future trends for wireless communication frontends in nanometer cmos
CMOS technology is evolving deeper and deeper into the nanometer era, with designs now being done in 90nm and even 65nm. This makes the integration of entire systems possible, many of which are mixed-signal in nature, including analog and/or RF parts. The advancement in CMOS technology offers many opportunities for new telecom applications, such as 4G software-defined radios and wireless sensor networks. This invited paper first describes basic architectural concepts for 4G radio frontends. This is then illustrated with circuit solutions for a fully reconfigurable 4G A/D converter. Also low-power wireless sensor networks offer large opportunities for ubiquitous sensing and ambient intelligence, opening up applications such as improved human health care and comfort in the future. Designing these wireless circuits in nanometer CMOS technologies with increasing technology tolerances, reducing supply voltages and worsening signal integrity conditions are key challenges that designers face and that require new design tools to address these problems. Some examples are presented in this paper.
wireless communication wireless sensor networks integrated circuits reconfigurable hardware rf frontends