Integrated Frequency Synthesizers for Wireless Systems

A. Lacaita, S. Levantino and C. Samori
Cambridge University Press • 246 pages; $120, £65
ISBN: 978-0-521-86315-5

The phase-locked loop (PLL) concept is about 70 years old and a wealth of literature is already available on the subject. Why another book about PLLs? The first reason is related to the specific application considered, namely the silicon integration of frequency synthesizers. Classical texts do not deal in depth with issues related to the design of frequency synthesizers in modern transceivers. In particular, the design guidelines and the performance of some important building blocks and their impact on the whole system are sometimes barely mentioned. The attempt in this book has been instead to provide a broad description of the most typical circuit topologies of voltage-control oscillators, frequency dividers and phase and frequency detectors, and to discuss their performance in terms of power consumption, phase noise, spurs, etc. The second reason is that the book attempts to provide an alternative approach to PLL theory and design.

The book starts with three chapters addressing the PLL as a system. Chapter 1 points out the typical requirements of the frequency synthesizer in RF systems. Chapter 2 covers some PLL basics. It does not deal with the whole PLL theory, which is analyzed in depth in many classical books. It highlights only the concepts needed for understanding the subsequent topics. Chapter 3 analyzes fractional-division PLLs, which are seldom discussed in other texts. Chapters 4 to 9 are devoted to discussing in detail the design issues related to the PLL building blocks. Chapters 4 to 7, for example, deal with voltage-controlled oscillators and their practical implementations in bipolar and CMOS technologies, including resonator design and layout. Chapters 8 and 9 are focused on the design of programmable dividers and phase-comparison circuits, including issues related to nonlinearities.

To order this book, contact:
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013



Microwave System Design Tools and EW Applications: Second Edition

Peter W. East
Artech House • 248 pages; $119, £66
ISBN: 978-1-59693-256-2

The original aims of the software e-book are maintained in this second edition. The book is intended to support microwave system designers and offers an alternative approach for the accurate design and specification of microwave components and systems for electronic warfare (EW) equipment. This edition combines a conventional technical textbook with a complementary interactive electronic book on a CD-ROM. While the book stands alone as a practical microwave system design reference, the CD-ROM runs on a personal computer and contains a number of independent small software applications paralleling and building on the topics covered in the text. The software applications or applets, written in Sun Microsystems Java 1.1 programming language, are intuitive, interactive tools, which apply the design theory outline in the book to produce accurate target models.

The principal aims of this method of information presentation are to simplify microwave system design and to speed up the user understanding and learning process. The topics and applets have been selected to cover technical requirements likely to be met in the microwave radar and EW system design fields. The book restructures and expands the technical manual provided in the first edition software package into nine chapters. All the original applets have been improved and nine applets added. The range of toolbox topics is sufficient to design a modern EW system, and many, because of their complexity, have not been published before in an easily assimilated form. In summary, the book covers all the main microwave components and subsystems used in EW systems in a practical manner and examines many new characteristics and performance issues. The CD-ROM contains a simple user interface to select and run the applets and operates with all Microsoft Windows operating systems and browsers.

To order this book, contact:
Artech House
685 Canton St.
Norwood, MA 02062
(781) 769-9750 ext. 4030; or
46 Gillingham St.
London SW1V 1HH, UK
+44 (0) 207-8750