One of the most challenging areas for VLSI designers is VLSI circuit and system design for wireless applications. The design of a cellular radio system involves several engineering disciplines ranging from communication theory and digital signal processing to high frequency semiconductor technology and circuit design. Furthermore, the new generation of wireless systems, which includes multimedia, puts severe constraints on performance, cost, size, power and energy. VLSI designers now need to understand both wireless communication and mixed signal design. This is an overview of wireless communication systems, followed by a detailed treatment of related topics such as 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. It is written for use in advanced level courses and also serves as a basic reference for professional engineers.
