(Invited) mm-wave silicon ICs: An opportunity for holistic design

Abstract

Millimeter-waves integrated circuits offer a unique opportunity for a holistic design approach encompassing RF, analog, and digital, as well as radiation and electromagnetics. The ability to deal with the complete system from the digital circuitry to on-chip antennas and everything in between offers unparalleled opportunities for completely new architectures and topologies, previously impossible due the traditional partitioning of various blocks in conventional design. This opens a plethora of new architectural and system level innovation within the integrated circuit platform. This paper reviews some of the challenges and opportunities for mm-wave ICs and presents several solutions to them.