TDRFSP · Time-Domain RF and Analog Signal Processing

One of the most important developments in the communication microelectronics in the last decade was the invention and popularization of “Digital RF”. It transforms the radio frequency (RF) analog functionality of a wireless transceiver into digitally-intensive implementations that operate in time-domain. They are best realized in mainstream nanometer-scale CMOS technologies and easily integrated with digital processors. As a result, RF transceivers based on this new approach now enjoy significant benefits. Consequently, the RF transceivers based on this architecture are now the majority of the 1.5 billion mobile handsets produced annually.The invention and development of “Digital RF” was pioneered in the last decade by this applicant at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, USA. Despite having published over 130 scientific papers, that industrial research focus has been mainly limited to the highest volume segment of the wireless communications market: low-cost GSM/EDGE cellular phones and Bluetooth radios. Unfortunately, that low-cost low-data-rate market segment has already reached the saturation. The fastest growing segments of the wireless communications are now: high-data-rate “smart phones”, ultra-low-power wireless sensor network devices, antenna-array and millimeter-wave transceivers, where the original “Digital RF” approach could not be readily exploited.The goal of this proposal is to revisit and exploit the fundamental theory of the time-domain operation of RF and analog circuits. This way the broad area of the wireless communications, as well as analog and mixed-signal electronics in general, can be transformed for the ready realization in the advanced CMOS technology. This is expected to revolutionize the entire research field to even a larger extent than the “Digital RF” breakthrough in low-cost low-data-rate radios pioneered by this applicant in the last decade.""