To be a Good MMIC Designer, Should i Study Anlog CMOS IC design?

[amirengineer]

Well,

I want to know the direct (street forward) Path to be a professional MMIC Designer & do i need to start with Analog CMOS Design? & if the answer is NO, what are the Subjects that i should study and by what sort?

 

[BigBoss]

No..
The MMIC Designers must have strong RF and Microwave fundamentals,semiconductor-especially compound type III-IV- theory,practice and fabrications and strong EM knowledge.
CMOS Design knowledge helps to understand these musts but designer should be focused on those particular knowledge.

 

[dave1313]

No, for MMIC design you will need a strong background in EM. The main difference between analog CMOS design and microwave/millimeter-wave MMIC design is that in analog CMOS design you are design in terms of voltages and currents at nodes. In microwave/millimeter-wave MMIC design, you are designing in terms of in and out-going waves. It's a different approach to design.

 

[amirengineer]

No..
The MMIC Designers must have strong RF and Microwave fundamentals,semiconductor-especially compound type III-IV- theory,practice and fabrications and strong EM knowledge.
CMOS Design knowledge helps to understand these musts but designer should be focused on those particular knowledge.

Do you mean by RF and Microwave fundamentals--->the Circuits point of view or the phenomena(Maxwell Eq. & those stuffs) point of view?,

 

[vfone]

I agree that you need solid RF background. Unfortunately 90% of the MMIC designers that I met, they get lost when is about RF and Microwaves, just for the reason they came from CMOS/Analog industry.

 

[BigBoss]

Do you mean by RF and Microwave fundamentals--->the Circuits point of view or the phenomena(Maxwell Eq. & those stuffs) point of view?,

Not so deeply but RF Microwave Fundamentals cover so many things from matching to EM , so mathematical background is of course necessary but you won't have time to solve diff equations..
So, you should practically implement the circuit as quick as possible.The most important thing is "the design methodology".Once you have learn this, the other ways will be opened by temselves.
All you should know at first sight,
-Expertising on Simulation Tools
-Very strong background RF-MW Theory and Applications

 

[amirengineer]

So would you Nominate a book or something to start with?

 

[dave1313]

I best book I have read on MMIC design is "Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design" by Guillermo Gonzalez. For passive microwave circuits I recommend "Microwave Engineering" by David Pozar.

 

[amirengineer]

thanks to all of you for your support i think i knew from where to start ....