Silicon heterostructure devices for RF wireless communication

Wireless communication of high speed data in UHF-microwave region, requires RFIC implementation of the front end for low cost consistent with high performance. The suitability of silicon based devices and circuits, in particular Si/SiGe heterostructures, is examined in this paper. Issues related to the change of technology for RFICs are considered and it is shown that scaled SiGe-HBTs satisfy the requirements of transconductance/gain, f/sub T//f/sub max/ and noise figure. Results of simulation of SiGe-HBT devices, amplifiers using them, and also the noise figure have been presented.

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