Mobile WiMAX handset front-end : design aspects and challenges.

Mobile WiMAX standard targets worldwide telecommunication market with different regulatory policy requirements. Beside the multiple radio frequency allocation, this standard proposes multiple specifications in terms of the wideband channel bandwidth and therefore, calls for very high performance front-end. Solutions for different RF system blocks have to be flexible and in a certain manner reconfigurable in order to satisfy different modes of operation and various regulations worldwide. The chapter proposed by authors covers various RF requirements of the Mobile WiMAX standard along with its implications on the radio front-end architecture with respect to common performance metrics such as linearity, power output, gain variation, Adjacent Channel Power Rejection (ACPR) Ratio, wideband spurious spectral performance, linearity, noise figure and phase noise. Three main topics will be analyzed in a detail, namely the frequency synthesis, power amplifier design and filter design aspects. These sub-chapters will cover requirements imposed on relevant RF stages and moreover, solutions and analysis of particular approaches will be given as well