W-CDMA: aspects of implementation

With the completion of the ETSI FDD physical layer specification becoming imminent, much attention is focused upon understanding the implementation issues of UMTS based equipment. This paper examines the technology requirements for the implementation of W-CDMA terminals and radio architectures. An in depth review of the signal processing aspects of the physical layer is given, followed by a discussion of several possible RF/IF radio architectures that may be employed. The final sections, technology trends and baseband architecture, explore how semiconductor process evolution may permit multistandard digital transceiver implementations on conventional signal processing architectures well supported by design tools, thus trading gate-level optimisation for ease of development