On the use of behavioral modeling within the RFIC design flow: Satellite receiver case study

In order to generate a first-time right design, system level modeling and simulation is a major step. Thus, performance evaluation of integrated wireless systems requires the development of RF behavioral models compatible with the microelectronic design tools. Firstly, this paper shows the need of such models within the RFIC Top–Down design flow. Then, behavioral modeling techniques are presented and several classical RF block models are described. Those models are used within an RFIC satellite receiver validation example and finally, several performance evaluation examples allow demonstrating the capabilities of behavioral modeling, compared to other very used modeling techniques as mathematical and baseband approaches.