This research aims to design and implement GaAs HBT MMICs for the two crucial components in W-CDMA transmitters, quadrature modulator and upconverter, with thorough evaluation of the package and PCB effects. To construct a strong theoretical foundation, the small-signal modeling of HBTs and the EM-characterization of package and PCB interconnects are intensively studied. In this dissertation, a novel extrinsic-inductance independent approach is developed for direct extraction of the intrinsic elements in a hybrid-pi equivalent circuit of HBTs. The interconnects of leadless RFIC packages and test PCBs are investigated using the 3-D EM simulation tools and transformed into the equivalent circuits for co-analysis with the designed HBT MMICs. The first HBT MMIC design is a W-CDMA direct-conversion quadrature modulator incorporating a new 90 degrees phase shifter. Although the proposed 90 degrees phase shifter has a remarkable advantage over the others in implementation loss, it is rather susceptible to the package and PCB effects, resulting in a moderate degradation of EVM. The second HBT MMIC design is a W-CDMA upconverter incorporating a popular micromixer. Although the micromixer-based upconverter consumes much less current at low output powers to achieve the same high linearity when compared to a Gilbert mixer-based design, it is quite susceptible to the package and PCB effects, causing a significant degradation in ACPR. Comparison between theory and measurement shows good agreement in evaluating the influences of package and PCB interconnects on both HBT MMICs.

This research aims to design a dual-conversion tuner RFIC for DVB-H applications with EDA tools. In order to have good understanding of the EDA tools used, both time-domain and frequency-domain simulation techniques are studied and discussed in this thesis. The designed tuner RFIC is implemented by a TSMC 0.35£gm SiGe BiCMOS process. The parasitic effects from PCB interconnects are also considered in this work. We use 3-D quasi-static EM simulation tool to extract the parasitic elements for PCB interconnects, and co-simulate these parasitic elements with RFICs using circuit simulation tool. The implemented tuner RFIC integrates most key components into a single chip, including the variable-gain low noise amplifier, up-converting mixer, intermediate-frequency amplifier, and down-converting mixer. Under QPSK modulation test, the designed tuner RFIC shows a wide dynamic range with good protection ratio. In addition, it has a low power consumption and thus is suitable for use in portable digital TV equipments.