Integrated RF Front-End for WCDMA and GSM 900

The first third generation WCDMA networks are designed to be launched during this year. The performance of the terminal designed for WCDMA should be compatible with terminals designed for existing systems, although the WCDMA receiver uses higher frequency range and larger channel spacing than present systems [1]. Furthermore, the future terminal should be able to connect to different networks depending on the network coverage and the services requested by the consumer. To our knowledge, the recently published RF receivers for multi-band terminals have been implemented by using several parallel frontends [2,3]. Although a high integration level can be reached, the straightforward parallel architecture wastes a lot of chip area. The front-ends presented in this paper use the same signal path in both modes, except of the first stage in the LNA [4]. The supply voltage of the digital circuitry is decreasing with the evolution of CMOS technologies. Analog and RF circuits are following the development because of reduced breakdown voltages, lower power consumption and possibility to a single supply [5]. The first RF front-end has been designed using a 25 GHz fT BiCMOS process and the other using a 45 GHz fT SiGe BiCMOS process. The minimum MOS gate length is 0.35 μm in both processes.

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