Design of High-Order Switches for Multimode Applications on a Silicon-on-Insulator Technology

A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technology on high-resistivity silicon substrates is presented for the design of high-power switches for cellular and wireless local area network handset applications. A design methodology is introduced to design high-order switches for optimal insertion loss and isolation performance. Sources of nonlinearities in SOI switches are discussed. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first demonstration of high-power switches on a high-resistivity SOI CMOS technology for high-volume cellular handset applications with adequate intermodulation and harmonic distortion performance. The design details and measurement results for a variety of RF switches with general-purpose input/output and mobile industry processor interface control interfaces, flip-chip/wire-bond packaging, and for various standards are discussed.