The Riemann Pump: a Technique For Carrier-Aggregation Radio-Frequency Transceivers

Abstract

The Riemann Pump is an integrated CMOS wideband Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) for Carrier Aggregation. It is designed to target the sub-6 GHz 5G standard and is implemented in 65nm CMOS technology from TSMC. It is based on a piecewise linear approximation of a signal, using a dedicated algorithm. Its principle is about integrating constant current steps into a capacitive load. The ability to generate multicarrier signal is demonstrated with measurements of 5G schemes with SNDR on multi-carrier signal confirming the theory and to convert very large bandwidths from analog-to-digital. EVM measurements are detailed in a large range of frequencies up to 3GHz. The Riemann Pump consumes less than 1mW for a very reduced die area and thus, is an excellent candidate for any Radio-Frequency Transceivers architecture.