Title :
Metal-mask configurable RF front-end circuits
Author :
Xu, Yang ; Boone, Cameron ; Pileggi, Lawrence T.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Abstract :
This paper describes metal-mask configurable RF circuits that offer reduced design and manufacturing risk, hence lowering nonrecurring engineering (NRE) costs. The base circuit fabric is configured for various wireless applications using only top metal and via layers. A two-stage design optimization methodology is used to optimally trade-off area and performance for design risk and cost. Measurement results are shown for a metal-mask configurable RF front-end circuit fabric that is configured for applications in 1.5 GHz GPS, 2.1 GHz WCDMA and 5 GHz WLAN using a 0.25 μm 47 GHz fT SiGe BiCMOS process. The final three metal and via layers are the application-specific physical design differences for the three front-end circuits. The three frontend designs consume 10.5 mA, 9.5 mA, and 8.5 mA from 2.5 V, provide noise figures of 2.5 dB, 2.8 dB and 4.5 dB, have conversion gains of 24.6 dB, 24.2 dB and 12 dB, and offer IIP3s of -8dBm, -9dBm and 4dBm, respectively.
Keywords :
BiCMOS integrated circuits; Global Positioning System; MMIC; application specific integrated circuits; circuit optimisation; code division multiple access; integrated circuit design; wireless LAN; 0.25 micron; 1.5 GHz; 10.5 mA; 12 dB; 2.1 GHz; 2.5 V; 2.5 dB; 2.8 dB; 24.2 dB; 24.6 dB; 4.5 dB; 47 GHz; 5 GHz; 8.5 mA; 9.5 mA; BiCMOS process; GPS; SiGe; WCDMA; WLAN; application-specific physical design; design optimization; metal-mask configurable RF front-end circuits; nonrecurring engineering cost reduction; top metal configuration; via layer configuration; Circuits; Cost function; Design engineering; Design optimization; Fabrics; Global Positioning System; Multiaccess communication; Pulp manufacturing; Radio frequency; Wireless LAN;
Conference_Titel :
Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium, 2004. Digest of Papers. 2004 IEEE
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8333-8
DOI :
10.1109/RFIC.2004.1320679