Student-designed Bluetooth radio in silicon-on-sapphire

The core of a fully-integrated Bluetooth receiver has been designed in a 0.5 um Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) process by a team of 11 students during the Spring 2000 semester. Unlike previously reported RFIC development work done by graduate students in the course of their research, this design was completed in the context of a classroom setting in a single semester. The receiver incorporates a number of research efforts underway at the authors' institution, providing a wide range of students with exposure to state-of-the-art design methods. Details of both the class structure and of the Bluetooth architecture being studied are discussed. Measurements taken from an early prototype circuit in SOS are also reported.