Multimode Reconfigurable Wireless Terminals: a First Step Toward Software Defined Radio

Multimedia applications create the need for multi-mode handsets that support many standards with different frequency, bandwidth, modulation etc. Sharing and/or switching blocks in these handsets are used to extend battery life and/or reduce cost. Furthermore adaptive circuits that can reconfigure themselves within the handover time will enable seamless interoperability over several standards with a single receiver/transmitter. This paper presents RF and analog baseband circuits that are able to support GSM (with Edge), WCDMA (UMTS), WLAN and Bluetooth using reconfigurable building blocks. They can trade power consumption for performance on the fly, depending on the standard and the required quality of service. Experimental measurements in a 0.13 mum CMOS technology are presented and discussed