Integration and interface of digital front-end with analog front-end

Abstract

This chapter describes the integration and interface between the digital front-end and analog front-end with a focus on wireless terminals’ ASICs applications. This has been most dynamic over the past decade with rapid progress from a mostly discrete implementation platform to a single system-on-chip (SoC) ASIC that integrates the RF blocks with the Modem [1]. The pressure to perform with size, costs, and power constraints has fueled creativity in system and architecture designs and implementations in submicron CMOS processes. Such development efforts have revolutionized the types and means of digital-to-analog interfaces, which in turn have redefined ASIC partitions and popularized today’s mixed signal integration on a common substrate.