Novel Compact RF Module for Mobile WiMAX Terminal Equipment

This paper describes a radio frequency (RF) module for Mobile WiMAX, where low cost, low power consumption, and small size are needed. To satisfy these requirements, we developed a new micro-size RF module and a new RF CMOS LSI using 90-nm CMOS technology. The RF module supports downlink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and includes RF-LSls, a power amplifier, a voltage-controlled temperature compensated crystal oscillator, and band-pass filters. Its size is 15 mm x 15 mm x 1.5 mm. This new RF module is the smallest in the world and includes all of the RF circuits necessary for Mobile WiMAX. The 2.5-GHz frequency band is supported and the RF bandwidths are 5 and 10 MHz. (WiMAX Forum profile: 3A.) This paper presents the RF architecture and high-frequency circuit technology used for the RF-LSI and RF module. The advantage of the RF module is that design engineers can easily get high-quality RF performance without special RF knowledge.