1-1 Development background To cope with the recent rapid increase in communication traffic, various measures are being implemented for communication systems such as distributing traffic pathways using wireless LANs or other systems and increasing transmission capacity by introducing multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) technology or array antenna systems. The appearance of smartphones has acce...

Energy efficiency is an emerging metric for the quality of integrated circuit designs. Applications ranging from wireless sensor networks to RFID tags to embedded microprocessors require extremely low power consumption to maintain good battery life. We advocate the use of aggressively scaled supply voltages in such applications to maximize energy efficiency. This paper reviews our recent progre...

Bluetooth is a communications standard targeting shortrange wireless communications with data rates of 1Mb/s at 10m distance. To encourage Canadian universities to pursue this commercially promising standard the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation is providing the intellectual property for a Bluetooth SOC Reference Platform. This platform does not currently include an RF transceiver core. Thi...

The proliferation of wireless transceivers in portable applications has led to increased attention to an electronic circuits’ ability to operate in the vicinity of high frequency radio transmitters. For example, in a Bluetooth headset using op amp for the voice band audio, special shielding in conjunction with good layout practice and RF suppression are needed to ensure interference-free operat...

Today’s wireless communication products become more complex and more integrated. The low cost prices paid by the consumer for wireless phones and the competitive market imposed a tremendous pressure to have low cost RF ICs. The test cost becomes almost the main factor determining profit margin. To economically test high volumes of integrated RF ICs at a fraction of the cost of the IC we have to...