Tunable RF Components and Circuits

An Industry Perspective on Key Tunable Technologies and Applications

Tunable RF Components and Circuits: Applications in Mobile Handsets provides a technical introduction to the state of the art in tunable radio frequency (RF) components, circuits, and applications and discusses the foundational work that has been done to date. Leading practitioners in the field share their expertise on tunable devices in mobile handset applications. Through these practical viewpoints, readers discover how to use tunable RF techniques and devices to develop successful product designs.

A substantial portion of the book focuses on antennas and antenna tuning, reflecting the dominance of the antenna tuning application in today’s commercial market for tunable RF. The book explains how RF-microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS), barium strontium titinate (BST), silicon-on-insulator (SOI) field effect transistors (FETs), and high-performance complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) are used as enabling technologies for tunable functions in current and next-generation radio architectures. The book also describes power amplifier envelope tracking, an emerging and important technique for improving efficiency; presents a network operator’s perspective on the evolution of the handset front end; and explores emerging approaches to production testing of wireless devices.

Jeffrey L. Hilbert is the president and founder of WiSpry, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company utilizing CMOS-integrated radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) technology to develop tunable RF products for the cellular communications and wireless consumer electronics markets. He has more than 35 years of executive management and technical experience in a number of leading semiconductor and MEMS companies, including LSI Logic, Compass Design Automation, AMCC, Motorola, Harris, and Coventor. He received a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Florida and an MS in computer science from the Florida Institute of Technology, and has done course work toward a PhD in computer engineering from North Carolina State University.