A Wideband Digital-Intensive Current-Mode Transmitter Line-Up

A current-mode direct-digital RF modulator (DDRM)-based transmitter (TX) architecture is proposed in this article for energy-efficient wireless applications. To demonstrate its key principles, a 2×13 bit demonstrator is implemented in a 40-nm CMOS technology. This DDRM can operate standalone or as a driver for a common-gate (CG)/common-base ...

A Wideband IQ-Mapping Direct-Digital RF Modulator for 5G Transmitters

This article presents a wideband 2× 12 -bit direct-digital RF modulator (DDRM) operating in a 0.5-to-3-GHz band for 5G transmitters. The proposed digital Cartesian modulator features an advanced IQ-mapping technique to boost RF power by 3 dB and suppress the I/Q image. To verify the proposed concept, a 40-nm CMOS prototype is implemented...

High-Power Digital Transmitters for Wireless Infrastructure Applications (A Feasibility Study)

Fully digital transmitters (DTXs) have the potential of replacing analog-intensive transmitter (TX) line-ups in future massive multiple-input and multiple-output (mMIMO) systems since they hold the promise of higher system integration level and energy efficiency. DTX operation so far has been limited to low RF output powers. This article...

A 39 W Fully Digital Wideband Inverted Doherty Transmitter

A high-power fully-digital Doherty transmitter (DDTX) is proposed. It features two segmented LDMOS output switch banks implemented in a custom V T -down-shifted LDMOS technology. A 40 nm CMOS controller digitally activates the individual LDMOS gate segments of the output stage at RF speed. An inverted Doherty power combiner is proposed that...