RF ICs for commercial wireless applications

Prior to the advent of the commercial wireless communications market in the late 1980's, most RF circuit designs were destined for military applications. Since then, the size of the military market has declined, whilst the size of the wireless communications market has grown exponentially. With the move from low volume military applications to high volume commercial applications came ever increasing pressure for reduced cost, size and weight. This paper discusses the important trade-offs which must be made when designing RF ICs for use in high volume commercial wireless products and presents techniques which can be adopted to keep the costs down to the very low levels demanded by the market.