Improving Yield on RF-CMOS ICs

Abstract

One of the industry sectors with the largest revenue in the telecommunication field is the wireless communications field. Wireless operators try to offer products that fulfill the user demands in terms of price, battery life and product quality. All these requirements must be also fulfilled by the designer of the MMIC (Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuits) circuits that will be used in those wireless terminals, achieving a reliable design, with high performance, low cost and if possible in one or two foundry iterations so as to bring the product out to the market as soon as possible. Silicon based technologies are the lowest cost ones. These technologies don't include some essential components for the design of RF circuits, which leads to measurement results quite different from those simulated. The deep study of the problems presented when designing Si based RF circuits recommends the use of electromagnetic simulation or coo-simulation tools. The paper shows different simulation techniques that help the designer to obtain better designs with a lower cost, as well as reduced foundry iterations.