TABLE OF CONTENTS Based on the principles of radio communication theorised by Maxwell in 1862, the wireless communications industry has grown exponentially during the past few decades. Nowadays, almost everyone owns at least one wireless communications product such as a television, radio, cellular phone, cordless phone, pager, wireless modem, wireless computer peripheral, etc. Because of the burgeoning popularity of wireless communications, research is ongoing to develop small-size, lightweight, low-cost, and highly power-efficient products. Moreover, consumers continually demand less expensive and more portable personal communications devices with ever increasing functionality. Consequently, intense worldwide research is focused on the design of RF communication circuits that can be integrated with both analogue and digital subcircuits in CMOS system-on-chip solutions.
Two major constraints in the design and optimisation of RF frontend circuits in fine-line CMOS technology are active devices that are inferior to their GaAs and SiGe counterparts, and low-quality parasitic-laden passive components owing to the use of lossy silicon substrates. To overcome these drawbacks, the parasitic-aware synthesis paradigm has been developed. Simulated annealing is one of the key algorithms used in the parasitic-aware CAD design and optimisation methodology.
Unlike in baseband circuits, the parasitic effects are severe in high-frequency circuits. In the case of baseband circuit design, minimising parasitics is usually sufficient. However, the parasitics must be carefully modelled and considered as part of the design process in high-frequency circuit synthesis. For example, if an RF circuit is first designed without considering parasitics, simulations show...
