Why RF/mmwave?

Radio chips are found inside any device marked “wireless” like cellphones, bluetooth/WiFi devices, systems such RADARs, satellites etc. and their ever-increasing demand is driven by the explosive growth of these applications. Advanced Radio Lab (ARIL) develops circuits for next generation radio chips which encompass broad spectrum of circuits including traditional analog circuits with high performance, radio frequency (RF) circuits and millimeter-wave (mmwave) circuits.

Radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design is basically analog circuit design at radio frequencies (RF) which typically extends till 30 GHz for integrated circuit (IC) based implementation . Millimeter-wave IC design encompasses 30-300 GHz range of frequencies and becomes even more exciting. With millimeter wave applications such as automotive RADAR, high data rate wireless 6G radios, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications in the horizon, the demand for IC designers is ever increasing. However, it requires broad knowledge of communication systems, microwave theory, transceiver architectures, electromagnetics and circuits. In addition to traditional small signal analysis for analog circuits, RFIC designers have to master large signal analysis techniques and tools because RF circuits often exhibit large signal behavior. There are additional passive components that designers use like inductors, baluns, transformers, transmission lines all inside the chip and precisely modelled high frequency RF transistors as well. They have to run EM (electromagnetic) simulations to model and design these passives and also to assess the impact of parasitics. Designers have to go through a thought process while sizing and laying out each and every individual device/component and interconnect because they have their unique purpose. Therefore, design of RFICs can never be automated unlike digital circuits which can be generated and synthesized using HDL (Verilog/VHDL) codes. As a result, there is an increasing demand for irreplaceable RF/mmwave IC designers in this booming wireless industry promising excellent perks!