A K-band InGaP/GaAs HBT balanced MMIC VCO

A fully integrated K-band balanced voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. The VCO is realized using a commercially available InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology with an f/sub T/ of 60 GHz and an f/sub MAX/ of 110 GHz. To generate negative resistance at mm-wave frequencies, common base inductive feedback topology is used. The VCO provides an oscillation frequency from 21.90 GHz to 22.33 GHz. The frequency tuning range is about 430 MHz. The peak output power is -0.3 dBm. The phase noise is -108.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset at an operating frequency of 22.33 GHz. The chip area is 0.84/spl times/1.00 mm/sup 2/.     

A 5.7 GHz interpolative VCO using InGaP/GaAs HBT technology

A 5.7 GHz monolithic interpolative voltage-controlled oscillator using InGaP/GaAs HBT technology is demonstrated for the first time. Frequency tuning is achieved by changing the open loop gain instead of the tank capacitor. The experimental result showed that a 500 MHz tuning range at 5.7 GHz was realized, which can meet the requirement of 5.7 GHz ISM band     

Conversion gain and intermodulation performance of a GaAs HBT 50-950 MHz upconvertor

The authors report the measured performance of a single ended GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) upconverting mixer from 50 to 950 MHz, showing a conversion gain of 19.4 dB and output intermodulation intercept point (OIP/sub 3/) of +20.5 dBm with local oscillator drive power of 0 dBm. The measured results demonstrate the suitability of the HBT for use in low power consumption upconvertor circuits.<>     

A Wide Tuning Range Voltage Controlled Oscillator Using Common-Base Configuration and Inductive Feedback

Usually the tuning range of voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is much narrower than the possible resonant frequency range of the tank at different tuning voltages. In this letter we analyze the traditional common-base type VCO, give a simple but useful insight about the mechanism behind the topology, and verified the conclusions with a 2 mum heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) VCO. The results show that with the CB configuration, proper feedback inductor and wide tuning range varactor, the tuning range can be almost the same as the resonant frequency range of the tank at different tuning voltages. A wideband voltage controlled oscillator using a commercial 2 mum HBT technology is designed, fabricated and measured. The varactor with wide range of capacitance is used to achieve 53.33% measured tuning range from 9.46 to 16.34 GHz. The measured phase noise at 1 MHz offset is between -90 and -102 dBc/Hz. The total chip size is 1 mm² including all testing pads, while the core area is 0.64 mm². The VCO is suitable for wideband application such as in measurement equipment or astronomical exploring telescopes.     

An X‐Band Carbon‐Doped InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor MMIC Oscillator

This paper addresses a fully‐integrated low phase noise X‐band oscillator fabricated using a carbon‐doped InGaP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) GaAs process with a cutoff frequency of 53.2 GHz and maximum oscillation frequency of 70 GHz. The oscillator circuit consists of a negative resistance generating circuit with a base inductor, a resonating emitter circuit with a microstrip line, and a buffering resistive collector circuit with a tuning diode. The oscillator exhibits 4.33 dBm output power and achieves ?127.8 dBc/Hz phase noise at 100 kHz away from a 10.39 GHz oscillating frequency, which benchmarks the lowest reported phase noise achieved for a monolithic X‐band oscillator. The oscillator draws a 36 mA current from a 6.19 V supply with 47.1 MHz of frequency tuning range using a 4 V change. It occupies a 0.8 mm × 0.8 mm die area.     

47.8 GHz InP HBT quadrature VCO with 22% tuning range

A 38-47.8 GHz quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO) in InP HBT technology is presented. The measured output power is -15 dBm. The simulated phase noise ranges from -84 to -86 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. It is believed that this is the first millimetre-wave QVCO implemented in InP HBT technology as well as the highest measured oscillation frequency for any QVCO     

Optical phase control of an optically injection-locked FETmicrowave oscillator

A simple technique is proposed and demonstrated for controlling the phase of an optically-injection-locked 7.2-GHz FET oscillator. The relative phase φ between the oscillator and the locking signal is adjusted by optically tuning the oscillator frequency. Locking characteristics described include locking bandwidth (2.6 MHz), phase tuning range (187°), phase modulation (β=0.69 at 500 kHz), and optical tuning (125 MHz)     

A source degenerated LC quadrature VCO (SD-QVCO) using 0.18-μm SiGe BiCMOS

This letter presents a fully integrated BiCMOS quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO). The QVCO consists of two nMOSFET cross-coupled oscillator stacked in series with source degenerated HBT transistors. SiGe HBT introduces low flicker noise compared to CMOS devices. To generate quadrature phase signals with strong coupling strength, the proposed design uses two MOS-coupled LC-tank cores instead of passive device-coupled cores. This source degeneration topology can improve the phase noise performance of the QVCO as compared to the sub-VCO. The proposed QVCO has been implemented with the TSMC 0.18 μm SiGe 3P6M BiCMOS process, can generate quadrature signals in the frequency range of 4.52–5.05 GHz with core power consumption of 5.76 mW at the dc bias of 1.8 V. At 4.53 GHz, phase noise at 1 MHz offset is ?124.52 dBc/Hz. The die area of the fabricated prototype is 0.453 × 0.898 mm².     

一种Ku波段宽调谐范围高输出功率的InGaP/GaAs HBT VCO

本文介绍了一种采用InGaP/GaAs HBT工艺实现的全集成应用于Ku波段的压控振荡器(VCO)。该VCO采用Colpitts结构,以达到宽调谐范围,并且该VCO取得了较高的输出射频功率。测试结果表明：该VCO的振荡频率为12.82 GHz～14.97 GHz,调谐范围为15.47%,输出射频功率为0.31 dBm～6.46 dBm,在载频13.9 GHz处相位噪声为-94.9 dBc/Hz@1 MHz。在5 V单电源直流偏置下该VCO的功耗为52.75 mW,其芯片尺寸为0.81 mm×0.78 mm。最后,本文对VCO的品质因数FOM指标进行了讨论。     

面向5GHz无线应用的单片InGaP/GaAs HBT压控振荡器

介绍了一种由商用InGaP/GaAs异质结双极晶体管工艺制成、基于负阻原理的单片压控振荡器,此电路定位于5GHz频段下的无线应用.在实际使用中,除了旁路和去耦电容外,无需外接其他外部元件.测试得到的输出频率范围超过300MHz,为4.17～4.56GHz,与仿真结果非常吻合;相位噪声为-112dBc/Hz@1MHz;在3.3V电源电压下,其核心部分的直流功耗为15.5mW,输出功率为0～2dBm.为了与其他振荡器比较,还通过计算得到了相位噪声优值,约为-173.2dBc/Hz.同时,还讨论了负阻振荡器的原理和设计方法.     

A 6-GHz integrated phase-locked loop using AlGaAs/GaAsheterojunction bipolar transistors

A fully integrated 6-GHz phase-locked-loop (PLL) fabricated using AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is described. The PLL is intended for use in multigigabit-per-second clock recovery circuits for fiber-optic communication systems. The PLL circuit consists of a frequency quadrupling ring voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a balanced phase detector, and a lag-lead loop filter. The closed-loop bandwidth is approximately 150 MHz. The tracking range was measured to be greater than 750 MHz at zero steady-state phase error. The nonaided acquisition range is approximately 300 MHz. This circuit is the first monolithic HBT PLL and is the fastest yet reported using a digital output VCO. The minimum emitter area was 3 μm×10 μm with f_t=22 GHz and f_max=30 GHz for a bias current of 2 mA. The speed of the PLL can be doubled by using 1-μm×10-μm emitters in next-generation circuits. The chip occupies a die area of 2-mm×3-mm and dissipates 800 mW with a supply voltage of -8 V     

面向5GHz无线应用的单片InGaP/GaAs HBT压控振荡器

介绍了一种由商用InGaP/GaAs异质结双极晶体管工艺制成、基于负阻原理的单片压控振荡器,此电路定位于5GHz频段下的无线应用.在实际使用中,除了旁路和去耦电容外,无需外接其他外部元件.测试得到的输出频率范围超过300MHz,为4.17～4.56GHz,与仿真结果非常吻合;相位噪声为-112dBc/Hz@1MHz;在3.3V电源电压下,其核心部分的直流功耗为15.5mW,输出功率为0～2dBm.为了与其他振荡器比较,还通过计算得到了相位噪声优值,约为-173.2dBc/Hz.同时,还讨论了负阻振荡器的原理和设计方法.     

Balanced Colpitt oscillator MMICs designed for ultra-low phase noise

Balanced voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) based on a coupled Colpitt topology with a fully integrated tank are presented utilizing SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and InGaP/GaAs HBT technologies. Minimum phase noise is obtained for all designs by optimization of the tank circuit including the varactor, maximizing the tank amplitude, and designing the VCO for Class C operation. Fundamental and second harmonic VCOs are evaluated. A minimum phase noise of less than -112 dBc at an output power of 5.5 dBm is achieved at 100-kHz carrier offset and 6.4-GHz oscillation frequency for the fundamental InGaP/GaAs HBT VCO. The second harmonic VCO achieves a minimum measured phase noise of -120 dBc at 100 kHz at 13 GHz. To our best knowledge, this is the lowest reported phase noise to date for a varactor-based VCO with a fully integrated tank. The fundamental frequency SiGe HBT oscillator achieves a phase noise of -108 dBc at 100 kHz at 5 GHz. All MMICs are fabricated in commercial foundry MMIC processes.     

Monolithic microwave FET oscillator temperature-stabilised with a Schottky diode as a sensor

A monolithic microwave FET oscillator built in GaAs is frequency-stabilised with temperature using a Schottky diode as a temperature sensor. The monolithic integrated circuit includes both the oscillator (f=7.44 GHz) and its temperature sensor. The actual performance gives a stabilisation of the frequency to better than 1 MHz in the temperature range from ?40 to +80°C.     

Low phase noise millimeter-wave frequency sources using InP-basedHBT MMIC technology

A family of millimeter-wave sources based on InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology has been developed. These sources include 40-GHz, 46-GHz, 62-GHz MMIC fundamental mode oscillators, and a 95-GHz frequency source module using a 23.8-GHz InP HBT MMIC dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO) in conjunction with a GaAs-based high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) MMIC frequency quadrupler and W-band output amplifiers. Good phase noise performance was achieved due to the low 1/f noise of the InP-based HBT devices. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of millimeter-wave sources using InP-based HBT MMIC's     

Cross-coupled differential oscillator MMICs with low phase-noiseperformance

LC-tank oscillators in the 5~6 GHz frequency range have been designed and implemented in a commercial 0.6 μm GaAs MESFET technology. One is a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and the other is an oscillator without a controlling element. The output frequency range of the VCO is from 5.44 to 6.14 GHz, and the measured phase-noise is -101.67 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 600 KHz from the 5.44 GHz carrier. The phase-noise of the 6.44 GHz oscillator is -108 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 600 KHz, and the phase-noise curve, in the offset frequency range between 100 KHz and 1 MHz, shows a -20 dB/decade slope. These phase-noise characteristics are comparable to, or better than, those of the reported 5~6 GHz-band CMOS oscillators. To our knowledge, this is the first GaAs MESFET-based oscillator which has a cross-coupled differential topology and a capacitive coupling feedback to suppress the up-conversion of 1/f noise. Also, it is first reported that the GaAs MESFET-based oscillator shows 1/f² phase-noise behavior across the offset frequency range from 100 KHz to 1 MHz     

A Sub-100 $mu{rm W}$ Ku-Band RTD VCO for Extremely Low Power Applications

This letter presents the microwave performance of a sub-100 $mu{rm W}$ Ku-band differential-mode resonant tunneling diode (RTD)-based voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with an extremely low power consumption of 87 $mu{rm W}$ using an InP-based RTD/HBT MMIC technology. In order to achieve the extremely low-power Ku-band RTD VCO, the device size of RTD is scaled down to $0.6times 0.6 mu{rm m}^{2}$. The obtained dc power consumption of 87 $mu{rm W}$ is found to be only 1/18 of the conventional-type MMIC VCOs reported in the Ku-band. The fabricated RTD VCO has a phase noise of $-$100.3 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency and a tuning range of 140 MHz with the figure-of-merit (FOM) of $-$194.3 dBc/Hz.      

An optoelectronic oscillator using an 850-nm VCSEL for generating low jitter optical pulses

We demonstrate an optoelectronic oscillator using a gain-switched vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser in a fiber-feedback configuration. We simultaneously generate a 2-GHz optical pulse stream at 850 nm with 750-fs timing jitter (over 100 Hz-10 MHz range) along with an electrical signal that is locked to the repetition rate of the optical pulses. The timing jitter performance is confirmed by measuring higher harmonic phase noise.     

3.9 ps SiGe HBT ECL ring oscillator and transistor design for minimum gate delay

We show empirical results that demonstrate the effect of high performance SiGe HBT design parameters on the minimum gate delay of an ECL ring oscillator. SiGe HBT devices with a high f/sub MAX/ (338 GHz) and a low f/sub T/ (180 GHz) achieve a minimum delay of 3.9 ps, which to our knowledge is the lowest reported delay for a silicon based logic gate. Compared to the extracted (extrapolated) f/sub T/ and f/sub MAX/, a simple figure of merit proportional to /spl radic/f/sub T//R/sub B/C/sub CB/ with R/sub B/ and C/sub CB/ extracted from S-parameter measurement is best correlated to the minimum gate delay.     

一种基于半导体光放大器的Ku波段可调谐光电振荡器

基于半导体光放大器(SOA)的非线性偏振旋转效应,提出了一种可调谐双环路光电振荡器(OEO),并从理论上分析了这种设计的基本原理。实验测得了振荡频率为12.978 GHz的微波信号的频谱图和相位噪声图,并且在Ku波段通过直接调节SOA注入电流得到调谐范围为40MHz,调谐步长约为2MHz的微波信号输出。在整个调谐范围内,输出微波信号的相位噪声在偏离中心频率10kHz处低于-75dBc/Hz。