A 200 MHz 4.8 mW 3 V Fully Differential CMOS Sample-and-Hold Circuit with Low Hold Pedestal

Wide frequency bandwidth has been internationally allocated for unlicensed operation around the oxygen absorption frequency at 60 GHz. A power amplifier and a low noise amplifier are presented as building blocks for a T/R-unit at this frequency. The fabrication technology was a commercially available 0.15 m gallium arsenide (GaAs) process featuring pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (PHEMT). Using on-wafer tests, we measured a gain of 13.4 dB and a +17 dBm output compression point for the power amplifier at 60 GHz centre frequency when the MMIC was biased to 3 volts V_dd. At the same frequency, the low noise amplifier exhibited 24 dB of gain with a 3.5 dB noise figure. The AM/AM and AM/PM characteristics of the power amplifier chip were obtained from the large-signal S-parameter measurement data. Furthermore, the power amplifier was assembled in a split block package, which had a WR-15 waveguide interface in input and output. The measured results show a 12.5 dB small-signal gain and better than 8 dB return losses in input and output for the packaged power amplifier.Mikko Kärkkäinen received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, in 2000, and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Electronic Circuit Design Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology. He is interested in millimetre wave circuit design.Mikko Varonen received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, in 2002. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the Electronic Circuit Design Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology. His research interests involve millimetre-wave integrated circuits.Pekka Kangaslahti received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, in 1992 and 1999, respectively. Since 1999 he has been a visiting scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA. His research interests include nonlinear microwave and millimetre wave monolithic circuits, especially for signal generation in telecommunication and radar applications.Kari A. I. Halonen was born in Helsinki, Finland, on May 23, 1958. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, in 1982, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Heverlee, Belgium, in 1987.From 1982 to 1984 he was employed as assistant at Helsinki University of Technology and as research assistant at the Technical Research Center of Finland. From 1984 to 1987 he was a research assistant at the E.S.A.T. Laboratory of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, enjoying also a temporary grant of the Academy of Finland. Since 1988 he has been with the Electronic Circuit Design Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, as senior assistant (1988–1990), and the director of the Integrated Circuit Design Unit of the Microelectronics Center (1990–1993). He was on leave of absence the academic year 1992–93, acting as R&D manager in Fincitec Inc., Finland. From 1993 to 1996 he has been an associate professor, and since 1997 a full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, Helsinki University of Technology. He became the Head of Electronic Circuit Design Laboratory year 1998. From 1997 to 1999 he was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I. He has been a guest editor for IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits and the Technical Program Committee Chairman for European Solid-State Circuits Conference year 2000. He has been awarded the Beatrice Winner Award in ISSCC02 Conference year 2002.