RF CMOS or SiGE BiCMOS in RF and Mixed Signal Circuit Design

Author

Pawlikiewicz, A.H. ; Elrai, S.E.

Author_Institution

Atmel Corp., San Jose

fYear

2007

fDate

21-23 June 2007

Firstpage

333

Lastpage

338

Abstract

The dilemma facing the semiconductor company supplying the wireless markets is not trivial. Deciding what technology to choose for commercial applications where the price, time to market and the performance of the chip, makes or breaks the product and sometimes a company as well. This paper attempts to analyze these issues from the perspective of a fables design house. It reviews the technical aspects of the processes that are provided by a number of foundries but sometimes are difficult to compare when BiCMOS and RFCMOS compete for the same application. The paper tries to establish a procedure where a number of figures of merit are compared against each other. Besides the technical aspects also the economical considerations are discussed. Ultimately, it is intended to help the designer/decision maker to decide what process to choose for the wireless or mixed signal and/or system on a chip designs.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; radiofrequency integrated circuits; BiCMOS; RF CMOS; RF circuit design; mixed signal circuit design; semiconductor company; wireless markets; BiCMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Circuit synthesis; Foundries; Germanium silicon alloys; RF signals; Radio frequency; Signal design; Silicon germanium; Time to market; BiCMOS; Mixed signal design; RF CMOS; SiGe HBTs; SoC; System on a chip; Wireless applications;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 2007. MIXDES '07. 14th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Ciechocinek

Print_ISBN

83-922632-9-4

Electronic_ISBN

83-922632-9-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MIXDES.2007.4286179

Filename

4286179