RF and Microwave Hardware Challenges for Future Radio Spectrum Access

Radio technology for future broadband wireless applications presents a remarkable research opportunity for the RF transceiver and circuit design community. A survey is presented of the low-noise amplifier, frequency conversion, filtering, and transmitter techniques that are being explored for future wireless devices that require wide tuning range, flexible modulation formats, low dc power, and low cost. In all cases, the traditional disadvantages of broadband design approaches can be mitigated by taking advantage of higher levels of integration afforded by CMOS and BiCMOS technologies and improved circuit design approaches.

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