Smarter ICs

Author

Schumacher, Hermann ; Kaynak, Mehmet ; Valenta, Vaclav ; Tillack, Bernd

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electron Devices & Circuits, Ulm Univ., Ulm, Germany

Volume

13

Issue

7

fYear

2012

Abstract

This article presented the possibilities of making microwave and mm-wave ICs more intelligent through a combination of established Si/SiGe BiCMOS technologies, which allow for complex ICs combining a multitude of high-speed analog and digital functions, and RFMEMS processing tightly integrated with the baseline BiCMOS technology. The addition of RFMEMS switches and integrated antennas enhanced by micromachining especially pays off at millimeter waves, where chip-to-board interconnects become increasingly cumbersome, and RFMEMS reconfiguration switches offer unparalleled low loss, high isolation, and high linearity.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; antennas; microswitches; microwave integrated circuits; millimetre wave integrated circuits; RFMEMS switches; Si-SiGe; baseline BiCMOS technology; chip-to-board interconnection; digital functions; high isolation; high-speed analog; integrated antennas; micromachining; microwave IC; mm-wave IC; smarter IC; unparalleled low loss; Gallium Arsenide; MMICs; Microwave FET integrated circuits; Microwave transistors; Micrwave integrated circuits; Millimeter wave communication; Silicon; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1527-3342

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MMM.2012.2216720

Filename

6355795