TACT: a multi-standard RF transceiver architecture comparison tool

One of the main challenges posed by 4G wireless communication systems is achieving flexible, programmable multi-standard radio transceivers with maximum hardware share amongst different standards at a minimum power consumption. Evaluating the feasibility and performance of different multi-standard/multi-band radio solutions at an early stage, i.e. system level, is key for succeeding in surmounting this challenge. This entails formulation of the transceiver budget for several RF architectures with different degrees of hardware reuse. This task is complicated by the fact that transceiver blocks can have different implementations that lead to different performances. The tools that are available for use at present have only budget analysis capabilities or address only one standard and/or transceiver architecture at a time. We believe that a new approach to this problem is necessary and propose a novel methodology for evaluating the performance of different multi-standard solutions. This paper introduces TACT, our multi-standard RF transceiver architecture comparison tool. It will help answering many of the challenges faced by designers when realizing a transceiver budget for multi-standard/multi-band radio transceivers.