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FEBRUARY 2006 | |
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February 2006 - In This Issue [Cover Story] Software Defines Cellular Transceiver IC Wireless standards abound, causing near endless design cycles for semiconductor suppliers and foundries. Each new cellular or wireless-local-area-network (WLAN) standard invites the development of yet another wireless chip set and its associated components, such as power amplifiers (PAs) and surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters. But what if a single transceiver chip could serve all standards? Too many variables—frequency ranges, channel bandwidths, power levels, etc.—to ever... — Jack Browne [News] Modules House Multitude Of Functions Modules mean many things to many people. At the military systems level, they are generally ruggedized subsystems that can be as complex as a complete receiver or digital frequency discriminator (DFD). In the world of commercial high-frequency electronics, the term module suggests a small, packaged combination of components meant to group related functions together for ease of installation in a larger design. In spite of differences in technology, the... — Jack Browne [News] Crosstalk: An Interview With RF Micro Devices’ Jerry D. Neal MRF: In December 1994, Microwaves & RF ran that well-known Alexander Graham Bell photograph on the front cover, modified to include engineers from QUALCOMM and RF Micro Devices to represent your budding relationship with that company. How did that relationship start? Jerry D. Neal: We started RF Micro Devices in 1991. One of our first design wins was with Nippon Denso in Southern California. They had asked us to design an HBT power amplifier.... — Jack Browne [Design Features] Verification Tools Help PHS Transceiver Take Silicon Form Software-verification tools support the constant evolution and improvement of many integrated circuits (ICs). For example, these tools have enabled designers to shrink the size and cost of personal-handy-phone-system (PHS) ICs while increasing the level of integration. Typically, PHS transceivers are implemented as a multi-RF chip solution. To satisfy the growing demand for lower-cost PHS handsets in China and other countries, however, engineers from Microlinear and Cadence have applied... — Venkata Atluri , et al. [Design Features] Generate Digital Chirp Signals With DDS Direct-digital synthesis (DDS) is a mature digital-signal-processing (DSP) technology that offers great flexibility and power for generating complex waveforms. One of the advanced waveforms within the realm of DDS creation (given a dual-accumulator architecture) is chirp or linear frequency-modulation (FM) signals. In contrast to larger and more expensive arbitrary waveform generators, DDS chirp sources can save power, size, and cost in critical designs. The principles of DDS... — Bar-Giora Goldberg [Design Features] Estimating RKE System Performance Remote-keyless-entry (RKE) systems unlock cars from a distance by transmitting a coded radio signal over the air from a key fob to a receiverin the car. The receiver decodes the signal and controls an actuator that opens the door. An important performance benchmark of an RKE system is its useful range. This range is determined by a link-budget calculation. The most crucial factors of this calculation are the power transmitted from the key fob, receiver sensitivity, and path loss.... — Larry Burgess [Editorial] Making The Most Of A Modular Approach MODULAR COMPONENTS afford a great deal of flexibility in high-frequency circuits and systems, especially when there is some level of compatibility among components. Common pin assignments and power requirements, for example, can go a long way to helping an engineer retrofit a function module from one manufacturer with the product from another supplier. Although function modules may not always live up to the expression "plug and play," it is useful to have them at least match an... — Jack Browne |
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