"RF-SoC": low-power single-chip radio design using Si/SiGe BiCMOS technology

Transceiver Architectures for Highly Integrated RF Front‐Ends

“…In addition, this approach may suffer from lower reliability and lower manufacturing yields. Meanwhile, significant strides have been made in the development of mixed-signal integrated circuits combining RF, and low-frequency analog and digital functions on the same chip, now commonly referred to as system-on-a-chip (SoC) implementations [1,2]. The development of such SoCs is motivated by lower packaging and handling costs, greater reliability, reduced size of the overall electronic system, reduced parasitic reactances and flexibility in impedance matching, the ability to incorporate on-chip digitaldomain filtering, frequency synthesis, etc.…”

Low-noise x-band oscillator and amplifier technologies: comparison and status

“…For very wide frequency ranges, the effectiveness of the technique is linked with high f t (unity gain bandwidth) and the stability of feedback, that is, the unity-gain bandwidth of an amplifier along with phase dispersion [16]. Commercial suppliers generally strive for higher f t 's and low dispersion through the use of ever-finer processing techniques, because this focus is consistent with a market seeking wide operating frequency range of amplifiers [17][18][19]. Also in general, the higher the f t , the lower the throughput phase dispersion, and, hence, the better the closed-loop amplifier stability for obtaining reduced amplifier noise and distortion over the widest frequency range [20,21].…”