CORDIC-Based Multi-Gbs Digital Outphasing Modulator for Highly Efficient Millimeter-Wave Transmitters

Abstract EN

This paper describes a high-speed CORDIC-based digital outphasing modulator.

Fixed-point Matlab model of the outphasing modulator is developed to evaluate the system performance and define the circuit design parameters.

Design issues such as signal quantization error, delay mismatch, and phase overflowing are addressed to enable hardware implementation.

The complete outphasing modulator is fully custom designed in 40 nm CMOS, which can be integrated in a millimeter-wave outphasing transmitter to enhance the system average efficiency.

Tested with 10.56 Gb/s 64-QAM, this work achieves an EVM of 3.2% and fulfils the IEEE 802.11ad spectral mask requirements.