A mmWave Repeater for mmWave Fixed Wireless Access

Wolfgang Templ#1, Dieter Ferling#1, Marco Dietz #2, Katharina Kolb#2, Julian Potschka#2, Thomas Schulz#3, Thomas Bücher #3, Aniello Franzese#4, Andrea Malignaggi #4, Karina Schneider#5, Klaus

Aufinger#6

#1Nokia Bell Labs; #2Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; #3Bergische Universität Wuppertal; #4IHP microelectronics; #5Karlsruher Institut für Technologie; #6Infineon

#1 wolfgang.templ@nokia-bell-labs.com

WS-01 Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling & circuits for 5G, radar & imaging

http://tima.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/taranto/

- 2 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Wireless Access in cmWave/mmWave

Height 9m

mmWave

CO

Feeder route

fiber

distribution

point

mmWave

~200m ISD

✓ Abundant spectrum

✓ Small size antenna arrays

× Harsh propagation conditions leading to small cell sizes in NLOS conditions

× Dense network deployment requiring fiber distribution along streets

How can we remove the need for the dense fiber network?

- 3 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Fixed Wireless Access in mmWave

Wireless to the Macro

Height 9m

mmWave

mmWave

mmWave

2 hop architecture - serve access points from macro towers through LOS links

Short NLOS links

Long LOS links

- 4 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

“Other-Street” Measurement: Blockage by Buildings and Vegetation

Significant excess loss on other street

Rx other streetmeasurementrun

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Simulation Study Scenarios

6m3m

LOS

LOS/NLOS

6m

Hub RepeaterCPE

Suburban Urban Canyon

Hub

Relay

Street width: 25 m wall-to-wall,

7 m pole-to-wall, Pole-to-pole 50m

mount height 6m, CPE height 3m

CPE every 20m

Street width: 30 m wall-to-wall,

5 m pole-to-wall, Pole-to-pole 50m

BS 8m, UE 1.5m

UE every 5m

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Suburban FWA, Lamp Post to Wall Mounted CPE, DL only

With and without best cell selection

Wide beam repeater suffers from neighboring cell interference

- 7 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Urban Street Canyon, Lamp Post to Sidewalks 100% DL

With and without best cell selection

Performance of wide beam repeater more severely impacted by interference in this case

Substantial benefit for the beamforming repeater

- 8 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Scenario of a Beamforming Repeater

CO

Fronthaul RRH

Access beam Control

Fronthaul TRX

Access Beam Control

Access Beam Control

Access Base band

Control channel decoder

U1

U4

U5

U8

400MHz frequency blocks temporarily assigned to individual

users

Fully flexible and dynamic frequency block allocation in fronthaul & access between users

Access beam control and frequency block allocation in fronthaul transmitted in control channel Simple modulation scheme allowing an easy and reliable detection in the repeater

Hub

Repeater

t

f

UL DL

UL DL

UL DL

UL DL

Control

Time

U2 U2

Freq

U7

Analog Fronthaul with Digital Control

- 9 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

39 GHzAntenna

28 GHzAntenna

28 GHzAmp

39 GHz Filter

39 GHz Amp

28 GHz LNAs

11GHz

LO Amp

39/28GHzMixer

Power SupplyDistribution

First repeater setup

Preliminary trials (1/5)

• 39/28 GHz conversion

• LTE data transmission

• Low integration level

122.88 MHzLO Reference

Downlink board Uplink boardLO board

39/28GHzMixer

39GHz Amp

28GHz Amp

39GHz Amp

28GHz Amp

28GHz Filter

39GHz Filter39 GHzAntenna

28 GHzAntenna

Power SupplyDistribution

11GHz LO Amp

11GHz LO

10 MHZ OCXO

DC-DC Converter

µ- Controller

11GHz LO AmpDL/UL

LO- Splitter

Power SupplyDistribution

- 10 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Preliminary trials (2/5)

A

B

B

C

C = 39GHz Transmitter B = 39GHz/28GHz Repeater

A = 28GHz Receiver

Note: Range B->C limitation only due to topographically facts (margin available) !

DL- Measurement Outdoor Campus Nokia 39GHz -> 28GHz

- 11 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Outdoor experiments

Preliminary trials (3/5)

• DL Tests with 20MHz LTE signal

• TX: 39GHZ LTE signal on fronthaul

• RX: 28GHz on access link

• SNR >40db

• Excellent EVM<2.5% !

- 12 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Initial test in test-floor (mid range): UL with 500MHz bandwidth

Preliminary trials (4/5)

• SNR > 30db achieved !

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Initial test in test-floor (mid range): UL with 500MHz bandwidth

Preliminary trials (5/5)E

VM

in

sp

ec

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39-28 GHz Dual-Stream Repeater (1/2)

t

f DCMixer

3GHzFilter

- TDD control- Beam switching control- Clock recovery

3 GHz

3GHzRX

39GHz TX

DCMixer

39GHz RX

39GHzAntenna

28GHz TX

28 GHz Coupler

DCMixer

28GHz RX

TDDSwitch

TDDSwitch

39GHz TX

DCMixer

39GHz RX

39GHzAntenna

28GHz TX

DCMixer

28GHz RX

TDDSwitch

TDDSwitch

Stream 1

Stream 2

Stream 1

Stream 2

H

V

H

V

Generic Block Diagram

DL

UL

DL

UL

Control Unit

Dual-chain UL/DL 39/28 GHz frequency converter RFIC

8 x 8 Dual-PolarizedPhased Antenna Array

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39 GHz

Integrated radio

FreqH

VFreq

28 GHz

3GHz

DL/ULStream 1

Control channel

DL/ULStream 2

Control Unit

TDD and beamswitching control

TDD & PAswitching

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

4T4R

SPDT

SPDT

CNTRL IF

SPDT

SPDT

CNTRL IF

Phase Shifter RFIC

4T4R Dual Polarization

CNTRL IF Data

Register

SPDT

SPDT

Φ

Φ

VGA PAPhase

ShifterAMP

Switch 1 LNAVGAPhase

ShifterAMP Switch 2

SPDT

SPDT

Φ

Φ

VGA PAPhase

ShifterAMP

Switch 1 LNAVGAPhase

ShifterAMP Switch 2

H

V

1

23

4

8x8 Antenna Array

Dual Polarization

ANT

H

ANT

V

Up/Down Converter

H-Polarization

V-Polarization

IF/H

I/O

LO

IN

IF/V

I/O

LO

IN

SPDT

SPDT

CNTRL IF

Calibration

IF/C

I/O

LO

IN

H

V

Implementation Concept

39-28 GHz Dual-Stream Repeater (2/2)

8 TRX gain and phase shifting RFIC at 28 GHz

Dual-chain UL/DL 39/28 GHz frequency converter RFIC 8 x 8 Dual-Polarized

Phased Antenna Array

DL

UL

DL

UL

• 39/28 GHz frequency conversion RFIC

• 8x8 phased antenna array

• 16x phase shifting RFIC

Bock diagram Chip layout

- 16 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Building Blocks (1/2)

Key building blocks for 28 GHz PhAA-RFIC in B11 HFC (BUW)

PA simulated small signal characteristic

28 GHz SPDT switch, measured characteristics

Repeater components for UL, in B11HFC (FAU)

Characteristic of 28 GHz LNA, phase-shifter and VGA chain in UL

Gain compression of 39 to 28 GHz converter RFIC, DL

- 17 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Building Blocks (2/2)

Dual polarized 28 GHz planar antenna element (KIT)

Radiation pattern

TX performance of 28 GHz PhAA RFIC in SG13S (IHP)

Tx mode simulations: small signal gain (a) along different gain states, output 1 dB compression at maximum gain state (b) and polar plot (c) along different gain and phase states.

a)c)

b)

- 18 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Phased Antenna Array Prototype

Antenna array

RF connectors

DC connectors

Control signals connector

Basic Characteristics

• Radio frequency: 28 GHz

• Bandwidth: 3 GHz

• Two data stream separated by

antenna polarization

• 8x8 dual-polarized patch

antennas

• 16x beamforming RFICs with 8

TRX each

• SPI controlled TDD and beam

switching

- 19 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Demonstration system

Data transmission tests with 5 G compliant equipment

Dual-stream repeater

V

H

Frequency Conversion39/28 GHz

H/V5G

UE–128 GHz

5GUE–2

28 GHz

HUB(modified RRH)

V

H

FronthaulModified

28 GHz RRH (IF interface)

gNodeB

Control

Synthesizer

UE

IF/3

9 G

Hz

C

on

v.

IF

Ph

AA

Control

39 GHzFronthaul link

28 GHzAccess link

Freq

DL/ULStream 1

Control channel

DL/ULStream 2

Freq

DL/UL Stream 1

DL/ULStream 2

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Summary

Application Scenario ➔ RFIC-design ➔ Prototypes ➔ System Performance (Presented at the ECSEL JU Symposium 2019 in Bucharest)

5G demonstration system

Dual-stream repeater

Height 9m

mm-wave

Short LOS/NLOS links

Long LOS linksRepeater

BTS/HUB

5G mm-wave wireless access application

28 GHz phased antenna array

SiGe phase- and gain-shifting RF-ICs

i

IC 16

i

IC 2

iSPI INTERFACE

RF H-I/O

ANT 1 H-O/I

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

ф A

ф A PA

LNA

DIGITAL CONTROL

PhAA IC

H-POLARIZATION

V-POLARIZATION

ANT 2 H-O/I

ANT 3 H-O/I

ANT 4 H-O/I

ANT 1 V-O/I

ANT 2 V-O/I

ANT 3 V-O/I

ANT 4 V-O/I

i

PA

LNA

xN

IFIN

LO

I

Q

I

QIFOUT

H-POLARIZATION

H-IFIN

H-IFOUT

LOIN

i

PA

LNA

xN

IFIN

LO

I

Q

I

QIFOUT

V-POLARIZATION

V-IFIN

V-IFOUT

LOIN

U/D CONVERTER IC

U/D CONVERTER IC

IC 1RF V-I/O

- 21 -WS-01 - Recent advances in SiGe BiCMOS: technologies, modelling and circuits for 5G, radar and imaging

Thank you!

Acknowledgement

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission’s ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n° 737454 ‐ project TARANTO ‐ and the respective Public Authorities of France, Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy and Belgium.