IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Summer 2023 - 62
Behzad Razavi
75 Years of RF Design
Highlights and Paradigm Shifts
R
adio-frequency (RF)
circuits came into
existence decades
before the invention
of the transistor. The
First World War motivated great
advances in wireless communications
and radar design-all based on
vacuum tubes. Then came the notion
of public radio and television, driving
RF circuits into the consumer
market. By the mid-1940s, when the
bipolar transistor was conceived at
Bell Laboratories, vacuum-tube RF
design had become fairly mature [1].
Of course, the products drew high
power and failed frequently. Based
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2023.3280435
Date of current version: 20 August 2023
62 SUMMER 2023
on electron transport in a vacuum,
these components could operate as
only " n-type " devices, a stark contrast
to what bipolar and MOS technologies
would offer decades later.
The migration from tubes to transistors
took some years but subsequently
accelerated due to three advantages
of the latter: product lifetime, power
consumption, and cost. The much
smaller form factor was an additional
bonus. In this article, we briefly review
advances in RF circuits since then. The
article does not intend to offer a linear
or comprehensive history. Rather, our
ambition is to 1) understand how RF
designers' mentality has evolved and 2)
identify some of the concepts that have
stood the test of time and still play a
key role in modern radios.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
Vacuum Tubes Versus Transistors
While they had been under development
for decades, vacuum tubes
faced some fundamental drawbacks.
1) They required supply voltages of
100-400 V.
2) They consumed high power and
produced a great deal of heat.
3) They had a short lifetime.
4) They occupied a large volume
(about several cubic centimeters).
5)
They were expensive to manufacture.
The
transistor by far outperformed
(or was projected to outperform) the
tube in all these respects.
Another advantage of bipolar technology
that would eventually materialize
was the ability to provide both
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IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Summer 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Summer 2023
Contents
IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Summer 2023 - Cover1
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IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Summer 2023 - Contents
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