rfic for high speed wireless
the phd thesis on SiGe BiCMOS RF ICs and Components for High Speed Wireless Data Networks
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272005-174707/
The advent of high-fT silicon CMOS/BiCMOS technologies has led to a dramatic upsurge in the research and development of radio and microwave frequency integrated circuits (ICs) in silicon. The integration of silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistors (SiGe HBTs) into established “digital” CMOS processes has provided analog performance in silicon that is not only competitive with III-V compound-semiconductor technologies, but is also potentially lower in cost. Combined with improvements in silicon on-chip passives, such as high-Q metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors and monolithic spiral inductors, these advanced RF CMOS and SiGe BiCMOS technologies have enabled complete silicon-based RF integrated circuit (RFIC) solutions for emerging wireless communication standards; indeed, both the analog and digital functionalities of an entire wireless system can now be combined in a single IC, also known as a wireless “system-on-a-chip” (SoC). This approach offers a number of potential benefits over multi-chip solutions, such as reductions of parasitics, size, power consumption, and bill-of-materials; however, a number of critical challenges must be considered in the integration of such SoC solutions.