6.1 A Low-Power and Low-Cost 14nm FinFET RFIC Supporting Legacy Cellular and 5G FR1

To be competitive in a mobile market, current consumption and bill-of-material (BOM) cost have to be minimized. Current reduction techniques have been actively investigated as they become a key factor to increase battery lifetime. To reduce BOM cost, external low-noise amplifier (eLNA) usage and discrete passive components have to be minimized with simple interfaces, which influences the number of PCB Iayers and stacks. This work is oriented to provide a low-power and low-cost cellular RF transceiver that supports 2G, 3G, and 4G as well as new-radio (NR) frequency range1 (FR1) with a dual-mode Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) implemented in a 14nm FinFET CMOS technology. A fully digital interface is implemented to transfer data between an RFIC and a modem for enhanced routability as demonstrated in Fig. 6.1.1.