Integration of cellular front end modules on advanced high resistivity SOI RF CMOS technology

Since integration drives wireless business in order to achieve the appropriate cost and form factor, we see significant research concerning front end module (FEM) integration on silicon. In this quest, SOI technology has emerged as the technology of choice since the antenna switch and the power amplifier (PA) have been successfully integrated on SOI. In this paper, we will focus our investigation on high performance passive functions in order to demonstrate the capability of SOI CMOS technology to integrate the whole FEM. To do so, balun, harmonic filter, diplexer and directional coupler have been achieved in a 130 nm SOI CMOS technology. Measured performances are clearly competitive with most commercially available Integrated Passive Device (IPD) solutions, which paves the way of FEM silicon SOCs.