| Radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design is an exciting area for research
or product development. Technologies are constantly being improved, and as
they are, circuits formerly implemented as discrete solutions can now be integrated
onto a single chip. In addition to widely used applications such as cordless
phones and cell phones, new applications continue to emerge. Examples of new
products requiring RFICs are wireless local-area networks (WLAN), keyless entry
for cars, wireless toll collection, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation,
remote tags, asset tracking, remote sensing, and tuners in cable modems. Thus,
the market is expanding, and with each new application there are unique
challenges for the designers to overcome. As a result, the field of RFIC design
should have an abundance of products to keep designers entertained for years
to come.
In this book there is a lot of detailed academic exploration of some
important high-frequency RF bipolar ICs. One might ask if this is important
in design for application, and the answer is yes. To understand why, one must
appreciate the central role of analog circuit simulators in the design of such
circuits. At the beginning of my career (around 1955–1960) discrete circuits
were large enough that good circuit topologies could be picked out by breadboarding
with the actual parts themselves. This worked fairly well with some
analog circuits at audio frequencies, but failed completely in the progression to
integrated circuits. |
