“Wireless is coming” was the message received by VLSI designers in the
early 1990’s. They believed it. But they never imagined that the wireless
wave would be coming with such intensity and speed. Today one of the most
challenging areas for VLSI designers is VLSI circuit and system design for
wireless applications.
New generation of wireless systems, which includes multimedia, put severe
constraints on performance, cost, size, power and energy. The challenge is
immense and the need for new generation of VLSI designers, who are fluent
in wireless communication and are masters of mixed signal design, is great.
No single text or reference book contains the necessary material to educate
such needed new generation of VLSI designers. There are gaps. Excellent books
exist on communication theory and systems, including wireless applications
and others treat well basic digital, analog and mixed signal VLSI design. We
feel that this book is the first of its kind to fill that gap.
In the first half of this book we offer the reader (the VLSI designer)
enough material to understand wireless communication systems. We start
with a historical account. And then we present an overview of wireless
communication systems. This is followed by detailed treatment of related
topics; the mobile radio, digital modulation and schemes, spread spectrum and
receiver architectures.
The second half of the book deals with VLSI design issues related to
mixed-signal design. These include analog-to-digital conversion, transceiver
design, digital low-power techniques, amplifier design, phase locked loops and
frequency synthesizers.
The book can be used in a senior undergraduate or graduate course on VLSI
Design For Wireless Applications and can be also used by practicing engineers
and managers working in this area. Basic background in both communication
systems and VLSI design are assumed.
We are aware of the hazards of trying , in a 300-plus page book, to bridge
the gap between two engineering disciplines. Trading depth and breadth is only
one such hazard. But our conviction for the need of such a book motivated us
to write it. Moreover, the experience of writing it was enjoyable and we hope
the book proves useful to our readers.
Emad Farag
Mohamed Elmasry
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada