On-chip versus off-chip passives in multi-band radio design

Abstract

This paper presents on-chip versus off-chip passives in multi-band radio design. The analysis is demonstrated through several multi-band low noise amplifiers designs in SiGe BiCMOS and GaAs PHEMT. Cost-performance trade-off analysis shows that when on-chip passives are moved off chip, performance of RF circuits is always improved. However, simple RF circuits do not show obvious cost-benefits, whereas complex RF circuits such as multi-band radio can have significant cost savings by using off-chip passives.