TABLE OF CONTENTS The idea for this part of the book arose from a need to convey the intricacies of RF system integration in today's wireless information system arena. The proliferation of portable communication devices has created a high demand for small and inexpensive transceivers with low power consumption. The Radio-Frequency (RF) and wireless-communications market has suddenly expanded to unimaginable dimensions. Sources predict that mobile telephony subscriptions will increase to over 350 Million in the year 2000.
While this trend continues and challenges still exist, the RF practice at present is one which requires the so-called "green fingers" of design. System integration from the interconnection of sub-blocks at the front-end to the interconnection of metal layers within the IC is all highly interactive. However, what has now become apparent at the low-GHz frequency band is that as feature sizes of silicon devices shrink, there is a more natural move towards VLSI at high frequencies where lumped circuit design is beginning to find a new home. As we start integrating more of the board-level components onto a single chip, the board layout will...
