Introduction to the Special Section on the IEEE Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS 2008)

The five papers selected for this Special Section, chosen in part based on symposium attendee survey feedback, highlight some of the most significant achievements reported at the meeting. The first paper describes a WCDMA base-station power amplifier utilizing GaAs high-voltage HBTs and a wideband envelope tracking system to achieve high power, high linearity performance at higher efficiency than competing technologies. The next two papers demonstrate the remarkable versatility and performance of state-of-the-art GaN technology. The fourth paper presents a SiGe HBT-based 80 GHz voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a very wide tuning rage for applications such as 77 GHz automotive radar. And the final paper describes >100 GHz gain-bandwidth amplifier enabled using a novel wafer bonding approach to heteregeneous integration of InP HBTs and conventional 130 nm CMOS.