Reconfigurable Radios: A Possible Solution to Reduce Entry Costs in Wireless Phones

With advances in telecommunications, an increasing number of services rely on high data rate spectrum access. These critical services include banking, telemedicine, and exchange of technical information. As a result, spectrum resources are in ever-greater demand and the radio spectrum has become overly crowded. For efficient usage of spectrum, smart or cognitive radios are sought after. However, current wireless phones can only select a few specific bands. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of reconfigurable radios in not only increasing the efficiency of spectrum usage but also in potentially reducing the cost of wireless handsets and the barriers for new wireless service providers to enter the market. We review available technologies that make the implementation of reconfigurable radios possible and discuss technical challenges that need to be overcome before multistandard reconfigurable radios are put into practice. We also evaluate the ability of reconfigurable radios in reducing entry costs for new competitors in wireless service.

[1]  K. Petersen.  Micromechanical membrane switches on silicon , 1979 .

[2]  K.E. Petersen,et al.  Silicon as a mechanical material , 1982, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[3]  C. Goldsmith,et al.  Micromechanical membrane switches for microwave applications , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium.

[4]  Joseph Mitola,et al.  The software radio architecture , 1995, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[5]  P. Zavracky,et al.  Micromechanical switches fabricated using nickel surface micromachining , 1997 .

[6]  S. Majumder,et al.  Study of contacts in an electrostatically actuated microswitch , 1998, Electrical Contacts - 1998. Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts (Cat. No.98CB36238).

[7]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A varactor-tuned RF filter , 2000 .

[8]  C. D. Rios,et al.  RF MEMS from a device perspective , 2000 .

[9]  J.U. Bu,et al.  Micromachined RF MEMS tunable capacitors using piezoelectric actuators , 2001, 2001 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Sympsoium Digest (Cat. No.01CH37157).

[10]  Y. Gianchandani,et al.  Bent-beam electrothermal actuators-Part I: Single beam and cascaded devices , 2001 .

[11]  C. A. Hall,et al.  VHF high‐power tunable RF bandpass filter using microelectromechanical (MEM) microrelays , 2001 .

[12]  Ye Wang,et al.  Low-voltage lateral-contact microrelays for RF applications , 2002, Technical Digest. MEMS 2002 IEEE International Conference. Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.02CH37266).

[13]  Sandro Brusco,et al.  Collusion via Signalling in Simultaneous Ascending Bid Auctions with Heterogeneous Objects, with and without Complementarities , 2002 .

[14]  A. Mortazawi,et al.  Voltage-controlled RF filters employing thin-film barium-strontium-titanate tunable capacitors , 2003 .

[15]  G. Fedder,et al.  RF CMOS-MEMS capacitor having large tuning range , 2003, TRANSDUCERS '03. 12th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.03TH8664).

[16]  S. J. Gross,et al.  Lead-zirconate-titanate-based piezoelectric micromachined switch , 2003 .

[17]  Robert L. Borwick,et al.  Variable MEMS capacitors implemented into RF filter systems , 2003 .

[18]  Bob Puers,et al.  Piezoelectric actuation for application in RF-MEMS switches , 2004, SPIE Photonics Europe.

[19]  W.J. Chappell,et al.  Precision fabrication techniques and analysis on high-Q evanescent-mode resonators and filters of different geometries , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[20]  Hee-Chul Lee,et al.  Piezoelectrically actuated RF MEMS DC contact switches with low voltage operation , 2005, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[21]  H. Ishida,et al.  A high-power RF switch IC using AlGaN/GaN HFETs with single-stage configuration , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[22]  Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans,et al.  Low-Revenue Equilibria in Simultaneous Ascending-Bid Auctions , 2005, Manag. Sci..

[23]  Georg Fischer,et al.  RF MEMS and NEMS technology, devices, and applications , 2005, Bell Labs Technical Journal.

[24]  Jeremy T. Fox,et al.  Measuring the Efficiency of an Fcc Spectrum Auction , 2005 .

[25]  Mark A. Beach,et al.  Flexible Frequency Discrimination Subsystems for Reconfigurable Radio Front Ends , 2005, EURASIP J. Wirel. Commun. Netw..

[26]  J.I. Alonso,et al.  Tunable combline filter with continuous control of center frequency and bandwidth , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[27]  Minjae Lee,et al.  An 800-MHz–6-GHz Software-Defined Wireless Receiver in 90-nm CMOS , 2006, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[28]  Koichi Imanaka,et al.  Development of a large-force low-loss metal-contact RF MEMS switch , 2006 .

[29]  Jeremy T. Fox,et al.  Evaluating wireless carrier consolidation using semiparametric demand estimation , 2006 .

[30]  R. Mansour,et al.  An Integrated Tunable Band-Pass Filter Using MEMS Parallel-Plate Variable Capacitors Implemented with 0.35μm CMOS Technology , 2007, 2007 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium.

[31]  Jae-Hyoung Park,et al.  Development of shunt type ohmic RF MEMS switches actuated by piezoelectric cantilever , 2007 .

[32]  Pui-In Mak,et al.  Transceiver architecture selection: Review, state-of-the-art survey and case study , 2007, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine.

[33]  P. Palange,et al.  From the authors , 2007, European Respiratory Journal.

[34]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  1.6-2.4 GHz RF MEMS tunable 3-pole suspended combline filter , 2008, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[35]  F. Ayazi,et al.  Small-bandwidth integrated tunable bandpass filters for GSM applications , 2008, 2008 IEEE 21st International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.

[36]  H. Newman,et al.  Lifetime Measurements on a High-Reliability RF-MEMS Contact Switch , 2008, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[37]  M. Pisani,et al.  Dual-beam actuation of piezoelectric AlN RF MEMS switches monolithically integrated with AlN contour-mode resonators , 2008 .

[38]  F. Ayazi,et al.  High Performance Inductors on CMOS-Grade Trenched Silicon Substrate , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies.

[39]  M. Moudgill,et al.  THE SANDBLASTER 2 . 0 ARCHITECTURE AND SB 3500 IMPLEMENTATION , 2008 .

[40]  Júlio Costa,et al.  INTEGRATED MEMS SWITCH TECHNOLOGY ON SOI-CMOS , 2008 .

[41]  A. Abbaspour-Tamijani,et al.  Tunable Filters With Nonuniform Microstrip Coupled Lines , 2008, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[42]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  Low-Loss Two-Pole Tunable Filters With Three Different Predefined Bandwidth Characteristics , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[43]  K. Sarabandi,et al.  An Analytic Design Method for Microstrip Tunable Filters , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[44]  R. Brockenbrough,et al.  Single-chip RF CMOS UMTS/EGSM transceiver with integrated receive diversity and GPS , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[45]  Yoohwan Kim,et al.  A design of fractional-N frequency synthesizer with quad-band (700 MHz/AWS/2100 MHz/2600 MHz) VCO for LTE application in 65 nm CMOS process , 2009, 2009 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference.

[46]  Michael S. Hsiao,et al.  Cognitive Radio and Networking Research at Virginia Tech , 2009, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[47]  Li Lin,et al.  A fully integrated 2×2 MIMO dual-band dual- mode direct-conversion CMOS transceiver for WiMAX/WLAN applications , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[48]  Haitao Wu,et al.  Sora: High Performance Software Radio Using General Purpose Multi-core Processors , 2009, NSDI.

[49]  Elias Dagher,et al.  Single-chip multiband WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA/EGPRS transceiver with diversity receiver and 3G DigRF interface without SAW filters in transmitter / 3G receiver paths , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[50]  F. Ayazi,et al.  Low-loss MEMS band-pass filters with improved out-of-band rejection by exploiting inductive parasitics , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

[51]  Jae Y. Park,et al.  Compact PCB embedded tunable filter for UHF TV broadcasting , 2009, 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[52]  H. Joshi,et al.  High Q narrow-band tunable filters with controllable bandwidth , 2009, 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[53]  Jin-Su Ko,et al.  A Low-Power CMOS SAW-Less Quad Band WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+/1X/EGPRS Transmitter , 2009, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[54]  W.J. Chappell,et al.  High-$Q$ Fully Reconfigurable Tunable Bandpass Filters , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[55]  Wei Wang,et al.  A Two-Cycle Lock-In Time ADPLL Design Based on a Frequency Estimation Algorithm , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs.

[56]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  High-$Q$ RF-MEMS 4–6-GHz Tunable Evanescent-Mode Cavity Filter , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[57]  Mike Shuo-Wei Chen,et al.  A Calibration-Free 800 MHz Fractional-N Digital PLL With Embedded TDC , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[58]  Alyosha C. Molnar,et al.  A Passive Mixer-First Receiver With Digitally Controlled and Widely Tunable RF Interface , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[59]  Hooman Darabi,et al.  A multistandard, multiband SoC with integrated BT, FM, WLAN radios and integrated power amplifier , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).

[60]  Dong Chao,et al.  Universal Software Radio Peripheral , 2010 .

[61]  L. Katehi,et al.  High-$Q$ Tunable Microwave Cavity Resonators and Filters Using SOI-Based RF MEMS Tuners , 2010, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[62]  Xiu Yin Zhang,et al.  Low-Loss Frequency-Agile Bandpass Filters With Controllable Bandwidth and Suppressed Second Harmonic , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[63]  Arthur S. Morris,et al.  CMOS integrated digital RF MEMS capacitors , 2011, 2011 IEEE 11th Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems.

[64]  V Sekar,et al.  A 1.2–1.6-GHz Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide RF MEMS Tunable Filter , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[65]  Eric A. M. Klumperink,et al.  Tunable High-Q N-Path Band-Pass Filters: Modeling and Verification , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[66]  Amr Elshazly,et al.  A 0.4-to-3GHz digital PLL with supply-noise cancellation using deterministic background calibration , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[67]  Ahmad Mirzaei,et al.  A Low-Power Process-Scalable Super-Heterodyne Receiver With Integrated High-$Q$ Filters , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[68]  Youngmin Park,et al.  An all-digital PLL synthesized from a digital standard cell library in 65nm CMOS , 2011, 2011 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC).

[69]  David D. Wentzloff,et al.  A 60 GHz Antenna-Referenced Frequency-Locked Loop in 0.13 $\mu$m CMOS for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[70]  Amr Elshazly,et al.  A 0.4-to-3 GHz Digital PLL With PVT Insensitive Supply Noise Cancellation Using Deterministic Background Calibration , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[71]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  Miniature MEMS Switches for RF Applications , 2011, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[72]  Ahmad Mirzaei,et al.  A low-power process-scalable superheterodyne receiver with integrated high-Q filters , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[73]  Ching-Che Chung,et al.  A Fast Phase Tracking ADPLL for Video Pixel Clock Generation in 65 nm CMOS Technology , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[74]  Young-Ho Cho,et al.  A Tunable Combline Bandpass Filter Loaded With Series Resonator , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[75]  M. Rais-Zadeh,et al.  An integrated RF MEMS tunable filter , 2012, 2012 IEEE 25th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS).

[76]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A High-Reliability High-Linearity High-Power RF MEMS Metal-Contact Switch for DC–40-GHz Applications , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[77]  M. Rais-Zadeh,et al.  A High-Performance Continuously Tunable MEMS Bandpass Filter at 1 GHz , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[78]  Jan Craninckx.  CMOS software-defined radio transceivers: Analog design in digital technology , 2012, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[79]  Hyung-Jin Lee,et al.  A TDC-less ADPLL with 200-to-3200MHz range and 3mW power dissipation for mobile SoC clocking in 22nm CMOS , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[80]  F. M. Ghannouchi,et al.  Dual-Band RF Circuits and Components for Multi-Standard Software Defined Radios , 2012, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine.

[81]  K. Sarabandi,et al.  Batch-Fabricated High-Power RF Microrelays With Direct On-PCB Packages , 2012, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[82]  Ehsan Afshari,et al.  A Low-Phase-Noise Wide-Tuning-Range Oscillator Based on Resonant Mode Switching , 2012, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[83]  David D. Wentzloff,et al.  An automatically placed-and-routed ADPLL for the medradio band using PWM to enhance DCO resolution , 2013, 2013 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC).

[84]  Dimitrios Peroulis,et al.  Theory and Design of Octave Tunable Filters With Lumped Tuning Elements , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[85]  R. R. Mansour,et al.  High-$Q$ Narrowband Tunable Combline Bandpass Filters Using MEMS Capacitor Banks and Piezomotors , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[86]  Taeik Kim,et al.  A 0.032mm2 3.1mW synthesized pixel clock generator with 30psrms integrated jitter and 10-to-630MHz DCO tuning range , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.

[87]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  The Search for a Reliable MEMS Switch , 2013, IEEE Microwave Magazine.

[88]  M. Rais-Zadeh,et al.  RF switches using phase change materials , 2013, 2013 IEEE 26th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS).

[89]  E. Klumperink,et al.  A 12GHz 210fs 6mW digital PLL with sub-sampling binary phase detector and voltage-time modulated DCO , 2013, 2013 Symposium on VLSI Circuits.

[90]  Eva Rajo-Iglesias,et al.  Cognitive-Radio and Antenna Functionalities: A Tutorial , 2014 .

[91]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  0.73–1.03-GHz Tunable Bandpass Filter With a Reconfigurable 2/3/4-Pole Response , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[92]  R. Young,et al.  Low-loss latching microwave switch using thermally pulsed non-volatile chalcogenide phase change materials , 2014 .

[93]  Ada S. Y. Poon,et al.  21.5 A 3.24-to-8.45GHz low-phase-noise mode-switching oscillator , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers (ISSCC).

[94]  Eva Rajo-Iglesias,et al.  Wireless corner: Cognitive-radio and antenna functionalities: A tutorial , 2014 .

[95]  Dimitrios Peroulis,et al.  Tunable VHF Miniaturized Helical Filters , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[96]  M. Rais-Zadeh,et al.  Directly heated four-terminal phase change switches , 2014, 2014 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS2014).

[97]  Kenichi Okada,et al.  15.1 A 0.0066mm2 780μW fully synthesizable PLL with a current-output DAC and an interpolative phase-coupled oscillator using edge-injection technique , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers (ISSCC).