A low power crystal oscillator at 32,768 Hz

The frequency 32, 768 Hz, is one of the most popular frequencies for crystal oscillators as it is used in most time keeping applications. With the proper interface circuit ( PLLs ) it can also be used for high frequency synthesizers. The actual quartz is also relatively inexpensive and this lends itself to cost effective frequency circuits and timekeeping. Of course temperature control can aso be used to generate TCXOs.

In any case, we recently designed, fabricated and throroughly analyzed a low power crystal oscillator ( in conjunction with our sister company). The circuit was first pass functional. The crystal oscillator section dissipates a mere 200 - 500 nA of current at the rated frequency.

The entire chip consists of a crystal oscillator, a low power analog buffer, a level converter and a digital output buffer capable of driving 100 pF. In addition the device has a means of trimming the frequency using an analog trim as well as a digital fine trim.

The device was evaluated thoroughly and its temperature characteristics measured extensively. Interested parties may contact us through our website at www.signalpro.biz for our experience and these results. All in all a most satisfying experience!

A new silicon proven Rf device - a first pass success!

A first pass success is always welcome. When the sucess is a high frequency device it is doubly so. The latest addition to the high frequency, silicon proven ASSP portfolio, is a high frequency, wideband amplifer fabricated in a 0.35um SiGe process.

It is fairly general purpose and can be used as gain block, an LNA etc. The basic features are as follows:

Features:

Usable frequency gain = 100 to > 2500 Mhz
19 dB typical ac gain at 900 Mhz, VCC = 2.7V
NFMIN = 1.2 dB at 900 Mhz
NFMIN = 1.5 dB at 2500 Mhz
1 dB compression point at 900 Mz = 2.9 dBm
1 dB compression point at 2500 Mz = 0.9 dBm
OIP3 at 1.5 Ghz = 15.0 dBm
OIP3 at 2.5 Ghz = 10.0 dBm
Power supply from 2.7 to 5.0 Volt
Power supply current typical = 4.7 mA
Reverse isolation s12 = -48.0 dB min.

The device was tested from -55 Degrees C to 125 Degrees C. An extended frequency test was also done at 5.0 Ghz. The gain dropped to 17 dB. Other parameters were also slightly affected.

Anyone with interest in this device and its development may contact the author via the website located at www.signalpro.biz.

Change of menu item "Engineering pages"

The menu item in the website ( www.signalpro.biz) has been changed from "Engineering Pages" to " Engineer's corner".

More on the inverted F antenna analysis

An analysis of the printed inverted F antenna was carried out using the NEC2 program. This program is available in the public domain. It models antennas as wires.
One can set the wire radius. The disadvantage of the program is its inability to model dielectrics as substrates. However, in spite of this, with a bit of smarts a lot of information about antennas can be obtained from it. In case of a printed strip, Balanis's book provides the conversion between the wire radius and the width of the strip for those who may be interested in further analysis. Our experience has been that no matter how much modeling is done ( as we did follow up with ADS MOMENTUM)in the end the antenna ends up being tuned by somewhat of a trial and error method. In our opinion both procedures are important. We need a quick way to assess the antenna operation using a program like NEC2 which is surprising fast and a more refined means of simulation like ADS or FEKO. Check out the article in the SPG website ( http://www.signalpro.biz) under engineer's corner for printed antennas. ( Note: "Engineering pages"
has now been changed to "Engineer's corner".

The printed inverted F antenna

The printed inverted F antenna ( as opposed to the planar inverted F antenna) is a useful antenna capable of being printed right on the PCB of a wireless product. In an attempt to understand this antenna in more depth, the technical staff of SPG researched the topic. The result was that, there seems to be almost no information on this type of antenna in any of the typical texts on antennas. The only viable source for information on this antenna is the web. This too, is fairly sketchy. Our technical staff has now prepared a white paper containing the type of information on this antenna needed by practising engineers, and will be releasing it shortly via this blog, and in the engineering pages of the website at www.signalpro.biz.

Noise figure versus input referred noise

If we use the specification for a low noise amplifier, invariably the noise performance is a Noise Figure. However, in a particular system design we calculated the input referred voltage that could be a limiting factor for the very first stage LNA. The issue was how to convert from the noise figure of a selected LNA ( from Analog Devices no less) to the input referred noise voltage to make sure the amplifier was being chosen correctly. Well here is the conversion at least in one form.

Note: The noise factor is simply 1 + NA/Ni. Ni is the noise power coming in from a 50 Ohm matched source and is equal to -174 dBm/Hz. ( Pretty standard usage).

The noise voltage being generated by the 50 Ohm source is vni=4.46E-8 Vrms/Hz. This can then be used to compare whether the amplifer will work with a particular noise figure ( from the expression 1 + NA/Ni).

Check and see if the number NA, the noise input referred power generated by the amplifier itself, converted from a voltage to power is acceptable or not. Must remember to use the impedance level of 50 Ohm. Simple?


Example: If the NF is = 0.8, then 1+ NA/Ni = 10**0.08 = 1.2 ( approx). We can calculate vna as above for vni.

Here is a note on input noise. It has been found that the -174 dBm/Hz should be modified to -162 dBm/Hz for the rural environment in the US and to -98 dBm/Hz for the urban environment. The -174 dBm/Hz is therefore a theoretical figure used to specify and calculate noise figures and noise factors!

Yes, another thought; we need to make sure that the derivation for the noise factor is elaborated: Here it is:

Noise factor F = SNRi/SNRo where i stands for input and o stands for output.

So = Si X G ( G = Gain)
No = [Ni noise power from the 50 Ohm source + NA, noise power generated by the amp].

F = [Si/Ni] / [GSi/G(Ni+NA)] = 1 + NA/Ni.

Also for other items of engineering interest go to our website at www.signalpro.biz.

Thermal modeling and analysis of devices and MCMs

Thermal modeling and analysis of devices and MCMs ( modules) is becoming very important in recent times. In years past, most of the thermal effort was based on the design of devices, and thermal analysis was built into the circuit simulators such as SPICE. The rest of the modeling based on the electrical analogs of heat transfer was well understood, and could be done in a fairly simple way. Today the situation is quite complex. As more and more performance is demanded from semiconductors ( individually ) and from MCMs ( multi-chip modules ), and indeed entire products, such as cell phones, the heat per area is rising towards the 500 W/cm squared limit. This is a lot of heat, and it is very difficult to use the old methods to model and understand these problems. Therefore thermal modeling is attacking these issues in electrothermal dynamics by using newer CAD tools based on FEM ( Finite element methods ) and CFD ( Computational Fluid Dynamics). A number of new thermal modeling tools have appeared on the market. Some are reasonably priced and others are not. Again you get what you pay for! Heat flow is based on the conduction, convection and radiation of heat ultimately. Thermal CAD tools model these processes in their own proprietary way. We have used a couple of these tools and find them fairly, ( and I mean fairly ) complex. So practice is neccessary. However, the results obtained are within the 20% error band. The accuracy of results also depend on the skill of the user! More on this topic as time goes on. It is a fascinating subject.