IC Design for Wireless Systems

By Prof. Abhishek Kumar | IIT Hyderabad

Learners enrolled: 1600 | Exam registration: 190

ABOUT THE COURSE:

The course will focus on CMOS IC level implementation of RF, analog and mixed signal processing blocks used in a wireless system. Students will be able to develop intuition and mental models for designing transistor level high frequency circuits on an IC. Recent circuit techniques like N-path, noise-cancellation, digital power-amplifier etc. will be introduced during the course. The course will conclude with a case study of a practical transceiver design in a generic CMOS technology.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Final year UG, first year PG

PREREQUISITES: Analog circuits, signal and systems

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Companies working in analog, mixed-signal and RF IC design.

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering VLSI design
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	19 Jan 2026
End Date :	10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends :	02 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends :	20 Feb 2026
Exam Date :	17 Apr 2026 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Transceiver architecture: frequency translation, filtering, image

Week 2: Distributed circuits: transmission-lines basics, S-parameters, matching

Week 3: Electrical noise, noise-figure, linearity, compression, inter-modulation

Week 4: Receiver design: LNA; input matching, low noise, gain

Week 5: Receiver design: mixer, channel-selection

Week 6: Receiver design: embedding N-path filtering, noise cancellation

Week 7: Transmitter design: power amplifier, efficiency, spectral leakage

Week 8: Transmitter design: driver amplifier, power mixer

Week 9: Transmitter design: RF DAC, digital power amplifier, out-phasing

Week 10: Local oscillator: oscillators, phase noise

Week 11: Local oscillator: VCO design

Week 12: Case-study: WiFi transceiver example

Books and references

[1] B. Razavi, RF Microelectronics, 2 edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011.

[2] T. H. Lee, The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits, Second Edition, 2 edition. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

[3] S. Voinigescu, High-Frequency Integrated Circuits, 1st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

[4] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 4 edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011.

[5] Recent research papers.

Instructor bio

Prof. Abhishek Kumar

IIT Hyderabad

Prof. Abhishek Kumar received the M.E. degree in microelectronics from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India, in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree from IIT Madras, India, in 2018. He completed a fivemonth internship at Qualcomm India Pvt., Ltd., Bengaluru, in 2014, where he designed VCO for cellular transceiver IC. He is currently an Assistant Professor with IIT Hyderabad, India. His research interest includes radio frequency circuit design.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: April 17, 2026 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Hyderabad. It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

SWAYAM Helpline / Support