New concept of a high-speed low-power digital interface for multi-standard mobile transceiver RFIC's in 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS

In this paper a new concept of a high-speed low power digital interface between the RF and the base-band chip of a multi-standard mobile phone is presented and compared to other popular interfaces. First, the requirements on a digital interface at the digital output of a multi-standard mobile phone RF front-end are explained. The paper gives an insight of popular digital interfaces and presents a new concept which is more robust against the ground bounce effect. We also show measurement results of a realized test chip that show functionality and benefits of the new concept.