The total number of worldwide cell phone users surpassed the 5 billion mark in 2010 and annual global sales of cellular telephones is reaching 1.8 billion units, as of 2013. With mobile technology becoming almost ubiquitous and with the types of enriched features and services that are available to the end user, mobile devices are being required to support higher data rates. Unfortunately, this need for higher data rates is resulting in systems that are now required to support communication in many different, non-contiguous frequency bands spread between 400 MHz and 6 GHz.

To meet these needs many current mobile devices employ multiple, parallel, single-band RF front end systems, each tuned to operate in a specific frequency band. This approach is, ultimately, unsustainable ss new wireless standards continue to be introduced. This project focuses on the development of highly reconfigurable RF circuits for use in multi-band, multi-mode wireless communication systems with particular emphasis on the low-noise and power amplifiers.

There are four primary metrics of interest in RF systems: gain, linearity, noise figure, and efficiency. Depending upon the type of system being designed, the priority of these metrics may change. The primary challenge in trying to replace multiple, parallel systems with a single, reconfigurable system lies in achieving similar performance in these four performance metrics while still reducing overall size and routing complexity.

This research looks at circuits at the antenna interface in both receivers and transmitters. The long-term goals of this project are therefore divided:

• Multi-Band Low-Noise Amplifer Development
• Develop new reconfigurable/multi-band matching networks compatible with CMOS technologies
• Integrate these networks into new multi-band low-noise amplifier architectures achieving noise figure performance comparable to single-band systems
• Multi-Band Power Amplifier Development
• Establish a theoretical framework for concurrent multi-band power amplifiers
• Establish practical design guidelines for concurrent multi-band power amplifiers
• Develop techniques to support complex modulation in concurrent multi-band power amplifiers

This project has been made possible by the generous support of:

• National Science Foundation under awards ECCS-1509001 and BRIGE-0926833
• Skyworks Solutions, Inc.