First demonstration of monolithic InP-based HBT amplifier with PNPactive load

An InP-based integrated HBT amplifier with PNP active load was demonstrated for the first time using complementary HBT technology (CRBT). Selective molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) regrowth was employed and a merged processing technology was developed for the monolithic integration of InP-based NPN and PNP HBTs on the same chip. The availability of PNP devices allowed design of high gain amplifiers with low power supply voltage. The measured amplifier with PNP HBT active load achieved a voltage gain of 100 with a power supply (V_CC) of 1.5 V. The corresponding voltage swing was 0.9 V to 0.2 V. The amplifier also demonstrated S₂₁ of 7.8 dB with an associated S₁₁ and S₂₂ of -9.5 dB and -8.1 dB, respectively, at 10 GHz     

Wide tuning-range CMOS VCO based on a tunable active inductor

In this paper, a wide tuning-range CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with high output power using an active inductor circuit is presented. In this VCO design, the coarse frequency is achieved by tuning the integrated active inductor. The circuit has been simulated using a 0.18-µm CMOS fabrication process and presents output frequency range from 100 MHz to 2.5 GHz, resulting in a tuning range of 96%. The phase noise is –85 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz frequency offset. The output power is from –3 dBm at 2.55 GHz to +14 dBm at 167 MHz. The active inductor power dissipation is 6.5 mW and the total power consumption is 16.27 mW when operating on a 1.8 V supply voltage. By comparing this active inductor architecture VCO with general VCO topology, the result shows that this topology, which employs the proposed active inductor, produces a better performance.     

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     

A Q-band low phase noise monolithic AlGaN/GaN HEMT VCO

A Q-band 40-GHz GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) based on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor technology has been demonstrated. The GaN VCO delivered an output power of +25dBm with phase noise of -92dBc/Hz at 100-KHz offset, and -120dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the state-of-the-art for GaN VCOs in terms of frequency, output power, and phase noise performance. This work demonstrates the potential for the use of GaN technology for high frequency, high power, and low phase noise frequency sources for military and commercial applications.     

Low-power static frequency divider using an InP-based monolithic RTD/HBT technology

A low-power static frequency divider using an RTD/HBT MOnostable-BIstable transition Logic Element (MOBILE) scheme is proposed for the first time and operation of the circuit is demonstrated up to 20 GHz. The divided-by-two static frequency divider has been successfully implemented in an InP-based monolithic RTD/HBT IC technology. The number of devices used in the static frequency divider has been significantly reduced by using the proposed MOBILE scheme. The fabricated frequency divider operates at a clock frequency up to 20 GHz and dissipates d.c. power of 51 mW at a power supply of 3.3 V     

K-band HBT and HEMT monolithic active phase shifters using vector sum method

Two monolithic 3-bit active phase shifters using the vector sum method to K-band frequencies are reported in this paper. They are separately implemented using commercial 6-in GaAs HBT and high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) foundry processes. The MMIC HBT active phase shifter demonstrates an average gain of 8.87 dB and a maximum phase error of 11/spl deg/ at 18 GHz, while the HEMT phase shifter has 3.85-dB average measured gain with 11/spl deg/ maximum phase error at 20 GHz. The 20-GHz operation frequency of this HEMT MMIC is the highest among all the reported active phase shifters. The analysis for gain deviation and phase error of the active phase shifter using the vector sum method due to the individual variable gain amplifiers is also presented. The theoretical analysis can predict the measured minimum root-mean-square phase error 4.7/spl deg/ within 1/spl deg/ accuracy.     

CML-type MOnostable BIstable logic element (MOBILE) using InP-based monolithic RTD/HBT technology

A new CML-type monostable/bistable logic element IC is fabricated using monolithically integrated resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) and InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). The D-flip-flop function of the fabricated circuit is confirmed up to 20 Gbit/s at room temperature. This result indicates the potential of the RTD/HBT technology for high-speed logic applications.     

单片低噪声HBT VCO

报道一组单片HBTVCO电路的设计、制作及其测试结果。电路采用HBT作为有源器件，PN结二极管作为变容管。S波段单片VCO的输出功率为0dBm，调谐范围100MHz，在载波频率2．84GHz处，相位噪声为－80dBc／Hz＠100kHz。以C波段单片HBTVCO的输出功率为－10dBm。这些结果表示HBT在微波与毫米波振荡器运用中具有较好的低相位噪声特性。     

Switched inductor dual-band CMOS cross-coupled VCO

This letter proposes a high-performance CMOS dual-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The VCO consists of two cross-coupled VCOs coupled by a pair of switched inductors or LC resonators to vary the resonator’s inductance. A pair of nMOSFET is used to switch high- and low-frequency bands. The VCO operates at the high-band using low resonator’s inductance and the VCO operates at the low-band using large inductance. The proposed VCO has been implemented with the TSMC 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS technology and it can generate differential signals in the frequency range of 5.6–6.66 GHz and 4.13–4.75 and it also has comparable high output voltage swings at both low and high-frequency bands. The die area of the dual-band VCO is 0.84 × 1.1 mm². At the supply voltage of 0.75 V, the high (low)-band figure of merit is ?193.6 (?192.3) dBc/Hz.     

80 GHz MMIC HEMT VCO

In this letter a monolithic voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operating in the 77.5-83.5 GHz range is presented. InP HEMTs are used for both the active device and varactor. The VCO demonstrated a tuning range of 6 GHz and an output power better than 12.5 dBm in the entire tuning range     

1.6 GHz VCO with on-chip inductor and varactor diode

Using the base-emitter junctions of a bipolar transistor as a varicap diode and an on-chip spiral inductor, a fully integrated bipolar LC VCO realised in an industrial bipolar technology is presented     

A high-frequency temperature-stable monolithic VCO

A new high-frequency monolithic voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is described that achieves /spl plusmn/60 ppm//spl deg/C temperature coefficient of frequency over 0-75/spl deg/C at center frequencies from DC to 20 MHz. The circuit also exhibits good linearity of voltage to frequency, and excellent triangle output waveform over the whole frequency range from low frequencies to 20 MHz. The circuit is fabricated using an eight mask IC process and has a die size of 65/spl times/50 mils/SUP 2/.     

An HSPICE HBT model for InP-based single HBTs

An HBT model for InP-based single HBTs (SHBTs) was developed based on the conventional Gummel-Poon large-signal BJT model available in HSPICE. Several typical characteristics observed from InP-based SHBTs, such as soft breakdown and collector transit-time delay effects, were modeled through a macro modeling approach. Excellent agreement has been achieved between the experimental and calculated results based on the model     

Integrated tunable magnetic RF inductor

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a passive, electrically tunable integrated radio frequency (RF) inductor based on a planar solenoid with a thin-film ferromagnetic(FM) (NiFe) core. Variation of inductance is achieved by leading an additional dc current through the same device, thereby changing the effective permeability of the FM core. Tuning ranges (relative variations in inductance) of 85%, 35%, and 20% are achieved at 0.1, 1, and 2 GHz, respectively, for inductances in the range of 1 to 150 nH.     

Wide tunable CMOS active inductor

A tunable CMOS active inductor is presented. The circuit uses a crosscoupled pair of transistors providing positive feedback for enhanced quality factor. The circuit is biased with a controllable current source varying the feedback and tuning the inductor. The proposed inductor is designed and simulated in a 90 nm digital CMOS process. It shows a wide-frequency range inductive impedance and a very high resonance frequency. By cascading two inductors, a wideband filter/ amplifier is designed to characterise the inductor performance.     

Monolithic tunable active inductor with independent Q control

A 1.1-GHz fully integrated GaAs MESFET active inductor is presented in this paper. Both the inductance and loss resistance are tunable with the inductance independent of series loss tuning. The measured loss resistance is tunable over a -10- to +15-Ω range with a corresponding change in inductance of less than 10% at 100 MHz and less than 4% for frequencies above 500 MHz. The inductance is tunable from 65 to 90 nH. Considerably larger bandwidths can be achieved depending on the fabrication technology employed and the intended application of the circuit     

Triple-channel InP-based HEMT with highly nonlinear transconductance for nonlinear circuit applications

The authors report the development of a triple-channel HEMT with two undoped In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As layers and a spike-doped In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As layer on InP, designed to have a strongly nonlinear transconductance. The effective electron velocity and the electron density in the InGaAs layers are higher than in the thick InAlAs layer resulting in a highly nonlinear transconductance device with the potential for improved performance in nonlinear microwave circuit applications, as compared with conventional MESFETs and HEMTs.<>     

Floating active inductor based Class-C VCO with 8 digitally tuned sub-bands

A fully integrated floating active inductor based voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. The active inductor employs voltage differencing transconductance amplifier (VDTA) as a building block. The designed VCO achieves frequency tuning by varying the bias current through the VDTA and utilizes a Class-C topology for improving the phase noise performance. The inductor-less VCO is designed and implemented in a 45-nm CMOS process and its performance is estimated using Virtuoso ADE of Cadence. Operating at a supply voltage of ±1 V, the proposed VCO consumes 0.44–1.1 mW corresponding to the oscillation frequency of 1.1–1.8 GHz thereby exhibiting a tuning range of 48.27%. The phase noise of the VCO lies in the range of −94.12 to −98.37 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset resulting in a FOM of −172.14 to −176.69 dBc/Hz.     

High-speed monolithic p-i-n/HBT and HPT/HBT photoreceiversimplemented with simple phototransistor structure

Monolithic photoreceivers, using the base-collector junction of an InP/InGaAs phototransistor structure for a p-i-n photodetector, have been fabricated for the first time. Bandwidths as high as 3 GHz and bit rates as high as 5 Gb/s, with sensitivities of -22.5 dBm and -21.5 dBm for light focused on the p-i-n or on the first stage transistor of the preamplifier, respectively, have been achieved. These results represent the highest operating speed demonstrated for any phototransistor-based receiver     

Compact InP-based HBT VCOs with a wide tuning range at W- andD-band

Compact monolithic integrated differential voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) operating in W-band were realized using InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). The oscillators, with a total chip size of 0.6 by 0.35 mm², are based on a balanced Colpitts-type topology with a coplanar transmission-line resonator. By varying the voltage across the base-collector junction of the HBT in the current mirror and by changing the current in the VCO, the oscillation frequency can be tuned between 84 and 106 GHz. At 100 GHz, a differential voltage swing of 400 mV is obtained, which should be sufficient to drive 100 Gb/s digital logic. By combining the balanced outputs of a similar differential VCO in a push-push configuration, a compact source with close to -10 dBm output power and a tuning range between 138 and 150 GHz is obtained