Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design
I enjoyed reading this book for a number of reasons. One reason is that it
addresses high-speed analog design in the context of microwave issues. This is
an advanced-level book, which should follow courses in basic circuits and
transmission lines. Most analog integrated circuit designers in the past worked
on applications at low enough frequency that microwave issues did not arise.
As a consequence, they were adept at lumped parameter circuits and often not
comfortable with circuits where waves travel in space. However, in order to
design radio frequency (RF) communications integrated circuits (IC) in the
gigahertz range, one must deal with transmission lines at chip interfaces and
where interconnections on chip are far apart. Also, impedance matching is
addressed, which is a topic that arises most often in microwave circuits. In my
career, there has been a gap in comprehension between analog low-frequency
designers and microwave designers. Often, similar issues were dealt with in two
different languages. Although this book is more firmly based in lumped-element
analog circuit design, it is nice to see that microwave knowledge is brought in
where necessary.
Too many analog circuit books in the past have concentrated first on the
circuit side rather than on basic theory behind their application in communications.
The circuits usually used have evolved through experience, without a
satisfying intellectual theme in describing them. Why a given circuit works best
can be subtle, and often these circuits are chosen only through experience. For
this reason, I am happy that the book begins first with topics that require an
intellectual approach—noise, linearity and filtering, and technology issues. I
am particularly happy with how linearity is introduced (power series). In the
rest of the book it is then shown, with specific circuits and numerical examples,
how linearity and noise issues arise.
