Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end product?

I need to do a pre-thesis report, explain what we wanna write in our thesis.
As I want to do some research about pure Si based CMOS RFIC front-end, I need to know about the present situation.
It seems the circuit topologies of RFIC front-end are quite mature,
then the first question( I have written down 7 big questions) I need to know is Are there any success pure Si based CMOS RFIC front-end product? While I heard most of the products are not Si based or are just mixed material based.
Could you please give me some clues?
Thank you.

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

Sure there are !

Check out:

Broadcom www.broadcom.com
Silicon Labs www.silabs.com
Marvell www.marvell.com

Those three companies have pioneered manufactureable RF CMOS products for mainstream commerical applications when others just laughed.

Look around there web site and see what they have to offer !

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

www.arfic.com is another one

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

so you said you had 7 questions, what are the other ones :wink:

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

Oh, when I say I got 7 questions , that is, I decided to make my report in 7 parts. The first one, which I have post here, is the beginning. That would lead to other parts. And I guess it's the one I could ask here.

Following are my report index:
1:Are there any success pure Si based CMOS RFIC front-end product?
Yes.
2: Situation of the RFIC market now.
I have check the websites of the companies you list. And read some introduction of their products. And I checked other 2 chinese companies' RFIC products too(spectrum and comlent).
3:What do people research on in the academic institutes. ( I check in IEEE papers.)
4:Meaning and application of Si based COMS rfic.
5ossibility of our success in Si based COMS rfic(need tapeout I guess).
6:Summery of former works.
7:Interested topics.
I hope I could pass the mid-term verification interview with it.
Thanks for you infos.

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

Well, Thomas Lee has a second edition to his book coming out now (CMOS Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits) and another book coming out on Passive Devices.

So you can use those I guess.

Good luck, if you need more help, just ask :lol:

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

Oh, I heard about the second edition of that book. But pity it's not sold in our country. Many guys in our country feel pity for that
I got his first edition. That's what I used when I first started to do research on LNA.
What has been added to the second edition?
People said that about more than 100 pages has been added.
Well, is VCOs or PLLs using active inductors a good topic for thesis for master's degree?
Thanks.

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

He just added a lot more examples (which people complained about) and some newer topics and more explanation, so I guess it is worth it, in a way, you still need papers and theses to do RFIC design.

Anyway, yes that is a good topic, people are trying to make smaller and faster VCO's -- either good phase noise LC tank VCO's at high frequencies or ring oscillators, which have a high tuning range naturally.

A good topic would be a high frequency, high tuning range, inductorless VCO.

Hot Hot Hot !

Good luck !

Re: Are there any success Si based CMOS RFIC front-end produ

Puppet1 said:

He just added a lot more examples (which people complained about) and some newer topics and more explanation, so I guess it is worth it, in a way, you still need papers and theses to do RFIC design.

Anyway, yes that is a good topic, people are trying to make smaller and faster VCO's -- either good phase noise LC tank VCO's at high frequencies or ring oscillators, which have a high tuning range naturally.

A good topic would be a high frequency, high tuning range, inductorless VCO.

Hot Hot Hot !

Good luck !

Click to expand...

In fact Thomas Lee came to RFIT in Singapore.