Performance comparison of a single and multiband power amplifiers using IHP 0.25 μm SIGe HBT technology

In this work, a single‐band power amplifier (PA) with a fixed‐frequency/band output matching network and multiband PA with a switch‐tuned output matching network is designed, using IHP (Innovations for High Performance), 0.25 μm‐SiGe HBT process. The behavior of the amplifiers has been optimized for 2.4 GHz (WLAN), 3.6 GHz (UWB‐WiMAX), and 5.4 GHz (WLAN) frequency bands for a higher 1‐dB compression point and efficiency. Multiband characteristics of the amplifier were obtained by using a MOS‐based switching network. Two MOS switches were used for tuning the band of the output matching network. Postlayout simulations of the multiband‐PA provided the following performance parameters: 1‐dB compression point of 25.2 dBm, gain value of 36 dB, efficiency value of 12.8% operation and maximum output power of 26.8 dBm for the 2.4 GHz WLAN band, 1‐dB compression point of 25.5 dBm, gain value of 32 dB, efficiency value of 13.3% and maximum output power of 26.6 dBm for the 3.6 GHz UWB‐WiMAX band and 1‐dB compression point of 24.8 dBm, gain value of 23 dB, efficiency value of 12.5% and maximum output power of 26.3 dBm for the 5.4 GHz WLAN band. For the fixed‐band, at 3.6 GHz, the postlayout simulations resulted the following parameters: 1‐dB compression point of 25.5 dBm, gain value of 32 dB, efficiency value of 18% and maximum output power value of 26.8 dBm. Measurement results of the single‐band PA provided the following performance parameters: 1‐dB compression point of 20.5 dBm, gain value of 23 dB and efficiency value of 7% operation for the 2.4 GHz band; 1‐dB compression point of 25.5 dBm, gain value of 31.5 dB and efficiency value of 17.5% for the 3.6 GHz band; 1‐dB compression point of 22.4 dBm, gain value of 24.4 dB and efficiency value of 9.5% for the 5.4 GHz band. Measurement results show that using multistage topologies and implementing each parasitic as part of the matching network component has provided a wider‐band operation with higher output power levels, above 25 dBm, with SiGe:C process. These results proved that the PA, with switching/tunable output matching network, provides compatible performance parameters, when compared with the fixed‐band PA. The ability of being capable of operation in different frequency bands with compatible performance parameters, when compared with fixed‐band PA, multiband PA can be realized with additional less parasitics, area, and cost advantages. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

The SiOG-based single-crystalline silicon (SCS) RF MEMS switch with uniform characteristics

This paper details single-crystalline silicon (SCS) direct contact radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switch designed and fabricated using an SiOG (silicon-on-glass) substrate, so as to obtain higher fabrication and performance uniformity compared with a conventional metal switch. The mechanical and electrical performances of the fabricated silicon switch have been tested. In comparison with a conventional metallic MEMS switch, we can obtain higher productivity and uniformity by using SCS, because it has very low stresses and superior thermal characteristics as a structural material of the switch. Also, by using the SiOG substrate instead of an SOI substrate, fabrication cost can be significantly reduced. The proposed switch is fabricated on a coplanar waveguide (CPW) and actuated by electrostatic force. The designed chip size is 1.05 mm/spl times/0.72 mm. Measured pull-in voltage and actuation voltage were 19 V and 26 V, respectively. Eighteen identical switches taken randomly throughout the wafer showed average and standard deviation of the measured pull-in voltage of 19.1 and 1.5 V, respectively. The RF characteristics of the fabricated switch from dc to 30 GHz have been measured. The isolation and insertion loss measured on the four identical samples were -38 to -39 dB and -0.18 to -0.2 dB at 2 GHz, respectively. Forming damping holes on the upper electrode leads to a relatively fast switching speed. Measured ON and OFF time were 25 and 13 /spl mu/s, respectively. In the switch OFF state, self-actuation does not happen up to the input power of 34 dBm. The measured holding power of the fabricated switch was 31 dBm. Stiction problem was not observed after 10/sup 8/ cycles of repeated actuation, but the contact resistance varied about 0.5-1 /spl Omega/ from the initial value.     

A 60‐GHz single‐pole‐single‐throw switch in 65‐nm bulk CMOS

A single‐pole‐single‐throw (SPST) switch in a π‐network topology is designed in a 1.2‐V 65‐nm bulk CMOS RF process for millimeter‐wave applications in the 60‐GHz band from 57 to 66 GHz. The SPST switch with an active chip area of only 96 μm × 140 μm achieves the measured 11‐dB return loss, 1.6‐dB insertion loss, and 27.9‐dB isolation at 60 GHz. The SPST switch also shows the simulated power‐handling capability of 11.4 dBm and switching speed of 1 ns at 60 GHz. These results clearly demonstrate that the SPST switch in CMOS rivals the performance of SPST switches in GaAs and therefore has potential to be used in highly‐integrated 60‐GHz CMOS radios. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

A comparative study of two techniques for improving power‐handling capability of CMOS T/R switches

This article proposes an asymmetric topology for transmit/receive (T/R) switches and more importantly presents a comparative study of both LC‐tuned and resistive body‐floating techniques for improving the power‐handling capability of the T/R switches in the same 0.18‐μm triple‐well CMOS. It is shown from simulations and measurements that the switches adopting either technique achieve comparable performances. For instance, the switch employing the LC‐tuned body‐floating technique exhibits insertion loss of 1.5 dB, isolation of 23.5 dB, and power‐handling capability of 22.5 dBm at 5.2 GHz, whereas the switch using the resistive body‐floating technique exhibits insertion loss of 1.3 dB, isolation of 24 dB, and power‐handling capability of 22.2 dBm, respectively. Therefore, one can conclude that the asymmetric topology with the resistive body‐floating technique is more suitable for designing T/R switches for wireless local area network applications as it consumes smaller silicon area. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.     

Design and simulation of a thermally actuated MEMS switch for microwave circuits

The design, modeling, and optimization of a novel, thermally actuated CMOS‐MEMS switch are presented in this article. This series capacitive MEMS switch solves the substrate loss and down‐state capacitance degradation problems commonly plaguing MEMS switches. The switch uses finger structure for capacitive coupling. The vertical bending characteristic of bimorph cantilever beams under different temperatures is utilized to turn the switch on and off. A set of electrical, mechanical, and thermal models is established, and cross‐domain electro‐thermo‐mechanical simulations are performed to optimize the design parameters of the switch. The fabrication of the switch is completely CMOS‐process compatible. The design is fabricated using the AMI 0.6 μm CMOS process and a maskless reactive‐ion etching process. The measured results show the insertion loss and isolation are 1.67 and 33 dB, respectively, at 5.4 GHz, and 0.36 and 23 dB at 10 GHz. The actuation voltage is 25 V and the power consumption is 480 mW. This switch has a vast number of applications in the RF/microwave field, such as configurable voltage control oscillators, filters, and configurable matching networks. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

High isolation microstrip GaN‐HEMT Single‐FET Switch

In this contribution an analytical approach to the design of high‐isolation microwave transmission line‐resonated switches is presented. Simulated and measured performance of a GaN HEMT single‐FET switch cell topology and the one of a complete SPDT using the proposed approach are presented to demonstrate the approach feasibility and effectiveness. The resulting SPDT, operating at X Band, is featured by 1 dB insertion loss, isolation better than 37 dB all over the operating bandwidth and a power handling capability higher than 39 dBm. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.     

RF MEMS membrane switches on GaAs substrates for X-band applications

Micromechanical switches have demonstrated great potential at microwave frequencies. For low-loss applications at microwave frequencies, it is important to use high-resistivity substrates. This paper presents the design and fabrication of the shunt-capacitive MEMS switch on GaAs substrates. Analytical mechanical and impedance models of the membrane switch are given, and the results are confirmed by using the ANSYS and HFSS software, respectively. A surface micromachining process, which is compatible with the conventional millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs) fabrication technology, was adopted to fabricate the RF switch on GaAs substrates. Its S-parameter was taken using a HP8510C vector network analyzer and a Cascade Probe station. The measured insertion loss of the switch and its associated transmission line is less than 0.25 dB from 1 to 25.6 GHz, and the isolation may reach -42 dB at its self-resonate frequency of 24.5 GHz. The actuation voltage is about 17 V. The switch has demonstrated lifetimes as long as 5/spl times/10/sup 6/ cycles. The wideband high performance in isolation and insertion loss offers the monolithic integration capability with GaAs MMICs.     

A low conversion loss single balanced subharmonic mixer

A new circuit topology for the design of a single balanced second‐order subharmonic mixer (SHM) is proposed. In the proposed topology, it is not necessary for the radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) signal to be within 15% frequency difference. Thus, the limitation of a conventional rat‐race mixer has been alleviated. Moreover, it shows very low conversion loss, high LO‐to‐RF, LO to intermediate frequency (IF), and 2LO‐to‐RF port isolations. The measured minimum down conversion loss is 5.8 dB at 13 GHz and remains below 7.65 dB over the 2 GHz RF operational band 12‐14 GHz for a fixed IF of 550 MHz. Measured LO‐to‐RF and LO‐to‐IF port isolations are better than ?40 dB over the entire operational band. The 2LO‐to‐RF isolation is more than ?62 dB which is extremely necessary for a second harmonic mixer where 2LO and RF frequency are close to each other. The input 1‐dB compression point is measured to be ?1 dBm.     

A miniature low‐power ultra‐wideband low noise amplifier in 0.18 μm CMOS

A 0.18‐μm CMOS low‐noise amplifier (LNA) operating over the entire ultra‐wideband (UWB) frequency range of 3.1–10.6 GHz, has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The UWB LNA achieves the measured power gain of 7.5 ± 2.5 dB, minimum input matching of ?8 dB, noise figure from 3.9 to 6.3 dB, and IIP3 from ?8 to ?1.9 dBm, while consuming only 9 mW over 3–10 GHz. It occupies only 0.55 × 0.4 mm² without RF and DC pads. The design uses only two on‐chip inductors, one of which is such small that could be replaced by a bonding wire. The gain, noise figure, and matching of the amplifier are also analyzed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE , 2011.     

A 200 W broadband high power amplifier using hybrid power combining network and digital level control

In this article, a 2 to 6 GHz solid‐state power amplifier with 53 dBm output power has been analyzed, designed, and fabricated. To achieve a wideband high output power, we introduce a 16‐way hybrid power combiner based on microstrip planar binary and parallel structures. The simulation and measurement results of the proposed hybrid power combining network (PCN) show that the maximum power combining efficiency is around 86% with the insertion loss of around 0.6 to 1.5 dB and an isolation of 20 dB between the ports. Also, to compensate the output power variations due to the thermal and operating frequency changes across the bandwidth, a digital level control (DLC) unit utilizing an agile control algorithm is proposed which decreases the output power variations to 2% of the desired output power. A cooling heatsink fan system has been also designed in order to transfer the heat generated power to the air. The measured output power for the applied input continuous wave is higher than 52.5 dBm. In addition, the power added efficiency (PAE) is better than 15% across the wide portion of the bandwidth and the measured third‐order intermodulation is about 20 dBc (average).     

A Liquid–Solid Direct Contact Low-Loss RF Micro Switch

This paper reports the design, fabrication, and testing of a liquid-metal (LM) droplet-based radio-frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) shunt switch with dc-40 GHz performance. The switch demonstrates better than 0.3 dB insertion loss and 20 dB isolation up to 40 GHz, achieving significant improvements over previous LM-based RF MEMS switches. The improvement is attributed to use of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) as a new actuation mechanism, which allows design optimized for RF switching. A two-droplet design is devised to solve the biasing problem of the actuation electrode that would otherwise limit the performance of a single-droplet design. The switch design uses a microframe structure to accurately position the liquid-solid contact line while also absorbing variations in deposited LM volumes. By sliding the liquid-solid contact line electrostatically through EWOD, the switch demonstrates bounceless switching, low switch-on time (60 mus), and low power consumption (10 nJ per cycle).     

Frequency reconfigurable RF circuits using photoconducting switches

Designs for a frequency switchable dual‐band branch‐line coupler and a reconfigurable S‐band power amplifier input matching network with photoconducting switches are presented. Frequency switching is achieved by increasing the power of the laser applied to the highly resistive silicon wafer and changing the properties of silicon under optical illumination. The advantages of this approach are high‐speed switching, electromagnetic transparency (no interference), and thermal and electrical isolation between the device and the control circuit. A branch‐line coupler frequency shift of 35% and 10% has been achieved from all switches off to all switches on in lower (900 MHz) and upper (1800 MHz) frequency bands, respectively. Frequency switchable class AB power amplifier with silicon switch in the input matching circuit has obtained the frequency tuning range of 2.5–3.5 GHz with no significant loss in efficiency and linearity. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.     

MEMS capacitive series switch fabricated using PCB technology

In this article, an RF MEMS capacitive series switch fabricated using printed circuit processing techniques is discussed. Design, modeling, fabrication, and characterization of the CPW series switch are presented. An example CPW series capacitive switch with insertion loss less than 0.5 dB in the frequency range of 13–18 GHz and isolation better than 10 dB up to 18 GHz is discussed. The switch provides a minimum insertion loss of about 0.1 dB at the self‐resonance frequency of 16 GHz and a maximum isolation of about 42 dB at 1 GHz. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.     

18‐31 GHz GaN wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) using a 0.1 μm T‐gate high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process

GaN technology has attracted main attention towards its application to high‐power amplifier. Most recently, noise performance of GaN device has also won acceptance. Compared with GaAs low noise amplifier (LNA), GaN LNA has a unique superiority on power handling. In this work, we report a wideband Silicon‐substrate GaN MMIC LNA operating in 18‐31 GHz frequency range using a commercial 0.1 μm T‐Gate high electron mobility transistor process (OMMIC D01GH). The GaN MMIC LNA has an average noise figure of 1.43 dB over the band and a minimum value of 1.27 dB at 23.2 GHz, which can compete with GaAs and InP MMIC LNA. The small‐signal gain is between 22 and 25 dB across the band, the input and output return losses of the MMIC are less than ?10 dB. The P_1dB and OIP3 are at 17 dBm and 28 dBm level. The four‐stage MMIC is 2.3 × 1.0 mm² in area and consumes 280 mW DC power. Compared with GaAs and InP LNA, the GaN MMIC LNA in this work exhibits a comparative noise figure with higher linearity and power handling ability.     

A novel DMTL capacitive switch with electrostatic actuation MAM capacitors

A novel DMTL capacitive switch with electrostatic actuation metal–air–metal (MAM) capacitors is presented. The top board of MAM capacitors will be pulled down together with the switch bridge. It has higher isolation in down-state than DMTL capacitive switch and has lower insert loss and higher self-actuation RF power comparing with MEMS shunt capacitive switch. Two of the novel DMTL capacitive switches are designed for high isolation and high self-actuation RF power, respectively. The calculated result shows that both of the two novel switches have lower insert loss than the MEMS shunt capacitive switch. The self-actuation RF power of them are 4 and 2.4 times that of MEMS shunt capacitive switch, respectively, at the cost of ?6.23 and ?3.54?dB reduction in isolation (30?GHz).     

A compact omnidirectional dual‐circinal rectenna for 2.45 GHz wireless power transfer

A compact dual‐circinal rectenna with omnidirectional characteristic is designed for microwave wireless power transmission at 2.45 GHz. A novel dual‐circinal receiving antenna with the reflection coefficient of ?32.5 dB is proposed which is formed by expanding folded curves. By designing an impedance matching network with a 60 ° radial stub and a single stub, a rectifier is presented with the maximum efficiency of 55.6 % and the output dc voltage of 1.19 V under the input power of 0 dBm. Simulation and measurements have been carried out for the antenna and the rectifier. The measured results agree well with the simulated value. The results of rectenna experiment show that the maximum conversion efficiency is 51% at 2.45 GHz when the input power is 0 dBm. The proposed rectenna has the characteristics of compact size and omnidirectional harvesting which are advantageous in RF energy harvesting applications.     

A millimeter‐wave CMOS power amplifier design using high‐Q slow‐wave transmission lines

A three‐stage 60‐GHz power amplifier (PA) has been implemented in a 65 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. High‐quality‐factor slow‐wave coplanar waveguides (S‐CPW) were used for input, output and inter‐stage matching networks to improve the performance. Being biased for Class‐A operation, the PA exhibits a measured power gain G of 18.3 dB at the working frequency, with a 3‐dB bandwidth of 8.5 GHz. The measured 1‐dB output compression point (OCP_1dB) and the maximum saturated output power P_sat are 12 dBm and 14.2 dBm, respectively, with a DC power consumption of 156 mW under 1.2 V voltage supply. The measured peak power added efficiency PAE is 16%. The die area is 0.52 mm² (875 × 600 μm²) including all the pads, whereas the effective area is only 0.24 mm². In addition, the performance improvement of the PA in terms of G, OCP_1dB, P_sat, PAE and the figure of merit using S‐CPW instead of thin film microstrip have been demonstrated. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:99–109, 2016.     

Design and optimization of a tunable W‐band subharmonic cavity based Gunn diode oscillator using computer‐aided design technique

In this work, a systematic computer‐aided design technique is proposed to minimize the fabrication iteration for the design and development of W‐band subharmonic Gunn diode oscillator with wideband tunable bandwidth at W‐band. Gunn diode based single diode oscillator structure was divided into passive and active parts to facilitate the modeling of the component on appropriate simulation environment. Resonating structure and package of Gunn diode are modeled as passive circuit in high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). To satisfy the oscillator design equation, disc‐post resonating structure is tuned in HFSS and its S‐parameters are collaborated with the model of Gunn diode in advanced design system. Magnitude and phase of reflection coefficient (S11) is observed to ascertain the desired frequency of oscillation. Proper tuning of disc‐post structure is done on simulation platform, which reduces the fabrication complexity and cost as well. The measurement results validate the models designed using EM and circuit simulator. The measured maximum stable RF power without any fabrication iteration is 14.2 dBm. A tunable bandwidth of 4 GHz with power output ripple of ±1 dB is measured by using a movable backshort.     

Inductively‐loaded RF MEMS reconfigurable filters

This article presents an inductively loaded radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) reconfigurable filter with spurious suppression implemented using packaged metal‐contact switches. Both simulation and measurement results show a two‐state, two‐pole 5% filter with a tuning range of 17% from 1.06 GHz to 1.23 GHz, an insertion loss of 1.56–2.28 dB and return loss better than 13 dB over the tuning range. The spurious passband response in both states is suppressed below ?20 dB. The unloaded Q of the filter changes from 127 to 75 as the filter is tuned from 1.06 GHz to 1.23 GHz. The design and full‐wave simulation of a two‐bit RF MEMS tunable filter with inductively loaded resonators and monolithic metal‐contact MEMS switches is also presented to prove the capability of applying the inductive‐loading technique to multibit reconfigurable filters. The simulation results for a two‐bit reconfigurable filter show 2.5 times improvement in the tuning range compared with the two‐state reconfigurable filter due to lower parasitics associated with monolithic metal‐contact MEMS switches in the filter structure. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

Design of wideband microstrip power divider/combiner with input and output impedance matching for RF energy harvesting applications

Lately, it has been seen that wireless communication systems have been more developed and there has been a huge demand for multi‐spectral transactions. Using circuits for more than one function is a serious requirement in communication technology. Especially, it expected from RF output stages to show the same performance on more than one frequency. To that end, it is required to produce a solution with wideband designs. In this study, a novel power divider/combiner design with a layered conic line has been investigated for the RF energy harvesting applications. The center frequency was set at 2 GHz and concluded with three different designs. In each design, bandwidth and S parameter characteristics were compared according to the number of layers of the transmission, and it was observed that as the number of layers increases, the bandwidth also increases. According to the design result, triple layer Wilkinson power divider was selected to connect to Villard voltage doubler circuit. The Wilkinson power combiner circuit inputs were given between ?10 dBm and 5 dBm input power. As a result, when low input power was given, efficiency was observed about 70%.