Building Blocks for CMOS Transceivers

Abstract

Today, transceiver implementations usually use a combination of different technologies: CMOS for the baseband digital signal processing, silicon bipolar or BiCMOS for the downconversion, upconversion and IF signal processing and for instance GaAs for the LNA, the duplexer and the power amplifier. The level of integration that is reached in transceiver design is therefore, especially when compared to other integrated telecommunication realizations, still very low. Market demands are however for a lower power consumption, a lower weight and physical volume and a lower cost. These demands require an evolution to a much higher degree of integration. This can be achieved by using new receiver and transmitter topologies (see chapter 3), but it also requires a unification of the technology used for the design of transceiver building blocks.