Anatomy of a radio frequency integrated circuit design course

The field of radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design is currently enjoying a renaissance, driven by the explosive growth in wireless applications. Because of this sudden and unexpected growth, there has been a frenzied scramble to train RF engineers to meet the high demand. A major challenge in this task is that RF design is multidisciplinary in nature, requiring knowledge of communications and signal propagation theory, transceiver architectures, and circuit design. This paper describes an intensive first-year graduate course designed specifically to produce competent RFIC designers in one year.