Fourth Year Projects for 2005-2006


Group Project in Integrated Radio Frequency and Analog Design

What happened in 2005-2006 Posted in May 2006

Being co-supervised by Prof Plett and Prof Rogers, 9 students took part in this project building a frequency synthesizer for a WLAN system nominally at 5.2 GHz. Most students completed their design and layouts, but some had not completed all the post-layout simulations with extracted parasitics. At the systems level, a behavioural model of the loop was built and tested. By the end of the term a number of the individual blocks had been tested in the overall system loop. These included the phase detector charg pump, LC oscillator, four stage ring oscillator, and the sigma delta controller.

Students and their blocks were:

  • Aviviere Telang: System Design, overall system integration, loop filter design.
  • Pavel Peev: Phase Frequency Detector and Charge Pump
  • Yan Jin: LC Oscillator Design
  • Darryl Kostka: Ring Oscillator Design, four stage differential
  • Ming Yuen: Ring Oscillator Design, three stage differential
  • Guiqin Liu: Pulse Swallow Divider Design
  • Ting Ruan: Multi-Modulus Divider Design, cascaded divide by two/divide by three cells
  • Sameen Rehman: Sigma Delta Divider Controller, Third Order MASH architecture
  • Yen Sung (Mike) Lee: Mixer Design, passive with driver stage.

    The following was Updated Information August 31, 2005

    Although details have not been finalized, typical projects over the last few years have consisted of radio frequency and analog integrated circuit design. Typical design has been Wireless LAN transceiver operating in the GHz frequency range and might include RF parts (low-noise amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, power amplifiers) frequency synthesizer components (charge pumps, phase detectors, dividers, loop filters, voltage-controlled oscillators). This might also include some of the components in the analog stage, including parts like filters, analog-to-digital converters, or automatic gain control amplifiers.

    In this project, students will learn state-of-the-art design techniques and make use of advanced processes. Cadence-based tools, including Spectre RF, are the same as those widely used in industry so this will be valuable experience. This project may be combined with that of John Rogers with a resulting team of 8 to 14 students. Students will have their own blocks to design, but will also be involved in putting the whole transceiver together.

    This project will build on skills learned in ELEC 2507 and ELEC 3509. Detailed design information and instructions on the use of the tools will be provided in tutorial sessions at the beginning of the term. There will also be extensive handouts and reference books available. It is also recommended that students take ELEC 4505 Telecommunications Circuits, and ELEC 4707 Analog Integrated Circuit Design

    Further information can be found in the write-ups for previous years at: http://www.doe.carleton.ca/~cp/fyp.html