Design of an RF transceiver

As cellular technology matures, there is an ever increasing demand for greater integration of functions within the handset. Constantly the market demands smaller radio subsystems, incorporating fewer ICs, with lower power consumption and improved RF performance. Many silicon vendors offer radio chipsets with varying levels of integration. This paper describes the BRIGHT RF ICs which are highly integrated radio transceivers designed for the GSM digital cellular system. The BRIGHT devices are the result ofa 4 year collaboration between The Technology Partnership and Hitachi which has brought together ITP's GSM system expertise and Hitachi's world class linear IC technology. This paper will concentrate on the recent dual-band device (BRIGHT2/HD155121F) which is based on the earlier single band 900MHz and 1800MHz devices. System considerations which led to the BRIGHT architecture are discussed and measured results are presented.