Integrated RF receiver front ends and frequency synthesizers for wireless

The majority of the current wireless systems operate in the 800 MHz to 2.5 GHz portion of the frequency spectrum. Typically, the handsets will employ several separate integrated circuits using a mix of technologies. With CMOS being the least expensive, the trend has been to include more functionality within the CMOS chip. However, certain portions of the transceiver have resisted the move to CMOS. In this tutorial the authors focus on two of these-the RF receiver front end with LNA and the frequency synthesizer.