RF/analog/digital SOI technology for GPS receivers and other systems on a chip

Increasing numbers of military and aerospace systems require miniaturization and low power which can only be achieved by employing mixed mode combinations of RF, analog and digital circuits on the same chip. GPS receivers are an excellent example of the subsystem required to fit in small munitions or the soldier watch. At the same time, the requirements for jamming and spoofing resistance and encryption decoding increase the gate count to 20-30 Mgates. Similar in complexity the analog section may require 16-bit analog to digital converter for digital beam forming. Demanding RF front-end performance section includes the low noise amplifiers with noise figure below 2 dB and with associated gain of 30-40 dB. Such extreme mixed mode requirements can be only met with specialized technology like Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) on high resistivity substrate. Such substrate provides excellent isolation and 10 dB lower noise than in bulk CMOS.