Tunable RF Components and Circuits

Book excerpt: 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.