Design of 2.4 GHz and 5GHz RFIC front-end components in CMOS and silicon-germanium HBT technologies

In the last few years, multiple wireless networking standards such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 have been developed. Technologies such as RF CMOS, Silicon Germanuim (SiGe) HBT are now providing means to realize systems-on-chip solutions for these standards. This thesis focuses on the comparison of CMOS and SiGe for their RF performance.; Low noise Amplifiers in CMOS and SiGe were designed and implemented for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency. Simulation results indicate a superior linearity performance for the CMOS LNA. At 2.4 GHz other RF performance parameters were comparable. However at 5 GHz, the power consumed by the CMOS LNA was about 4mW more than that of the SiGe LNA for comparable RF performance.; A method to improve the Quality factors of on-chip spiral inductors using porous silicon is also investigated as a part of the research. Simulation results indicate an almost two-fold improvement in the Q factor.