The silicon radio decade

During the 1990s, we witnessed a string of advances in silicon RF integration: from the introduction of the first integrated silicon bipolar radios for groupe special mobile (GSM) and digital European cordless telephone in the late 1980s toward full single-chip integration capabilities based on silicon-germanium BiCMOS technologies. Where RF design used to be a black art, it is becoming a "normal practice" today. In this paper, the authors look back on the past ten years of circuits, silicon technology, and system research with roots in standardization and a scope reaching from the early ideas to the final product success on the market and some perspective toward new concepts and systems.