Session 21 overview - RF trends: above-IC integration and mm-wave

This session highlights two important RF trends: the integration of various devices above the IC together with advanced CMOS and BiCMOS circuits, and the design of high-frequency (60GHz to 110GHz) wideband communication circuits. On one hand, the design of wireless circuits including above-IC bulk-acoustic-wave (BAW) resonators and filters opens the door to highly-integrated transceiver architectures for multi-band and multi-standard applications. On the other hand, there is now confirmed interest in 60GHz circuits spurred in part by opening 7GHz of unlicensed bandwidth around 60GHz. This band was traditionally the domain of III-V compound semiconductors. However, aggressive scaling of CMOS technology, and the increasing capabilities of SiGe technology, make feasible the fabrication of highly-integrated CMOS or SiGe mm-wave circuits for data-communication applications.