show that with the proposed mappings of the unitary constellations obtained from orthogonal designs, the asymptotic error performance of the iterative systems can closely approach a lower bound which is applicable to any unitary constellation and mapping.</p>

This thesis strives to enhance the performance of delta-sigma modulators in two areas: increasing their speed and enabling their operation in a low voltage environment. Parallelism based on time-interleaving can be used to increase the speed of delta-sigma modulators. A novel single-path time-interleaved architecture is derived and analyzed. Finite opamp gain and bandwidth result in a mismatch between the noise transfer functions of the internal quantizers which degrades the performance of the new modulator. Two techniques are presented to mitigate the mismatch problem: a hybrid topology where the first stage uses multiple integrators while the rest of the modulator uses a single path of integrators and a digital calibration method. The input-feedforward technique removes the input-signal component from the internal nodes of delta-sigma modulators. The removal of the signal component reduces the signal swing and distortion requirements for the opamps. These characteristics enable the reliable implementation of delta-sigma modulators in modern CMOS technology. Two implementation issues for modulators with input-feedforward are considered. First, the drawback of the analog adder at the quantizer input is identified and the capacitive input feedforward technique is introduced to eliminate the adder. Second, the double sampled input technique is proposed to remove the critical path generate by the input feedforward path. Novel input-feedforward delta-sigma architecture is proposed. The new digital input feedforward (DIFF) modulator maintains the low swing and low distortion requirements of the input feedforward technique, it eliminates the analog adder at the quantizer input, and it improves the achievable resolution. To demonstrate these advantages, a configurable delta-sigma modulator which can operate as a feedback topology or in DIFF mode is implemented in 0.18μm CMOS technology. Both modulators operate at 20MHz clock with an oversampling ratio of 8. The power consumption in the DIFF mode is 22mW and in feedback mode is 19mW. However, the DIFF mode achieves a peak SNDR of 73.7dB (77.1dB peak SNR) while the feedback mode achieves a peak SNDR of 64.3dB (65.9dB peak SNR). Therefore, the energy required per conversion step for the DIFF architecture (2.2 pJ/step) is less than half of that required by the feedback architecture (5.7 pJ/step).

Time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters make use of parallelization to increase the rate at which an analog signal can be digitized. Using M channels at their maximum sampling frequency allows for an overall sampling frequency of M times the individual converters' sampling rate. However, the performance of interleaved systems suffers from mismatches between the sub-converters. Offset mismatches, gain mismatches, and timing mismatches all contribute to the degradation of the resolution of the ADC system. Offset and gain mismatches can be corrected for in the digital domain with minimal extra processing. However, the effects of timing mismatches (specifically, the magnitude of the spurious tones that are introduced) are dependent on the frequency of the input, so digital correction is not a trivial task. This makes a circuit-based correction mechanism a much more desirable solution to the problem. This work explores the effect of timing mismatches on interleaved analog-to-digital converter performance. A set of requirements is derived to specify the performance of a variable-delay circuit for the tuning of sample clocks. Since the mismatches can be composed of both fixed and random components, several candidate architectures are modeled for their delay and jitter performance. One candidate is selected for design, based on its jitter performance and on practical considerations. A practical implementation of the clock-adjustment circuit is designed, featuring low-noise differential clock paths with high precision delay adjustment. A means of testing the circuit and verifying the precision of adjustment is presented. The design is implemented for fabrication, and post-layout simulations are shown to demonstrate the feasibility and functionality of the design.

<p>This dissertation studies a state-of-the-art bandwidth-efficient coded modulation technique, known as bit interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID), together with various diversity techniques to dramatically improve the performance of digital communication systems over wireless channels.</p> <p>For BICM-ID over a single-antenna frequency non-selective fading channel, the problem of mapping over multiple symbols, i.e., multi-dimensional (multi-D) mapping, with 8-PSK constellation is investigated. An explicit algorithm to construct a good multi-D mapping of 8-PSK to improve the asymptotic performance of BICM-ID systems is introduced. By comparing the performance of the proposed mapping with an unachievable lower bound, it is conjectured that the proposed mapping is the global optimal mapping. The superiority of the proposed mapping over the best conventional (1-dimensional complex) mapping and the multi-D mapping found previously by computer search is thoroughly demonstrated.</p> <p>In addition to the mapping issue in single-antenna BICM-ID systems, the use of signal space diversity (SSD), also known as linear constellation precoding (LCP), is considered in BICM-ID over frequency non-selective fading channels. The performance analysis of BICM-ID and complex N-dimensional signal space diversity is carried out to study its performance limitation, the choice of the rotation matrix and the design of a low-complexity receiver. Based on the design criterion obtained from a tight error bound, the optimality of the rotation matrix is established. It is shown that using the class of optimal rotation matrices, the performance of BICM-ID systems over a frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading channel approaches that of the BICM-ID systems over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel when the dimension of the signal constellation increases. Furthermore, by exploiting the sigma mapping for any M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation, a very simple sub-optimal, yet effective iterative receiver structure suitable for signal constellations with large dimensions is proposed. Simulation results in various cases and conditions indicate that the proposed receiver can achieve the analytical performance bounds with low complexity.</p> <p>The application of BICM-ID with SSD is then extended to the case of cascaded Rayleigh fading, which is more suitable to model mobile-to-mobile communication channels. By deriving the error bound on the asymptotic performance, it is first illustrated that for a small modulation constellation, a cascaded Rayleigh fading causes a much more severe performance degradation than a conventional Rayleigh fading. However, BICM-ID employing SSD with a sufficiently large constellation can close the performance gap between the Rayleigh and cascaded Rayleigh fading channels, and their performance can closely approach that over an AWGN channel.</p> <p>In the next step, the use of SSD in BICM-ID over frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels employing a multi-carrier modulation technique known as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is studied. Under the assumption of correlated fading over subcarriers, a tight bound on the asymptotic error performance for the general case of applying SSD over all N subcarriers is derived and used to establish the best achievable asymptotic performance by SSD. It is then shown that precoding over subgroups of at least L subcarriers per group, where L is the number of channel taps, is sufficient to obtain this best asymptotic error performance, while significantly reducing the receiver complexity. The optimal joint subcarrier grouping and rotation matrix design is subsequently determined by solving the Vandermonde linear system. Illustrative examples show a good agreement between various analytical and simulation results.</p> <p>Further, by combining the ideas of multi-D mapping and subcarrier grouping, a novel power and bandwidth-efficient bit-interleaved coded modulation with OFDM and iterative decoding (BI-COFDM-ID) in which multi-D mapping is performed over a group of subcarriers for broadband transmission in a frequency selective fading environment is proposed. A tight bound on the asymptotic error performance is developed, which shows that subcarrier mapping and grouping have independent impacts on the overall error performance, and hence they can be independently optimized. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the optimal subcarrier mapping is similar to the optimal multi-D mapping for BICM-ID in frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading environment, whereas the optimal subcarrier grouping is the same with that of OFDM with SSD. Furthermore, analytical and simulation results show that the proposed system with the combined optimal subcarrier mapping and grouping can achieve the full channel diversity without using SSD and provide significant coding gains as compared to the previously studied BI-COFDM-ID with the same power, bandwidth and receiver complexity.</p> <p>Finally, the investigation is extended to the application of BICM-ID over a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system equipped with multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver to exploit both time and spatial diversities, where neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows the channel fading coefficients. The concentration is on the class of unitary constellation, due to its advantages in terms of both information-theoretic capacity and error probability. The tight error bound with respect to the asymptotic performance is also derived for any given unitary constellation and mapping rule. Design criteria regarding the choice of unitary constellation and mapping are then established. Furthermore, by using the unitary constellation obtained from orthogonal design with quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK or 4-PSK) and 8-PSK, two different mapping rules are proposed. The first mapping rule gives the most suitable mapping for systems that do not implement iterative processing, which is similar to a Gray mapping in coherent channels. The second mapping rule yields the best mapping for systems with iterative decoding. Analytical and simulation results show that with the proposed mappings of the unitary constellations obtained from orthogonal designs, the asymptotic error performance of the iterative systems can closely approach a lower bound which is applicable to any unitary constellation and mapping.</p>

Time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters make use of parallelization to increase the rate at which an analog signal can be digitized. Using M channels at their maximum sampling frequency allows for an overall sampling frequency of M times the individual converters' sampling rate. However, the performance of interleaved systems suffers from mismatches between the sub-converters. Offset mismatches, gain mismatches, and timing mismatches all contribute to the degradation of the resolution of the ADC system. Offset and gain mismatches can be corrected for in the digital domain with minimal extra processing. However, the effects of timing mismatches (specifically, the magnitude of the spurious tones that are introduced) are dependent on the frequency of the input, so digital correction is not a trivial task. This makes a circuit-based correction mechanism a much more desirable solution to the problem. This work explores the effect of timing mismatches on interleaved analog-to-digital converter performance. A set of requirements is derived to specify the performance of a variable-delay circuit for the tuning of sample clocks. Since the mismatches can be composed of both fixed and random components, several candidate architectures are modeled for their delay and jitter performance. One candidate is selected for design, based on its jitter performance and on practical considerations. A practical implementation of the clock-adjustment circuit is designed, featuring low-noise differential clock paths with high precision delay adjustment. A means of testing the circuit and verifying the precision of adjustment is presented. The design is implemented for fabrication, and post-layout simulations are shown to demonstrate the feasibility and functionality of the design.

No description available.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια παρατηρείται μια ραγδαία ανάπτυξη στο κλάδο των τηλεπικοινωνιών και αυτό είναι ορατό στην καθημερινή ζωή μας. Η ψηφιακή μετάδοση και επεξεργασία των σημάτων σε συνδυασμό με την βελτίωση των μέσων μετάδοσης, της υποδομής και των τεχνικών διαμόρφωσης, δίνουν την δυνατότητα στους επιστήμονες να επικεντρωθούν όλο και περισσότερο στα θέματα τηλεπικοινωνιών, ειδικά των ασύρματων τηλεπικοινωνιών. Στις ασύρματες τηλεπικοινωνίες οι τεχνικές πολλαπλής πρόσβασης χρησιμοποιούνται για να επιτρέψουν σε πολλούς χρήστες να μοιραστούν ταυτόχρονα ένα περιορισμένο φάσμα συχνοτήτων. Το μοίρασμα του φάσματος είναι απαραίτητο προκειμένου να αυξήσουμε την χωρητικότητα ενός συστήματος, ενώ θα πρέπει να γίνει με τέτοιο τρόπο, ώστε να μην υπάρχει σημαντική υποβάθμιση της απόδοσης του συστήματος. Για να αντιμετωπιστεί αυτή η υποβάθμιση έχουν προταθεί διάφορες τεχνικές πολλαπλής πρόσβασης. Σε μια από αυτές τις τεχνικές το συνολικό φάσμα συχνοτήτων διαιρείται σε συχνοτικά μη-επικαλυπτόμενες υποζώνες, οι οποίες ανατίθενται στους επιμέρους χρήστες (πολλαπλή πρόσβαση με διαίρεση συχνότητας – FDMA). Σε αυτή την περίπτωση, όμως, έχουμε σπατάλη του εύρους ζώνης του καναλιού, αφού οι χρήστες δεν μπορούν να χρησιμοποιούν όλο το κανάλι, όλη την ώρα. Μια τεχνική που δίνει λύση στο παραπάνω πρόβλημα (πολλαπλή πρόσβαση με διαίρεση κωδικών - CDMA), χρησιμοποιεί ορθογώνιους κώδικες που ανατίθενται στους χρήστες, δίνοντας τους την δυνατότητα ταυτόχρονης μετάδοσης στο κανάλι για όση ώρα απαιτείται. Το βασικότερο πρόβλημα αυτής της τεχνικής είναι ότι η ιδιότητα της ορθογωνιότητας των κωδίκων χάνεται όταν χρησιμοποιούνται συχνοτικά επιλεκτικά κανάλια. Μια νέα τεχνική πολλαπλής πρόσβασης που προτάθηκε η οποία αποφεύγει τα παραπάνω προβλήματα είναι η πολλαπλή πρόσβαση με διαίρεση συχνότητας και αναδιάταξη δεδομένων (Interleaved FDMA). Η συγκεκριμένη τεχνική συνδυάζει χαρακτηριστικά από το FDMA και το CDMA. Συγκεκριμένα, συμπιέζει χρονικά την ακολουθία συμβόλων που πρόκειται να αποσταλεί, την επαναλαμβάνει (παρόμοια λειτουργία με το CDMA) και την μετατοπίζει συχνοτικά βασιζόμενη στον εκάστοτε χρήστη (παρόμοια λειτουργία με το OFDMA). Στον δέκτη οι ακολουθίες των χρηστών διαχωρίζονται χωρίς πρόβλημα ακόμα και όταν το κανάλι είναι συχνοτικά επιλεκτικό. Σε αυτή την περίπτωση εισάγεται διασυμβολική παρεμβολή με αποτέλεσμα να απαιτείται κάποια διαδικασία ισοστάθμισης. Η δομή με βάση την οποία έγινε η μελέτη της τεχνικής πολλαπλής πρόσβασης IFDMA είναι η εξής: 1. Αναφορά στις τρέχουσες τεχνικές πολλαπλής πρόσβασης και στα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα της κάθε τεχνικής. 2. Μελέτη της τεχνικής IFDMA και αναφορά στα προβλήματα που εμφανίζει πχ ισοστάθμιση. 3. Παρουσίαση της υλοποίησης της τεχνικής IFDMA και των λύσεων για τα προβλήματα που παρουσιάζει, τα πειραματικά αποτελέσματα που σχετίζονται με την υλοποίηση, καθώς και συγκριτικά αποτελέσματα με τις πιο γνωστές τεχνικές πολλαπλής πρόσβασης. 4. Συμπεράσματα της μελέτης και της σύγκρισης της τεχνικής IFDMA με τις γνωστές τεχνικές πολλαπλής πρόσβασης, καθώς και πιθανές μελλοντικές κατευθύνσεις. / In recent years, we have seen a rapid growth in the telecom industry and this is evident in our everyday lives. The digital transmission and processing of signals in conjunction with the improvement of the transmission, infrastructure and technical configuration means, gives scientists the opportunity to focus increasingly on telecommunications issues, specifically on wireless telecommunications. In wireless telecommunications, multiple access techniques are used, in order to allow multiple users to share simultaneously a limited range of frequencies. Spectrum splitting is necessary, in order to increase the capacity of a system and should be done in a way that results in no significant degradation of system performance. To overcome this degradation various multiple access techniques have been proposed. According to one of these techniques, the total frequency spectrum is divided in frequency of non-overlapping sub-bands which are assigned to individual users (multiple access frequency division - FDMA). In this case, however, we are wasting the bandwidth of the channel, since users can not use all the channel, all the time. A technique that solves the above problem (multiple access with codes - CDMA) uses orthogonal codes, assigned to users, allowing them to simulcast in the channel for as long as needed. The main problem of this technique is that the status of orthogonality is lost when frequency selective channels are used. A new multiple access technique proposed, which avoids these problems, is the multiple access with frequency division and reorganization of data (Interleaved FDMA). This technique combines features from FDMA and CDMA. Specifically, it compresses timewise the sequence of symbols to be sent, repeats it (an operation similar to CDMA) and shifts it, in terms of frequency range, based on each user (a function similar to OFDMA). In the receptor’s side, the sequences of users separate without problem, even when the channel is frequency selective. In this case, intersymbol interference is introduced, which, therefore, requires an equalization process. The structure, upon which the study of the multiple access technique IFDMA made, was: 1. Reference to the current multiple-access techniques and the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them. 2. Study of the IFDMA technique and reference to the problems that it presents e.g. equalization. 3. Presentation of the implementation of a) the IFDMA technique, b) solutions for the problems it displays, c) experimental results and d) the results from the comparison against the most popular multiple-access techniques. 4. Conclusions, stemming from the study and the comparison of the IFDMA technique with the known multiple-access techniques; possible future prospects.

abstract: Time-interleaved analog to digital converters (ADCs) have become critical components in high-speed communication systems. Consumers demands for smaller size, more bandwidth and more features from their communication systems have driven the market to use modern complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies with shorter channel-length transistors and hence a more compact design. Downscaling the supply voltage which is required in submicron technologies benefits digital circuits in terms of power and area. Designing accurate analog circuits, however becomes more challenging due to the less headroom. One way to overcome this problem is to use calibration to compensate for the loss of accuracy in analog circuits. Time-interleaving increases the effective data conversion rate in ADCs while keeping the circuit requirements the same. However, this technique needs special considerations as other design issues associated with using parallel identical channels emerge. The first and the most important is the practical issue of timing mismatch between channels, also called sample-time error, which can directly affect the performance of the ADC. Many techniques have been developed to tackle this issue both in analog and digital domains. Most of these techniques have high complexities especially when the number of channels exceeds 2 and some of them are only valid when input signal is a single tone sinusoidal which limits the application. This dissertation proposes a sample-time error calibration technique which bests the previous techniques in terms of simplicity, and also could be used with arbitrary input signals. A 12-bit 650 MSPS pipeline ADC with 1.5 GHz analog bandwidth for digital beam forming systems is designed in IBM 8HP BiCMOS 130 nm technology. A front-end sample-and-hold amplifier (SHA) was also designed to compare with an SHA-less design in terms of performance, power and area. Simulation results show that the proposed technique is able to improve the SNDR by 20 dB for a mismatch of 50% of the sampling period and up to 29 dB at 37% of the Nyquist frequency. The designed ADC consumes 122 mW in each channel and the clock generation circuit consumes 142 mW. The ADC achieves 68.4 dB SNDR for an input of 61 MHz. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2017