• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2000

We presented a BGA(Ball Grid Array) package for RF circuit modules and extracted its electrical parameters. As the frequency of RF system devices increases, the effect of its electrical parasitics in the wireless communication system requires new structure of RF circuit modules because of its needs to be considered of electrical performance for minimization and module mobility. RF circuit modules with BGA packages can provide some advantages such as minimization, shorter circuit routing, and noise improvement by reducing electrical noise affected to analog and digital mixed circuits, etc. We constructed a BGA package of ITS(Intelligent Transportation System) RF module and measured electrical parameters with a TDR(Time Domain Reflectometry) equipment and compared its electrical parasitic parameters with PCB RF circuits. With a BGA substrate of 3${\times}$3 input and output terminals, we have found that self capacitance of BGA solder ball is 68.6fF, and self inductance 146pH, whose values were reduced to 34% and 47% of the value of QFP package structure. S11 parameter measurement with a HP4396B Network Analyzer showed the resonance frequency of 1.55GHz and the loss of 0.26dB. Routing length of the substrate was reduced to 39.8mm. Thus, we may improve electrical performance when we use BGA package structures in the design of RF circuit modules.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2001

This paper presents three dimensional structure of RF packages and the improvement effect of its electrical characteristics when implementing RF transceivers. We divided RF modules into several subunits following each subunit function based on the partitioning algorithm which suggests a method of three dimension stacking interconnection, PAA(pad area array) interconnection and stacking of three dimensional RF package structures. 224MHz ITS(Intelligent Transportation System) RF module subdivided into subunits of functional blocks of a receiver(RX), a transmitter(TX), a phase locked loop(PLL) and power(PWR) unit, simultaneously meeting the requirements of impedance characteristic and system stability. Each sub­functional unit has its own frequency region of 224MHz, 21.4MHz, and 450KHz~DC. The signal gain of receiver and transmitter unit showed 18.9㏈, 23.9㏈. PLL and PWR modules also provided stable phase locking, constant voltages which agree with design specifications and maximize their characteristics. The RF module of three dimension stacking structure showed $48cm^3$, 76.9％ reduction in volume and 4.8cm, 28.4％ in net length, 41.8$^{\circ}C$, 37% in maximum operating temperature, respectively. We have found that three dimensional PAA package structure is able to produce high speed, high density, low power characteristics and to improve its functional characteristics by subdividing RF modules according to the subunit function and the operating frequency, and the features of physical volume, electrical characteristics, and thermal conditions compared to two dimensional RF circuit modules.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1004-1007
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• 2005

This paper presents a programmable RF BIST (Built-in Self-Test) circuit for low noise amplifiers. We have developed a new on-chip RF BIST circuit that measures RF parameters of low noise amplifier (LNA) using only DC measurements. The BIST circuit contains test amplifier with programmable capacitor banks and RF peak detectors. The test circuit utilizes output DC voltage measurements and these measured values are translated into the LNA specifications such as input impedance and gain using the mathematical equations. Our on-chip BIST can be self programmed for 1.8GHz, 2.4GHz and 5.25GHz LNA for GSM, Bluetooth and IEEE802.11g standards.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.28-39
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• 2007

This paper presents a programmable RF DFT (Radio Frequency Design-for-Testability) circuit for low noise amplifiers. We have developed a new on-chip RF DFT circuit that measures RF parameters of low noise amplifier (LNA) using only DC measurements [1, 2]. This circuit is extremely useful for today's RFIC devices in a complete RF transceiver environment. The DFT circuit contains test amplifier with programmable capacitor banks and RF peak detectors. The test circuit utilizes output DC voltage measurements and these measured values are translated into the LNA specifications such as input impedance and gain using the mathematical equations. Our on-chip DFT circuit can be self programmed for 1.8GHz, 2.4GHz and 5.25GHz low noise amplifiers for GSM, Bluetooth and IEEE802.11g standards. The circuit is simple and inexpensive.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.288-292
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• 2002

We propose the new type of on-chip ESD protection method for RF applications. By using the properties of RF circuits, we can use the short-circuited stub as ESD protection device in front of the DC blocking capacitor Specially, we can use short-circuited stub as the portion of the matching circuit so to reduce the and various parameters of the transmission line. This new type ESD protection method is very different from the conventional ESD protection method. With the new type ESD protection method, we remove the parasitic capacitance of ESD protection device which degrade the performance of core circuit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.818-823
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• 2003

본 논문에서는 입력 매칭(input matching) BIST(Built-In Self-Test) 회로를 이용한 RF font end의 새로운 결함 검사방법을 제안한다. BIST 회로를 가진 RF front end는 1.8GHz LNA(Low Noise Amplifier: 저 잡음 증폭기)와 이중 대칭 구조의 Gilbert 셀 믹서로 구성되어 있으며, TSMC 0.25$\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS 기술을 이용하여 설계되었다. catastrophic 결함 및 parametric 변동을 가진 RF front end와 결함을 갖지 않은 RF front end를 판별하기 위해 RF front end의 입력 전압 특성을 조사하였다. 본 방법에서는 DUT(Device Under Test: 검사대상이 되는 소자)와 BIST 회로가 동일한 칩 상에 설계되어 있기 때문에 측정할 때 단지 디지털 전자계와 고주파 전압 발생기만이 필요하며, 측정이 간단하고 비용이 저렴하다는 장점이 있다. BIST 회로가 차지하는 면적은 RF front end가 차지하는 전체면적의 약 10%에 불과하다. 본 논문에서 제안하는 검사기술을 이용하여 시뮬레이션해 본 결과 catastrophic 결함에 대해서는 100%, parametric 변동에 대해서는 약 79%의 결함을 검출할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2016

In this paper, a design of transceiver module for real-time wire and wireless robust integrated security system to solve the problem of conventional security system and its transceiver module is proposed. The presented robust integrated security system is designed with RF control unit and wireless transceiver module. A RF controller in transceiver module works as a low-power RF transceiver system. It is designed to use specific bandwidth stored in registers and manipulate RF power of transceiver by accessing the random values of registers. Operation algorithm for RF transceiver module is also presented. The designed transceiver module and the operation algorithm are implemented and verified by experiments.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.8
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• pp.36-46
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• 2010

In multi-GHz RF ICs and high-speed digital interfaces, ESD protection devices introduce considerable parasitic capacitance and resistance to inputs and outputs, thereby degrading the RF performance, such as input/output matching, gain, and noise figure. In this paper, the impact of ESD protection devices on the performance of RF ICs is investigated and design methodologies to minimize this impact are discussed. With RF and ESD test results, the 'RF/ESD co-design' method is discussed and compared to the conventional RF ESD protection method which focuses on minimizing the device size.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.68-73
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• 2009

This paper presents an easily modifiable structure of a serial peripheral interface (SPI) that is suitable for efficient testing of CMOS RF integrated circuits. The proposed SPI Is designed so that the address size and the accompanying software can be easily adjusted and modified according to the requirements and complexity of RF IC's under development. The hardware architecture and software algorithm to achieve the flexibility are described. The proposed SPI is fabricated in $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS and successfully verified experimentally with a 2.7GHz fractional-N delta-sigma frequency synthesizer as a device under test.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.449-455
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• 2004

This paper presents a novel defect detection method for one chip RF front end with fault detection circuits using input matching measurement. We present a BIST circuit using 40.25{\mu}m$ CMOS technology. We monitor the input transient voltage of the RF front end to differentiate faulty and fault-free RF front end. Catastrophic as well as parametric variation fault models are used to simulate the faulty response of the RF front end. This technique has several advantages with respect to the standard approach based on current test stimulus and frequency domain measurement. Because DUT and fault detection circuits are implemented in the same chip, this test technique only requires use of digital voltmeter (RMS meter) and RF voltage source generator for simpleand inexpensive testing.