A 21-26-GHz SiGe bipolar power amplifier MMIC

A three-stage 21-26-GHz medium-power amplifier fabricated in f/sub T/=120 GHz 0.2 /spl mu/m SiGe HBT technology has 19 dB small-signal gain and 15 dB gain at maximum output power. It delivers 23 dBm, 19.75% PAE at 22 GHz, and 21 dBm, 13% PAE at 24 GHz. The differential common-base topology extends the supply to BV/sub CEO/ of the transistors (1.8 V). New on-chip components, such as onchip interconnects with floating differential shields, and self-shielding four-way power combining/dividing baluns provide inter-stage coupling and single-ended I/O interfaces at the input and output. The 2.45/spl times/2.45 mm/sup 2/ MMIC was mounted as a flipchip and tested without a heatsink.     

220GHz低噪声放大器研究

基于IHP锗硅BiCMOS工艺,研究和实现了两种220 GHz低噪声放大器电路,并将其应用于220 GHz太赫兹无线高速通信收发机电路。一种是220 GHz四级单端共基极低噪声放大电路,每级电路采用了共基极（Common Base, CB）电路结构,利用传输线和金属-绝缘体-金属(Metal-Insulator-Metal, MIM)电容等无源电路元器件构成输入、输出和级间匹配网络。该低噪放电源的电压为1.8 V,功耗为25 mW,在220 GHz频点处实现了16 dB的增益,3 dB带宽达到了27 GHz。另一种是220 GHz四级共射共基差分低噪声放大电路,每级都采用共射共基的电路结构,放大器利用微带传输线和MIM电容构成每级的负载、Marchand-Balun、输入、输出和级间匹配网络等。该低噪放电源的电压为3 V,功耗为234 mW,在224 GHz频点实现了22 dB的增益,3 dB带宽超过6 GHz。这两个低噪声放大器可应用于220 GHz太赫兹无线高速通信收发机电路。     

Algorithmic Design of CMOS LNAs and PAs for 60-GHz Radio

Sixty-gigahertz power (PA) and low-noise (LNA) amplifiers have been implemented, based on algorithmic design methodologies for mm-wave CMOS amplifiers, in a 90-nm RF-CMOS process with thick 9-metal-layer Cu backend and transistor f_T/f_MAX of 120 GHz/200 GHz. The PA, fabricated for the first time in CMOS at 60 GHz, operates from a 1.5-V supply with 5.2 dB power gain, a 3-dB bandwidth >13 GHz, a P _1dB of +6.4 dBm with 7% PAE and a saturated output power of +9.3 dBm at 60 GHz. The LNA represents the first 90-nm CMOS implementation at 60 GHz and demonstrates improvements in noise, gain and power dissipation compared to earlier 60-GHz LNAs in 160-GHz SiGe HBT and 0.13-mum CMOS technologies. It features 14.6 dB gain, an IIP ₃ of -6.8 dBm, and a noise figure lower than 5.5 dB, while drawing 16 mA from a 1.5-V supply. The use of spiral inductors for on-chip matching results in highly compact layouts, with the total PA and LNA die areas with pads measuring 0.35times0.43 mm² and 0.35times0.40 mm², respectively     

Single-Chip W-band SiGe HBT Transceivers and Receivers for Doppler Radar and Millimeter-Wave Imaging

This paper presents the first single-chip direct-conversion 77-85 GHz transceiver fabricated in SiGe HBT technology, intended for Doppler radar and millimeter-wave imaging, particularly within the automotive radar band of 77-81 GHz. A 1.3 mm times 0.9 mm 86-96 GHz receiver is also presented. The transceiver, fabricated in a 130 nm SiGe HBT technology with f_T/f_MAX of 230/300 GHz, consumes 780 mW, and occupies 1.3 mm times 0.9 mm of die area. Furthermore, it achieves 40 dB conversion gain in the receiver at 82 GHz, a 3 dB bandwidth extending from 77 to 85 GHz at 25degC, and covering the entire 77-81 GHz band up to 100degC, record 3.85 dB DSB noise figure measured at 82 GHz LO and 1 GHz IF, and an IP_1dB of -35 dBm. The transmitter provides + 11.5 dBm of saturated output power at 77 GHz, and a divide64 static frequency divider is included on-die. Successful detection of a Doppler shift of 30 Hz at a range of 6 m is shown. The 86-96 GHz receiver achieves 31 dB conversion gain, a 3 dB bandwidth of 10 GHz, and 5.2 dB DSB noise figure at 96 GHz LO and 1 GHz IF, and -99 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset. System-level layout and integration techniques that address the challenges of low-voltage transceiver implementation are also discussed.     

A Wideband 77-GHz, 17.5-dBm Fully Integrated Power Amplifier in Silicon

A 77-GHz,$+$17.5 dBm power amplifier (PA) with fully integrated 50-$Omega$input and output matching and fabricated in a 0.12-$muhbox m$SiGe BiCMOS process is presented. The PA achieves a peak power gain of 17 dB and a maximum single-ended output power of 17.5dBm with 12.8% of power-added efficiency (PAE). It has a 3-dB bandwidth of 15 GHz and draws 165 mA from a 1.8-V supply. Conductor-backed coplanar waveguide (CBCPW) is used as the transmission line structure resulting in large isolation between adjacent lines, enabling integration of the PA in an area of 0.6$hbox mm^2$. By using a separate image-rejection filter incorporated before the PA, the rejection at IF frequency of 25 GHz is improved by 35 dB, helping to keep the PA design wideband.     

5-GHz SiGe HBT monolithic radio transceiver with tunable filtering

A wide-band CDMA-compliant fully integrated 5-GHz radio transceiver was realized in SiGe heterojunction-bipolar-transistor technology with on-chip tunable voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) tracking filters. It allows for wide-band modulation schemes with bandwidth up to 20 MHz. The receiver has a single-ended single-sideband noise figure of 5.9 dB, more than 40 dB on-chip image rejection, an input compression point of -22 dBm, and larger than 70 dB local-oscillator-RF isolation. The phase noise of the on-chip VCO is -100 and -128 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz and 5 MHz offset from the carrier, respectively. The transmitter output compression point is +10 dBm. An image rejection better than 40 dB throughout the VCO tracking range has been demonstrated in the transmitter with all spurious signals 40 dB below the carrier. The differential transceiver draws 125 mA in transmit mode and 45 mA in receive mode from a 3.5-V supply     

Millimeter-wave wide-band amplifiers using multilayer MMICtechnology

This paper describes millimeter-wave wide-band single-ended and balanced amplifiers using novel multilayer monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology. The fundamental characteristics of thin-film transmission lines and a 50-GHz-band multilayer MMIC directional coupler are described through measurements up to 60 GHz. A single-ended amplifier fabricated in a 1.1 mm×0.8 mm area, shows a gain of about 12 dB with a noise figure of better than 5 dB around 50 GHz. A balanced amplifier fabricated using the multilayer MMIC directional couplers and single-ended amplifiers, shows a gain of 10-17 dB with input and output return losses of better than 14 dB from 33 to 53 GHz. The transmission lines and directional couplers can be effectively combined with millimeter-wave active circuits without degrading the circuit performance or increasing the circuit area. To our knowledge, these are the first millimeter-wave active circuits employing multilayer MMIC technology     

Single-Ended and Differential Ka-Band BiCMOS Phased Array Front-Ends

Single-ended and differential phased array front-ends are developed for Ka-band applications using a 0.12 mum SiGe BiCMOS process. The phase shifters are based on CMOS switched delay networks and have 22.5deg phase resolution and <4deg rms phase error at 35 GHz, and can handle +10 dBm of RF power (P_1dB) with a 3rd order intermodulation intercept point (IIP3) of +21 dBm. For the single-ended design, a SiGe low noise amplifier is placed before the CMOS phase shifter, and the LNA/phase shifter results in 11 plusmn 1.5 dB gain and <3.4 dB of noise figure (NF), for a total power consumption of only 11 mW. For the differential front-end, a variable gain LNA is also developed and shows 9-20 dB gain and <1deg rms phase imbalance between the eight different gain states. The differential variable gain LNA/phase shifter consumes 33 mW, and results in 10 + 1.3 dB gain and 3.8 dB of NF. The gain variation is reduced to 9.1 plusmn 0.45 dB with the variable gain function applied. The single-ended and differential front-ends occupy a small chip area, with a size of 350 times 800 mum² and 350 times 950 mum2, respectively, excluding pads. These chips are competitive with GaAs and InP designs, and are building blocks for low-cost millimeter-wave phased array front-ends based on silicon technology.     

Hybrid integrated lumped-element microwave amplifiers

This paper describes the development of microwave lumped-element thin-film amplifiers. The basic design philosophy underlying lumped inductors and capacitors at microwave frequencies is reviewed, showing how Q's of 100 are achieved. A variety of tunable input, output, and interstage integrated lumped-element networks for transistor amplifiers were fabricated. The gain and efficiency of 2-GHz class-C operated transistors mounted in these circuits were comparable with the best performance achieved by the same transistors in less lossy coaxial circuits. The measured losses (1.2 dB) at 2 GHz were very close to those calculated using the design parameters. Single-stage amplifiers at 2 GHz achieved one watt of output power with 4 dB of gain. At somewhat lower power levels more than 6 dB of gain was achieved. The circuits allowed the operation of low-power level class-A amplifiers with over 13 dB of gain. Cascaded operation yielded more than 17 dB of gain with 0.8 watts of CW power. It is concluded that lumped elements can be fabricated by thin-film technology and will play an important role in microwave integrated circuits.     

Hybrid Integrated Lumped-Element Microwave Amplifiers

This paper describes the development of microwave lumped-element thin-film amplifiers.The basic design philosophy underlying lumped inductors and capacitors at microwave frequencies is reviewed, showing how Q's of 100 are achieved. A variety of tunable input, output, and interstage integrated lumped-element networks for transistor amplifiers were fabricated.The gain and efficiency of 2-GHz class-C operated transistors mounted in these circuits were comparable with the best performance achieved by the same transistors in less lossy coaxial circuits. The measured losses (1.2 dB) at 2 GHz were very close to those calculated using the design parameters. Single-stage amplifiers at 2 GHz achieved one watt of output power with 4 dB of gain. At somewhat lower power levels more than 6 dB of gain was achieved. The circuits allowed the operation of low-power level class-A amplifiers with over 13 dB of gain. Cascaded operation yielded more than 17 dB of gain with 0.8 watts of CW power. It is concluded that lumped elements can be fabricated by thin-fihn technology and will play an important role in microwave integrated circuits.     

Hybrid Integrated Lumped-Element Microwave Amplifiers

This paper describes the development of microwave lumped-element thin-film amplifiers. The basic design philosophy underlying lumped inductors and capacitors at microwave f requencies is reviewed, showing how Q's of 100 are achieved. A variety of tunable input, output, and interstage integrated lumped-element networks for transistor amplifiers were fabricated. The gain and efficiency of 2-GHz class-C operated transistors mounted in these circuits were comparable with the beat performance achieved by the same transistors in less Iossy coaxial circuits. The measured losses (1.2 dB) at 2 GHz were very close to those calculated using the design parameters. Single-stage amplifiers at 2 GHz achieved one watt of output power with 4 dB of gain. At somewhat lower power levels more than 6 dB of gain was achieved. The circuits allowed the operation of low-power level class-A amplifiers with over 13 dB of gain. Cascaded operation yielded more than 17 dB of gain with 0.8 watts of CW power. It is concluded that lumped elements can be fabricated by thin-film technology and will play an important role in microwave integrated circuits.     

G-band metamorphic HEMT-based frequency multipliers

Two monolithic G-band active frequency multipliers have been designed and fabricated using coplanar-waveguide technology. The monolithic microwave integrated circuits are a frequency tripler for an output frequency of 140 GHz and a 110-220-GHz frequency doubler. The tripler demonstrates a maximum conversion gain of -11 dB for an input power of 9 dBm, whereas the doubler achieves a conversion gain of -7 dB for a 2.5-dBm input signal. The circuits have been realized using two InAlAs/InGaAs-based metamorphic high electron-mobility transistor processes with different gate lengths of 100 and 50 nm, respectively.     

A highly integrated dual-band multimode wireless LAN transceiver

A fully integrated radio transceiver chip for the 2.4- and 5-GHz WLAN standards 802.11a/b/g is presented in a 0.25-/spl mu/m 40-GHz BiCMOS technology. The chip integrates the low-noise amplifiers, mixers, channel filters, programmable gain control, synthesizers with voltage-controlled oscillators and reference oscillator, transmitters, antialiasing filters, and voltage regulators. The key performances of the presented transceiver are a receive sensitivity of -85 dBm and -74 dBm for 11-Mb/s complementary code keying (CCK) and 54 Mb/s orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modes, respectively, and an error vector magnitude of -35 dB measured at the transmitter with an output power of -4 dBm at 54-Mb/s 802.11a mode. The transceiver exceeds all IEEE requirements for the 802.11a/b/g CCK and OFDM standards and supports a frequency range of 4.9 to 6 GHz for the future extensions of the 802.11a standard in different countries.     

High Power SiGe X-Band (8～10GHz) Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors and Amplifiers

Limited by increased parasitics and thermal effects as device size increases,current commercial SiGe power HBTs are difficult to operate at X-band (8～12GHz) frequencies with adequate power added efficiencies at high power levels.We find that,by changing the heterostructure and doping profile of SiGe HBTs,their power gain can be significantly improved without resorting to substantial lateral scaling.Furthermore,employing a common-base configuration with a proper doping profile instead of a common-emitter configuration improves the power gain characteristics of SiGe HBTs,thus permitting these devices to be efficiently operated at X-band frequencies.In this paper,we report the results of SiGe power HBTs and MMIC power amplifiers operating at 8～10GHz.At 10GHz,a 22.5dBm (178mW) RF output power with a concurrent gain of 7.32dB is measured at the peak power-added efficiency of 20.0%,and a maximum RF output power of 24.0dBm (250mW) is achieved from a 20 emitter finger SiGe power HBT.The demonstration of a single-stage X-band medium-power linear MMIC power amplifier is also realized at 8GHz.Employing a 10-emitter finger SiGe HBT and on-chip input and output matching passive components,a linear gain of 9.7dB,a maximum output power of 23.4dBm,and peak power added efficiency of 16% are achieved from the power amplifier.The MMIC exhibits very low distortion with 3rd order intermodulation (IM) suppression C/I of -13dBc at an output power of 21.2dBm and over 20dBm 3rd order output intercept point (OIP3).     

High Power SiGe X-Band (8～10GHz) Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors and Amplifiers

Limited by increased parasitics and thermal effects as device size increases, current commercial SiGe power HBTs are difficult to operate at X-band (8～ 12GHz) frequencies with adequate power added efficiencies at high power levels. We find that, by changing the heterostructure and doping profile of SiGe HBTs, their power gain can be significantly improved without resorting to substantial lateral scaling. Furthermore, employing a common-base configuration with a proper doping profile instead of a common-emitter configuration improves the power gain characteristics of SiGe HBTs, thus permitting these devices to be efficiently operated at X-band frequencies. In this paper,we report the results of SiGe power HBTs and MMIC power amplifiers operating at 8～10GHz. At 10GHz,a 22.5dBm (178mW) RF output power with a concurrent gain of 7.32dB is measured at the peak power-added efficiency of 20.0%, and a maximum RF output power of 24.0dBm (250mW) is achieved from a 20 emitter finger SiGe power HBT. The demonstration of a single-stage X-band medium-power linear MMIC power amplifier is also realized at 8GHz. Employing a 10-emitter finger SiGe HBT and on-chip input and output matching passive components, a linear gain of 9.7dB,a maximum output power of 23.4dBm,and peak power added efficiency of 16% are achieved from the power amplifier. The MMIC exhibits very low distortion with 3rd order intermodulation (IM) suppression C/I of -13dBc at an output power of 21.2dBm and over 20dBm 3rd order output intercept point (OIP3).     

A CMOS Active Balun Using Bond Wire Inductors and a Gain Boosting Technique

An active balun with a single-ended input and a pair of differential outputs is presented for the input stages of differential circuits. The active balun, which is composed of an input resonator and cascaded common-gate amplifiers, was implemented using 0.18-mum CMOS technology and bond wire inductors. A body-source cross-coupled configuration was used to enhance the gain of the active balun. The gain is 9.3 dB at 1.8 GHz, and the phase and the amplitude error are less than 2deg and 1 dB, respectively, in the frequency range of 1 to 2 GHz, even for a P_1dB of -2.7 dBm. The balun consumes 9 mA for 3-V supply voltage.     

Millimeter-wave CMOS design

This paper describes the design and modeling of CMOS transistors, integrated passives, and circuit blocks at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies. The effects of parasitics on the high-frequency performance of 130-nm CMOS transistors are investigated, and a peak f/sub max/ of 135 GHz has been achieved with optimal device layout. The inductive quality factor (Q/sub L/) is proposed as a more representative metric for transmission lines, and for a standard CMOS back-end process, coplanar waveguide (CPW) lines are determined to possess a higher Q/sub L/ than microstrip lines. Techniques for accurate modeling of active and passive components at mm-wave frequencies are presented. The proposed methodology was used to design two wideband mm-wave CMOS amplifiers operating at 40 GHz and 60 GHz. The 40-GHz amplifier achieves a peak |S/sub 21/| = 19 dB, output P/sub 1dB/ = -0.9 dBm, IIP3 = -7.4 dBm, and consumes 24 mA from a 1.5-V supply. The 60-GHz amplifier achieves a peak |S/sub 21/| = 12 dB, output P/sub 1dB/ = +2.0 dBm, NF = 8.8 dB, and consumes 36 mA from a 1.5-V supply. The amplifiers were fabricated in a standard 130-nm 6-metal layer bulk-CMOS process, demonstrating that complex mm-wave circuits are possible in today's mainstream CMOS technologies.     

G-band (140-220-GHz) InP-based HBT amplifiers

We report tuned amplifiers designed for the 140-220-GHz frequency band. The amplifiers were designed in a transferred-substrate InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistor technology that enables efficient scaling of the parasitic collector-base junction capacitance. A single-stage amplifier exhibited 6.3-dB small-signal gain at 175 GHz. Three-stage amplifiers were subsequently fabricated with one design demonstrating 12.0-dB gain at 170 GHz and a second design exhibiting 8.5-dB gain at 195 GHz.     

5.2 GHz variable-gain amplifier and power amplifier driver for WLAN IEEE 802.11a transmitter front-end

A 5.2 GHz variable-gain amplifier (VGA) and a power amplifier (PA) driver are designed for WLAN IEEE 802.11a monolithic RFIC. The VGA and the PA driver are implemented in a 50 GHz 0.35 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology and occupy 1.12×1.25 mm2 die area. The VGA with effective temperature compensation is controlled by 5 bits and has a gain range of 34 dB. The PA driver with tuned loads utilizes a differential input, single-ended output topology, and the tuned loads resonate at 5.2 GHz. The maximum overall gain of the VGA and the PA driver is 29 dB with the output third-order intercept point (OIP3) of 11 dBm. The gain drift over the temperature varying from -30 to 85℃ converges within±3 dB. The total current consumption is 45 mA under a 2.85 V power supply.     

High Power SiGe X-Band (8～10GHz) Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors and Amplifiers

Limited by increased parasitics and thermal effects as device size increases, current commercial SiGe power HBTs are difficult to operate at X-band (8～ 12GHz) frequencies with adequate power added efficiencies at high power levels. We find that, by changing the heterostructure and doping profile of SiGe HBTs, their power gain can be significantly improved without resorting to substantial lateral scaling. Furthermore, employing a common-base configuration with a proper doping profile instead of a common-emitter configuration improves the power gain characteristics of SiGe HBTs, thus permitting these devices to be efficiently operated at X-band frequencies. In this paper,we report the results of SiGe power HBTs and MMIC power amplifiers operating at 8～10GHz. At 10GHz,a 22.5dBm (178mW) RF output power with a concurrent gain of 7.32dB is measured at the peak power-added efficiency of 20.0%, and a maximum RF output power of 24.0dBm (250mW) is achieved from a 20 emitter finger SiGe power HBT. The demonstration of a single-stage X-band medium-power linear MMIC power amplifier is also realized at 8GHz. Employing a 10-emitter finger SiGe HBT and on-chip input and output matching passive components, a linear gain of 9.7dB,a maximum output power of 23.4dBm,and peak power added efficiency of 16% are achieved from the power amplifier. The MMIC exhibits very low distortion with 3rd order intermodulation (IM) suppression C/I of -13dBc at an output power of 21.2dBm and over 20dBm 3rd order output intercept point (OIP3).