Target Radio-Frequencies

Wireless communication systems require specific radio-frequency integrated circuits, which often require optimum performances. The radio-frequency integrated circuits have to deal with traditional requirements such as low power consumption or high speed, but also with low process variation influence, power efficiency, linearity, low temperature influence, and low noise sensitivity.

Application	GSM	DECT	UMTS	Bluetooth	IEEE 820.11a	IEEE 820.1b
Description	Mobile phone 1st generation	Mobile phone 2nd generation	Mobile phone 3rd generation	Wireless network	Very high rate wireless networking	High rate wireless networking
Frequency (MHz)	890-915	1880-1900	1910-2200	2450	5200	2450
Data rate	12Kb/s	100Kb/s	0.1-2Mb/s	0.72-10Mb/s	6-18Mb/s	1-5Mb/s
Output Power	1-2 Watts	100mW	1 watt	100mW	0.1-1 Watt	0.1-1 Watt

Modern radio frequencies equipments operate at frequency ranges officially called ultra-high frequencies (UHF) ranging from 300MHz to 3GHz, and super high frequencies (SHF) ranging from 3GHz to 30GHz. The "HF" bandwidth designates the bandwidth 3-30MHz. Mobiles phones and wireless networking have been the driving applications of radio-frequency integrated circuits, as described in the figure 12-1.

Figure 12-1. Some key radio-frequency applications