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To: Nevin S. who wrote (639)	4/21/1999 10:30:00 PM
From: kinkblot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1820

Nevin, I'm not a specialist in circuit design, either. temic-semi.com : Temic's press release about their SiGe power amplifier. It includes a link to data sheets with specifications of electrical characteristics - perhaps someone who is more familiar with the technical design considerations can give an opinion. They specify 35 dBm output power and current consumption in power-down mode of <10µA. Some wireless IC experts don't believe it will ever be desirable to put the power amplifier on the same chip as the digital baseband processor, because of difficulty in isolating it from noise generated in the digital circuits. Others believe that maximum integration is inevitable, although they can only speculate about the time-frame. With SiGe, a single-chip design is at least conceivable, if not desirable. I brought that up only as the ultimate endpoint of the trend towards integration. However, most of the advantages/disadvantages of using SiGe instead of GaAs for the power amplifier will not depend on achieving the phone-on-a-chip level of integration. For example, "since SiGe does not require negative supply voltage as needed by competing devices using Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) technology, both system and production costs can be reduced." [from link, top] A Feb 9 EETimes article "Qualcomm Will Use SiGe From IBM For RF Chips" says IBM will be manufacturing the SiGe devices for QCOM on a foundry basis: techweb.com Will