COMMEMORATIVE FEATURE
LOOKING AHEAD:
THE FUTURE OF
COMMERCIAL WIRELESS—
RF PLUG AND PLAY
The future of wireless communications is
about its evolution from a technology to
a resource—as common to our experience as water and electricity. In order to get
there, though, the industry has to overcome
some significant design challenges in mobile
devices, many of which will be helped by advancements in semiconductor technology. Today’s consumer mobile devices can include as
many as nine RF chains, and engineers are
taxed to meet the size, power and coexistence
requirements of next-generation form factors.
While many of us tend to focus on the evolution of networking technology standards and
technologies as the driver of ubiquitous wireless (EDGE or 1xRTT? LTE or WiMAX?
Satellite-based or terrestrial-based? Single-carrier or multi-carrier?), the reality is that the
future of wireless communications is as much
about the consumer device as it is about the
network on which the device operates. The future of wireless communications is about how
seamlessly wireless capability—and, most critically, RF technology—integrates into the various devices, vehicles, tools and spaces defining our daily lives. In addition, next-generation designs must be able to keep up with
changing usage models. For instance, few predicted the explosive growth of text messaging,
and dramatic improvements in RF and SoC
capability and power consumption have enabled a richer mobile Internet browsing experience. Many are now focused on adding location-based services to mobile handsets, and
the mobile device needs to have the required
RF circuitry to handle all of these diverse signal chains.
INNOVATION REQUIRED
Seamless inclusion of wireless communications into our day-to-day existence has, until
recently, often frustrated the best efforts of
the wider electronics industry. Often referred
to as “the black art of electronics,” RF signal
processing has long resisted the transition
from circuit board-based discrete components
to IC subsystems. Discussions of “the future
of wireless communications” over the last
decade have often referenced relatively exotic
RF physical layer architectural innovations
such as “software-defined radio” and “polar
modulation,” implying that fundamental rethinking of the approach to RF signal processing represented the best path to wireless pervasiveness.
JOHN BREWER AND PETER GAMMEL
SiGe Semiconductor Inc.
