Christian Rye Iversen

RFCMOS SOI technology for 4G reconfigurable RF solutions

In order to provide increasing data rates demanded by the consumer market, the 4G RF cellular front-end is becoming increasingly complex with numerous transmit and receive bands, the possibility of multiple antennae and new architectures which involves Uplink and Downlink carrier aggregation. Such new architectures present extreme challenges for conventional fixed band systems composed of PAs, switches and filters. Tunable technologies using RFCMOS SOI technology are already being deployed in increasing number in todays advanced RF cellular handsets. The talk will present a chronology of the RFSOI technology development in the industry through the last decade and highlight novel uses of its capabilities in 4G systems as well as the critical specifications needed in this application space.

Cellular antenna switches for multimode applications based on a Silicon-on-Insulator technology

A Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) CMOS technology on high resistivity silicon substrates is presented for the design of cellular antenna switches. The design and measurement results for an SP9T cellular antenna switch based on this technology are presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an SP9T cellular antenna switch with adequate intermodulation and harmonic distortion performance on a high resistivity SOI CMOS technology.

Simple noise deembedding technique for on-wafer shield-based test fixtures

Conventional on-wafer test fixtures have a significant impact on two-port noise-parameter measurements of silicon devices at gigahertz frequencies. This leads to increased measuring inaccuracy, as well as a need for complicated and area-consuming deembedding procedures. Alternatively, shield-based test fixtures are characterized by very few series effects and, thus, support cost-efficient and simple deembedding. The applicability of a simple one-step method is illustrated with experimental data. A performance comparison is made to full-scale deembedding methods based on conventional, as well as shield-based test fixtures.

Advances in SOI switched capacitors for 4G tunable antennas

In order to provide increasing data rates demanded by the consumer market, the 4G RF cellular front-end is becoming increasingly complex with numerous transmit and receive bands, the possibility of multiple antennas and new architectures which involves Uplink and Downlink carrier aggregation. Such new architectures present extreme challenges for conventional fixed band systems composed of PAs, switches and filters. Tunable technologies using RFCMOS SOI technology on high resistivity substrates are already being deployed in increasing numbers in todays advanced RF cellular handsets. This paper will present a discussion on RF topologies and architectures enabled by modern RFSOI technologies to solve the increasingly complex 4G RF front-end, including a discussion of the critical specifications needed in this application space.

RFSOI programmable array of capacitors

Tunable capacitors are increasingly important components in todays state of the art RF front ends. They enable a degree of tuning and configurability that is essential in todays multiband multimode handsets. SOI technology is the technology of choice due to the combination of the high degree of integration, high performance and low cost. This paper highlights some of the techniques and tradeoffs involved in the design of a programmable array of capacitors (PAC). The performance metrics are highlighted and the implication of over specification on obtainable Q discussed.