RF Systems Architect

Project

Work done for a product or program.

• Own the cascaded budgets for noise figure, gain, linearity, phase noise, EVM and power, and allocate them to each block owner.
• Model the full radio and channel in MATLAB or SystemVue, including impairments and digital compensation, to validate that the partitioning closes.
• Decide the analog-versus-digital split for calibration, filtering and predistortion, in dialogue with DSP and firmware architects.
• Define coexistence strategy for concurrent radios — cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS, UWB — including filtering, time-sharing and desense mitigation.
• Set the system-level test and certification strategy with test, regulatory and customer teams.
• Arbitrate cross-block trade-offs when budgets fail to close, deciding where to spend power, area or calibration complexity.
• Review silicon results against the architectural model and drive the next-generation architecture from measured gaps.
• Represent the architecture to customers, standards bodies and executive review boards, defending choices with quantitative evidence.

Function

Work that keeps the discipline running: methods, tools, suppliers and people.

• Derive the radio architecture from the target standards and use cases, fixing the receiver and transmitter topology and frequency plan.
• Own standards compliance mapping (3GPP, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth SIG, ETSI, FCC) and translate requirements into internal specifications.

Project

1. Produce and hand over the role's key deliverables
   • Radio architecture specification and frequency plan
   • Cascaded system budgets allocated per block with margin accounting
   • System-level simulation model of radio plus channel plus impairments
   • Coexistence and desense analysis document
   • Standards compliance requirement traceability matrix
   • Architecture retrospective comparing model prediction to silicon
2. Define the architectureGeneral
   • Collect and clarify the product requirements
   • Build performance and power models
   • Write and baseline the architecture specification
3. Support implementationGeneral
   • Answer specification questions from design and verification
   • Assess the impact of proposed changes
   • Compare results with the original targets

Function

1. Build the architecture practiceGeneral
   • Keep modelling tools and reference models current
   • Publish design guidelines and specification templates
2. Plan aheadGeneral
   • Study workload and technology trends
   • Contribute to the product roadmap