Similar improvements continue on the CMOS front. With scaling, process refinements and packaging advances, CMOS RFICs continue to make progress in integration, performance and cost. Consequently, developers have been successful in packing complete RF system-on-a-chip (SoC). Jennic's second-generation wireless microcontroller is a good example of this trend. At this year's CES show, the UK-based Jennic unwrapped a new family of low-power, low-cost wireless microcontrollers suitable for IEEE802.15.4 and ZigBee applications. Each device integrates a 32-bit RISC processor, with a fully compliant 2.4 GHz IEEE802.15.4 transceiver, 192 kbytes of ROM, a selection of RAM sizes from 8 kbytes to 96 kbytes, and a mixture of analog and digital peripherals. It is implemented in 0.18 µm RF CMOS process.

Continuing to exploit 0.13 µm CMOS process for low-cost monolithic solutions for wireless handset makers around the world, Silicon Laboratories has released new members of its Aero family late last year. For instance, Si4901 is optimized for ultralow-cost handsets (ULCHs) while single-chip Aero IIed is a complete quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE transceiver with a 2.5G compliant digital interface DigRF. The developer is now migrating toward 65 nm process for further improvement in CMOS integration and cost.

Likewise, Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies (QCT) division also continues to push RF CMOS to new levels of integration as demonstrated by the most recent introduction, the RTR6285. A single-chip UMTS transceiver implemented in 0.18 µm CMOS, RTR6285 not only supports global quadruple-band GSM and EDGE (800/900/1800/1900 MHz), but also supports all the UMTS supported worldwide. In addition to the cellular capability, it also includes receive diversity and GPS. The RTR6285 enables increases in network capacity of up to 50% and up to 100% for average HSDPA data throughput, according to Qualcomm.

In order to further drive wireless broadband and 3G adoption in mass markets around the world, QCT is exploring a monolithic solution that integrates the radio capability with the baseband modem and multimedia processor on a single chip in cost-efficient 65 nm CMOS process technology. QSC6240 chip for WEDGE (WCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE) and QSC6270 for HEDGE (HSDPA/WCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE) exemplifies this capability.

Speaking of nm CMOS technology, the ongoing collaborative efforts between EDA software developer Integrand Software, and UMC, a global semiconductor foundry, has resulted in advances and enhanced capabilities for RF/mixed mode IC designers designing into 90 nm and 0.13 µm nodes.

Integrand's EMX and EMX-Continuum tools have been used to create scalable models for metal-oxide-metal (MOM) capacitors and inductors. These scalable models are linked to the Integrand's optimum capacitor finder (OCF) and optimum inductor finder (OIF), which are part of UMC's foundry design kit (FDK).

Since applications are getting more complex and require more advanced RF technologies to supply smaller line widths and better passive elements and other specialty features, Jazz Semiconductor intends to continue to build on its current 130 nm CMOS node and eventually migrate to 90 nm CMOS. In 130 nm, the foundry has released advanced features such as silicon germanium and high-voltage power devices to enable higher levels of integration. “As digital technology moves to 65 nm and beyond, it will become increasingly difficult to integrate RF functions with the large digital SoC and we, therefore, see a sweet spot in the 180 nm to 130 nm nodes serving the RFIC marketplace for some time to come but will migrate this capability to 90 nm in the future,” stated Marco Racanelli, vice president of technology & engineering at Jazz Semiconductor.

RFIC development is rapidly expanding into the millimeter-wave space. Once the domain of III-V compound semiconductor technologies, CMOS and biCMOS devices are encroaching on this turf. This year's International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2007) in San Francisco (Feb. 11-15) will reveal developments in nm CMOS that is further pushing the integration levels of RFICs to new heights with transceiver subsystems being realized at 69 GHz for emerging automotive radar, medical imaging and security applications. Plus, integrated UWB CMOS transceivers and other emerging circuits will be demonstrated at the conference.

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