System-level analysis of RF transceiver integrated circuits

In a systematic top-down design methodology it is important to perform a careful high-level architectural design before proceeding with the detailed block-level design. For the high-level design of transceiver front-ends there is a lack of behavioral system-level simulation tools, which are both fast and accurate enough to allow the exploration of system-level tradeoffs. In this paper a novel system-level behavioral simulation methodology is presented, based on a frequency-domain representation of stochastic processes. The simulations are performed with a dedicated frequency-domain simulation algorithm that processes modulated input power spectra. The power spectral distribution at every node in the circuit is calculated in a very efficient way to enable fast and accurate system-level exploration. One of the most critical aspects of this simulation methodology--nonlinear distortion-will be discussed in detail in this paper. The developed methodology is illustrated with the system-level analysis of a real design example.