Mask Programmable CMOS Transistor Arrays for Wideband RF Integrated Circuits

A mask programmable technology to implement RF and microwave integrated circuits using an array of standard 90-nm CMOS transistors is presented. Using this technology, three wideband amplifiers with more than 15-dB forward transmission gain operating in different frequency bands inside a 4-22-GHz range are implemented. The amplifiers achieve high gain-bandwidth products (79-96 GHz) despite their standard multistage designs. These amplifiers are based on an identical transistor array interconnected with application specific coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines and on-chip capacitors and resistors. CPW lines are implemented using a one-metal-layer post-processing technology over a thick Parylene-N (15 mum ) dielectric layer that enables very low loss lines (~0.6 dB/mm at 20 GHz) and high-performance CMOS amplifiers. The proposed integration approach has the potential for implementing cost-efficient and high-performance RF and microwave circuits with a short turnaround time

Design of a tunable multi-band differential LC VCO using 0.35 mu m SiGe BiCMOS technology for multi-standard wireless communication systems

In this paper, an integrated 2.2-5.7GHz multi-band differential LC VCO for multi-standard wireless communication systems was designed utilizing 0.35 mu m SiGe BiCMOS technology. The topology, which combines the switching inductors and capacitors together in the same circuit, is a novel approach for wideband VCOs. Based on the post-layout simulation results, the VCO can be tuned using a DC voltage of 0 to 3.3 V for 5 different frequency bands (2.27-2.51 GHz, 2.48-2.78 GHz, 3.22-3.53 GHz, 3.48-3.91 GHz and 4.528-5.7 GHz) with a maximum bandwidth of 1.36 GHz and a minimum bandwidth of 300 MHz. The designed and simulated VCO can generate a differential output power between 0.992 and -6.087 dBm with an average power consumption of 44.21 mW including the buffers. The average second and third harmonics level were obtained as -37.21 and -47.6 dBm, respectively. The phase noise between -110.45 and -122.5 dBc/Hz, that was simulated at 1 MHz offset, can be obtained through the frequency of interest. Additionally, the figure of merit (FOM), that includes all important parameters such as the phase noise, the power consumption and the ratio of the operating frequency to the offset frequency, is between -176.48 and -181.16 and comparable or better than the ones with the other current VCOs. The main advantage of this study in comparison with the other VCOs, is covering 5 frequency bands starting from 2.27 up to 5.76 GHz without FOM and area abandonment. Output power of the fundamental frequency changes between -6.087 and 0.992 dBm, depending on the bias conditions (operating bands). Based on the post-layout simulation results, the core VCO circuit draws a current between 2.4-6.3 mA and between 11.4 and 15.3 mA with the buffer circuit from 3.3 V supply. The circuit occupies an area of 1.477 mm(2) on Si substrate, including DC, digital and RF pads

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-Ω input and output matching and fabricated in a 0.12-µm SiGe BiCMOS process is presented. The PA achieves a peak power gain of 17 dB and a maximum single-ended output power of 17.5 dBm 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 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

Low-Voltage High-Linearity Wideband Current Differencing Transconductance Amplifier and Its Application on Current-Mode Active Filter

A low-voltage high-linearity wideband current differencing transconductance amplifier (CDTA) is presented in this paper. The CDTA consists of a current differencing circuit and a cross-coupling transconductance circuit. The PSPICE simulations of the proposed CDTA show a good performance: -3dB frequency bandwith is about 900 MHz, low power consumption is 2.48 mW, input current linear range is ±100 µA and low current-input resistance is less than 20 Ω, high current-output resistance is more than 3 MΩ. PSpice simulations for a current-mode universal filter and a proposed high-order filter are also conducted, and the results verify the validity of the proposed CDTA

Microwave Characteristics of an Independently Biased 3-stack InGaP/GaAs HBT Configuration

This paper investigates various important microwave characteristics of an independently biased 3-stack InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chip at both small-signal and large-signal operation. By taking the advantage of the independently biased functionality, bias condition for individual transistor can be adjusted flexibly, resulting in the ability of independent control for both small-signal and large-signal performances. It was found that at small-signal operation stability and isolation characteristics of the proposed configuration can be significantly improved by controlling bias condition of the second-stage and the third-stage transistors while at large-signal operation its linearity and power gain can be improved through controlling the bias condition of the first-stage and the third-stage transistors. To demonstrate the benefits of using such an independently biased configuration, a measured optimum large-signal performance at an operation frequency of 1.6 GHz under an optimum bias condition for the high gain, low distortion were obtained as: PAE = 23.5 %, Pout = 12 dBm; Gain = 32.6 dB at IMD3 = -35 dBc. Moreover, to demonstrate the superior advantage of the proposed configuration, its small-signal and large-signal performance were also compared to that of a single stage common-emitter, a conventional 2-stack, an independently biased 2-stack and a conventional 3-stack configuration. The compared results showed that the independently biased 3-stack is the best candidate among the configurations for various wireless communications applications

The Experimental UWB Link

The experimental results from simple ultra wideband link are presented. The UWB link consisting of typical broadband microwave circuits built of commercially available components is able to send and detect unmodulated broadband electrical pulses with 20 MHz pulse repetition frequency. The system operates with approximately 60% of fractional bandwidth in 4GHz band with spectral density of -140dBW/Hz