Impact of RFIC integration of system and subsystem blocks on MCM solutions

Wireless systems of all types, from mobile phones to satellites have developed based on a combination of integrated circuits (IC) and multichip modules (MCM). Digital sections of these systems have benefited from increasing levels of integration at the IC level thanks to a seemingly endless ability of Si CMOS to scale itself. However, RF sections have, for a variety of reasons, evolved much more toward MCM solutions. The primary reason for this trend is that RF sections require a wide variety of subsystems that differ substantially from each other whereas virtually all digital subsystems can be constructed from Si CMOS. In addition, RF sections have substantial passive requirements for filtering, matching and tuning. However, MCM solutions are large and expensive when compared to a possible IC solution. In this paper we present a hybrid option: use of UltraCMOS/sup /spl reg// technology in subsystem-level RFIC integration to reduce size and cost of MCM system solutions. Examples from both commercial and satellite applications are presented and discussed.