Design of a 4.2-5.4 GHz differential LC VCO using 0.35 mu m SiGeBiCMOS technology for IEEE 802.11a applications

In this paper, a 4.2-5.4 GHz, -Gm LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) for IEEE 802.11a standard is presented. The circuit is designed with AMS 0.35 mu m SiGe BiCMOS process that includes high-speed SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs). According to post-layout simulation results, phase noise is -110.7 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 5.4 GHz carrier frequency and -113.4 dBc/Hz from 4.2 GHz carrier frequency. A linear, 1200 MHz tuning range is obtained from the simulations, utilizing accumulation-mode varactors. Phase noise was also found to be relatively low because of taking advantage of differential tuning concept. Output power of the fundamental frequency changes between 4.8 dBm and 5.5 dBm depending on the tuning voltage. Based on the simulation results, the circuit draws 2 mA without buffers and 14.5 mA from 2.5 V supply including buffer circuits leading to a total power dissipation of 36.25 mW. The circuit layout occupies an area of 0.6 mm(2) on Si substrate, including DC and RF pads

A Spectral-Scanning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Transceiver

An integrated spectral-scanning nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) transceiver is implemented in a 0.12 mum SiGe BiCMOS process. The MRI transmitter and receiver circuitry is designed specifically for small-scale surface MRI diagnostics applications where creating low (below 1 T) and inhomogeneous magnetic field is more practical. The operation frequency for magnetic resonance detection and analysis is tunable from 1 kHz to 37 MHz, corresponding to 0-0.9 T magnetization for ^1H (hydrogen). The concurrent measurement bandwidth is approximately one frequency octave. The chip can also be used for conventional narrowband nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy from 1 kHz up to 250 MHz. This integrated transceiver consists of both the magnetic resonance transmitter which generates the required excitation pulses for the magnetic dipole excitation, and the receiver which recovers the responses of the dipoles

SiGe HBT X-Band LNAs for Ultra-Low-Noise Cryogenic Receivers

We report results on the cryogenic operation of two different monolithic X-band silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor low noise amplifiers (LNAs) implemented in a commercially-available 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS platform. These SiGe LNAs exhibit a dramatic reduction in noise temperature with cooling, yielding Teff of less than 21 K (0.3 dB noise figure) across X-band at a 15 K operating temperature. To the authors’ knowledge, these SiGe LNAs exhibit the lowest broadband noise of any Si-based LNA reported to date

A high power handling capability CMOS T/R switch for x-band phased array antenna systems

This paper presents a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) transmit/receive (T/R) switch fabricated in 0.25-μm SiGe BiCMOS process for X-Band (8 – 12 GHz) phased array radar applications. The switch is based on series-shunt topology with combination of techniques to improve insertion loss (IL), isolation and power handling capability (P1dB). These techniques include optimization of transistor widths for lower insertion loss and parallel resonance technique to improve isolation. In addition, DC biasing of input and output ports, on-chip impedance transformation networks (ITN) and resistive body-floating are used to improve P1dB of the switch. All these design techniques resulted in a measured IL of 3.6 dB, isolation of 30.8 dB and P1dB of 28.2 dBm at 10 GHz. The return losses at both input and output ports are better than 16 dB from 8 to 12 GHz. To our knowledge, this work presents the highest P1dB at X-Band compared to other reported single-ended CMOS T/R switches in the literature

A Breakdown Voltage Multiplier for High Voltage Swing Drivers

A novel breakdown voltage (BV) multiplier is introduced that makes it possible to generate high output voltage swings using transistors with low breakdown voltages. The timing analysis of the stage is used to optimize its dynamic response. A 10 Gb/s optical modulator driver with a differential output voltage swing of 8 V on a 50 Ω load was implemented in a SiGe BiCMOS process. It uses the BV-Doubler topology to achieve output swings twice the collector–emitter breakdown voltage without stressing any single transistor

A Spectral-Scanning Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Integrated System

An integrated spectral-scanning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique is implemented in a 0.12μm SiGe BiCMOS process. This system is designed for small-scale MRI applications with non-uniform and low magnetic fields. The system is capable of generating customized magnetic resonance (MR) excitation signals, and also recovering the MR response using a coherent direct conversion receiver. The operation frequency is tunable from DC to 37MHz for wide-band MRI and up to 250MHz for narrow-band MR spectroscopy

A 0.18 μm CMOS low noise, highly linear continuous-time seventh-order elliptic low-pass filter

This paper presents a fast procedure for the system-level evaluation of noise and distortion in continuous-time integrated filters. The presented approach is based on Volterra's series theory and matrix algebra manipulation. This procedure has been integrated in a constrained optimization routine to improve the dynamic range of the filter while keeping the area and power consumption at a minimum. The proposed approach is demonstrated with the design, from system- to physical-level, of a seventh-order low-pass continuous-time elliptic filter for a high-performance broadband power-line communication receiver. The filter shows a nominal cut-off frequency of fc = 34MHz, less than 1dB ripple in the pass-band, and a maximum stop-band rejection of 65dB. Additionally, the filter features 12dB programmable boost in the pass-band to counteract high frequency components attenuation. Taking into account its wideband transfer characteristic, the filter has been implemented using G m-C techniques. The basic building block of its structure, the transconductor, uses a source degeneration topology with local feedback for linearity improving and shows a worst-case intermodulation distortion of -70 dB for two tones close to the passband edge, separated by 1MHz, with 70mV of amplitude. The filter combines very low noise (peak root spectral noise density below 56nV/√Hz) and high linearity (more than 64dB of MTPR for a DMT signal of 0.5Vpp amplitude) properties. The filter has been designed in a 0.18μm CMOS technology and it is compliant with industrial operation conditions (-40 to 85°C temperature variation and ±5% power supply deviation). The filter occupies 13mm2 and exhibits a typical power consumption of 450 mW from a 1.8V voltage supply.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2003-0235

Integrated phased array systems in silicon

Silicon offers a new set of possibilities and challenges for RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave applications. While the high cutoff frequencies of the SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors and the ever-shrinking feature sizes of MOSFETs hold a lot of promise, new design techniques need to be devised to deal with the realities of these technologies, such as low breakdown voltages, lossy substrates, low-Q passives, long interconnect parasitics, and high-frequency coupling issues. As an example of complete system integration in silicon, this paper presents the first fully integrated 24-GHz eight-element phased array receiver in 0.18-μm silicon-germanium and the first fully integrated 24-GHz four-element phased array transmitter with integrated power amplifiers in 0.18-μm CMOS. The transmitter and receiver are capable of beam forming and can be used for communication, ranging, positioning, and sensing applications