11.1 Introduction

RFICs and MMICs are finding more and more applications in the commercial sector, but fierce competition between manufacturers and between different technologies has led to immense pressure on manufacturing costs: single-chip solutions with minimum chip size are demanded. In order to produce competitive products, it is necessary to be familiar with more than just the basic techniques of MMIC design. One notable example of a commercial success is Marconi's fully integrated transceiver for wireless LAN applications [1], illustrated in Figure 11.1. This design serves to demonstrate that extremely high levels of RF front-end integration are possible, as long as the designers are armed with suitable CAD packages and a full range of advanced circuit techniques.

Figure 11.1: Microphotograph of a single-chip transceiver for 2.4 GHz wireless LAN applications (Photograph courtesy of Marconi Caswell Ltd)

Nevertheless, technology moves on and there is now immense demand for the 'single chip radio', and a transceiver design must increasingly integrate RF, mixed signal and digital functions. In fact, single chip radios have existed for some time: examples are paging receivers and RFID transponders. These are relatively low power, low data rate applications, however. The goal of a single chip mobile phone presents much greater challenges because of the high level of signal processing required, the high transmitter power, low receiver noise figure, the need for immunity from interference and the demand for low DC power consumption. As yet, these requirements cannot all be best met by...