Integrated circuit technology options for RFIC's - Present status and future directions

This paper will summarize the technology tradeoffs that are involved in the implementation of radio frequency integrated circuits for wireless communications. Radio transceiver circuits have a very broad range of requirements-including noise figure, linearity, gain, phase noise, and power dissipation. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the competing technologies-Si CMOS and bipolar junction transistors (BJT's), Si/SiGe HBT's and GaAs MESFET's, PHEMTS and HBT's will be examined in light of these requirements.