Radio frequency and millimetre-wave products, such as front-end modules, transceivers, power amplifiers, filters and phased arrays, from the standards and band requirements, the architecture and link budget and the choice of CMOS, SOI, SiGe, GaAs or GaN, through circuit and electromagnetic co-design, layout and extraction and tape-out, to S-parameter characterisation, module and antenna-in-package integration, regulatory and conformance testing, qualification, ramp and end of life.
RF and mmWave product lifecycle: 12 stages, 13 gates of its own and 9 hand-offs to the Product lifecycle, from Standards & Band Requirements to End of Life.
12 stages, 13 gates of its own and 9 hand-offs to the Product lifecycle, 3 of the gates technical readiness reviews (TR). Each stop opens its stage; each sign opens its gate. Point at a stop or tab to it to read what the stage is for. What the codes mean
In collaboration with The Digital Electronics Blog (opens in a new tab)
A dashed sign with a TR tag is a technical readiness review gate.
An outlined sign with an arrow is a hand-off: the gate is owned by the Product lifecycle, where this lifecycle hands its work on.
In collaboration with The Digital Electronics Blog (opens in a new tab)
Turning the market need into the radio requirements the product must meet: the frequency bands and channel plans, the air interface standards and their releases, the transmit power, receiver sensitivity, linearity, noise, efficiency and coexistence targets, and the regulatory and certification regimes of each target market, written down as a requirements baseline that every later budget traces to.
Concept approval gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Concept approval)Requirements baseline gate
Choosing the radio architecture, such as the transceiver topology, the front-end partitioning between chips, filters, switches and antennas, the number of chains and the beamforming approach for phased arrays, and building the link budget and the cascaded noise, gain, linearity and power budgets that split the system targets into block-level specifications.
An outlined sign with an arrow is a hand-off: the gate is owned by the Product lifecycle, where this lifecycle hands its work on.
Selecting the semiconductor technology for each function: bulk CMOS, RF silicon-on-insulator, silicon-germanium BiCMOS, gallium arsenide or gallium nitride, weighed on frequency, output power, efficiency, noise, integration, cost, supply and the maturity of the foundry's device models and design kit, and confirming the choice with test structures and model checks where the risk calls for it.
Technology selected gateTR1, technical readiness reviewProduct plan agreed gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Plan approval and development commit)
Designing the RF and millimetre-wave circuits, such as low-noise amplifiers, mixers, power amplifiers, switches, oscillators and synthesisers, phase shifters and filters, together with the electromagnetic models of their inductors, transformers, baluns, transmission lines and couplers, so that the passive structures the circuits rely on are simulated as they will be built rather than as ideal components.
Drawing the RF layout with attention to symmetry, grounding, isolation, current density and the placement of passives, then extracting it with parasitic extraction for the devices and wiring and full electromagnetic simulation for the structures where fields matter, and re-simulating the circuits with the extracted views until post-layout results meet the specification.
Closing the design for manufacture: physical verification, reliability checks such as electromigration and ESD on RF pins, a sign-off review of post-layout performance across corners, release of the layout database to the foundry, and preparation of the evaluation boards, fixtures, calibration standards and test plans that will be needed when wafers return.
Measuring first silicon on the bench and on wafer: small-signal S-parameters with a calibrated vector network analyser, noise figure, gain compression and intercept points, output power and efficiency with load-pull where needed, phase noise, spurious emissions and error vector magnitude, across voltage, temperature and frequency, with fixture and probe effects removed by de-embedding so the results can be compared with simulation.
First silicon gateMeasurement and model correlation gateEngineering samples gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Engineering samples)
Integrating the die with filters, switches, matching networks, passives and antennas in a module or an antenna-in-package, designing the substrate and the transitions between die, package and board, and measuring the assembled module, including antenna patterns and beam steering for phased arrays, so the product is proven as the customer will use it.
Module and antenna design freeze gateModule samples gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Design-in review)
Showing that the product meets the radio regulations of each target market and the conformance requirements of its air interface standard: pre-compliance scans in-house, then formal testing of emissions, transmit power, spectral masks, receiver performance and coexistence at accredited laboratories, and the certification, declarations and test reports each market and each industry certification scheme asks for.
Pre-compliance passed gateConformance and certification passed gate
Qualifying the die and the module for reliability, including RF-specific stresses such as operation into a mismatched load and high-power life tests, and releasing a production RF test with correlated limits, test hardware that holds calibration in volume and a test time that fits the cost target.
Qualification start gateQualification passed gateTR3, technical readiness reviewProduction release gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Production release)
Scaling production while yield, RF parametric distributions and test correlation are watched across sites and lots, handling field returns, managing changes to wafers, substrates, filters and assembly through change notification, and keeping certifications valid as the product or the rules change.
Volume ramp gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Volume ramp)Sustaining and change review gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Lifecycle review)
Withdrawing the product in an orderly way: a last-time buy that covers customer needs, a plan for certifications that customers' products still depend on, migration advice to a successor part, and an archive of design, measurement, test and certification data so questions about shipped parts can still be answered.
Last-time buy gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Last-time buy)Last-time ship gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Last-time ship)
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