Producing satellite receiver chips: an exercise in backward designing

The cell library design approach and the 'pizza' mask, two techniques to reduce cost and design time, are discussed. Three case studies are presented illustrating the effect of cost considerations on the design of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). They concern a 4-GHz television receive-only satellite broadcast downconverter, an MMIC switch, and a 12-GHz satellite downconverter.<
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