Bringing long-range UHF RFID tags into mainstream supply chain applications
Jul 1, 2005
By Rob Glidden and John Schroeter The availability of inexpensive CMOS technologies that perform well at ultra-high frequencies has created new opportunities for automated material handling within supply chain management that will, in hindsight, be viewed as revolutionary....
Comparing active Gilbert mixers integrated in standard SiGe process (Part II)
Jun 1, 2005
By N. Rodríguez, E. Hernández, G. Bistué, I. Gutiérrez, J. Presa and R. Berengue The mixers presented here have been designed to downconvert an 8 MHz bandwidth signal from RF (1800 MHz) to an intermediate frequency (IF) of 40 MHz....
Frequency divider design strategies
Mar 1, 2005
By Louis Fan Fei Typically, in frequency divider design, the trade offs are around the maximum
operating frequency, power consumption, number of transistors needed and
flexibility. Depending on the specific application the frequency divider is used,
analog or digital approaches may be adopted. This paper will cover the
fundamentals of both approaches....
Why tiny sensors with single-chip wireless platforms are flourishing
Mar 1, 2005
By Bar-Giora Goldberg A miniature, integrated radio-sensor network in a cube less than 1-inch square is
a technology whose time has come. It is essential to understand the special
requirements imposed on RF devices operating on a tiny silicon die....
Analyzing sigma-delta ADCs in deep-submicron CMOS technologies
Feb 1, 2005
By Yann Le Guillou Sigma-delta analog-to-digital-converters are critical components in wireless
transceivers. This study shows that a continuous-time, single-loop, single-bit SD
ADC is suitable for wireless applications demanding less than 5 MHz conversion
bandwidth. On the other hand, for applications that require bandwidth conversion higher than 5 MHz, the use of a CT
single-loop, multibit SD ADC is recommended....
CDMA2000 Design and Performance Requirements
Feb 1, 2005
By Bill Schofield and Brad Brannon Various heterodyne solutions have continued to flourish through incarnations of
transceiver designs, each generation adding new control loops or components to improve the architectures. While communications standards such as CDMA2000 provide challenging performance requirements, the trends are for deep cost reduction, highly integrated solutions and flexibility....
Designing a ZigBee-ready IEEE 802.15.4-compliant radio transceiver
Nov 1, 2004
By Khanh Tuan Le Besides highlighting the physical (PHY) and MAC
layers of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, and the network, security and application
layers of the ZigBee wireless technology, this article focuses on efficient
implementation of IEEE 802.15.4-compliant radio-on-a-chip by identifying
potential low-power features in the standard, suitable transceiver architectures
and considering standard CMOS design issues....
CMOS RF antenna switches offer new alternative
Oct 1, 2004
Implementing its proprietary ultrathin-silicon-on-sapphire (UTSi) CMOS, also known as UltraCMOS process, Peregrine Semiconductor has developed RF CMOS...
Active mixer resolves passive issues
Aug 1, 2004
While ultra-high frequency (UHF) and microwave passive mixers are known to deliver high linearity and signal-to-noise ratio performance, they require...
Active mixer differential to single-ended IF matching
Aug 1, 2004
By Tom Schiltz While single-ended RF and LO input ports are becoming standard on high
linearity active mixer ICs, integration of the IF output transformer is difficult and
can be undesirable. A discrete balun approach delivers good performance over
a relatively narrow IF bandwidth when compared to a transformer-based IF
matching technique....
The importance of Fast, Economical Testing for RFIC PAs, Mobile Phones
Jun 1, 2004
By Robert Green and Jerry Janesch Testing of RFIC power amplifier and mobile phone handsets are approaching
10 percent of per-unit cost. Minimizing test time by combining today’s intelligent
instruments, manufacturers can significantly increase testing throughput, thus
garnering a substantial competitive advantage....
