Advantages of SiGe-HBTs for RF wireless communication

Abstract

State-of-the-art RF wireless communication systems require high level of integration, low-cost and high performance. The suitability of Si/SiGe heterostructure based devices and circuits is examined in this paper. Issues related to the choice of technology for RFICs are considered and it has been shown that scaled SiGe-HBTs satisfy most of the requirements such as gain, f/sub t/ and noise figure. Results of the simulation for RF performances of SiGe-HBT devices are presented. Different components of total transit time (/spl tau//sub ec/) have been extracted using the charge partitioning method. Passive components available in SiGe-BiCMOS technology demonstrate the feasibility of realizing SiGe-MMICs.