An Integrated Subharmonic Coupled-Oscillator Scheme for a 60-GHz Phased-Array Transmitter

This paper describes the design of an integrated coupled-oscillator array in SiGe for millimeter-wave applications. The design focuses on a scalable radio architecture where multiple dies are tiled to form larger arrays. A 2 × 2 oscillator array for a 60-GHz transmitter is fabricated with integrated power amplifiers and on-chip antennas. To lock between multiple dies, an injection-locking scheme appropriate for wire-bond interconnects is described. The 2 × 2 array demonstrates a 200–MHz locking range and 1 × 4 array formed by two adjacent chips has a 60-MHz locking range. The phase noise of the coupled oscillators is below 100 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset when locked to an external reference. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the highest frequency demonstration of coupled oscillators fabricated in a conventional silicon integrated-circuit process

A 77-GHz Phased-Array Transceiver With On-Chip Antennas in Silicon: Receiver and Antennas

In this paper, we present the receiver and the on-chip antenna sections of a fully integrated 77-GHz four-element phased-array transceiver with on-chip antennas in silicon. The receiver section of the chip includes the complete down-conversion path comprising low-noise amplifier (LNA), frequency synthesizer, phase rotators, combining amplifiers, and on-chip dipole antennas. The signal combining is performed using a novel distributed active combining amplifier at an IF of 26 GHz. In the LO path, the output of the 52-GHz VCO is routed to different elements and can be phase shifted locally by the phase rotators. A silicon lens on the backside is used to reduce the loss due to the surface-wave power of the silicon substrate. Our measurements show a single-element LNA gain of 23 dB and a noise figure of 6.0 dB. Each of the four receive paths has a gain of 37 dB and a noise figure of 8.0 dB. Each on-chip antenna has a gain of +2 dBi

Realization of a single-chip, SiGe:C-based power amplifier for multi-band WiMAX applications

A fully-integrated Multi-Band PA using 0.25 μm SiGe:C process with an output power of above 25 dBm is presented. The behaviour of the amplifier has been optimized for multi-band operation covering, 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz and 5.4 GHz (UWB-WiMAX) frequency bands for higher 1-dB compression point and efficiency. Multi-band operation is achieved using multi-stage topology. Parasitic components of active devices are also used as matching components, in turn decreasing the number of matching component. Measurement results of the 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 multi-stage 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

A fully integrated 24-GHz phased-array transmitter in CMOS

This paper presents the first fully integrated 24-GHz phased-array transmitter designed using 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS transistors. The four-element array includes four on-chip CMOS power amplifiers, with outputs matched to 50 /spl Omega/, that are each capable of generating up to 14.5 dBm of output power at 24 GHz. The heterodyne transmitter has a two-step quadrature up-conversion architecture with local oscillator (LO) frequencies of 4.8 and 19.2 GHz, which are generated by an on-chip frequency synthesizer. Four-bit LO path phase shifting is implemented in each element at 19.2 GHz, and the transmitter achieves a peak-to-null ratio of 23 dB with raw beam-steering resolution of 7/spl deg/ for radiation normal to the array. The transmitter can support data rates of 500 Mb/s on each channel (with BPSK modulation) and occupies 6.8 mm /spl times/ 2.1 mm of die area

Terahertz Microstrip Elevated Stack Antenna Technology on GaN-on-Low Resistivity Silicon Substrates for TMIC

In this paper we demonstrate a THz microstrip stack antenna on GaN-on-low resistivity silicon substrates (ρ < 40 Ω.cm). To reduce losses caused by the substrate and to enhance performance of the integrated antenna at THz frequencies, the driven patch is shielded by silicon nitride and gold in addition to a layer of benzocyclobutene (BCB). A second circular patch is elevated in air using gold posts, making this design a stack configuration. The demonstrated antenna shows a measured resonance frequency in agreement with the modeling at 0.27 THz and a measured S11 as low as −18 dB was obtained. A directivity, gain and radiation efficiency of 8.3 dB, 3.4 dB, and 32% respectively was exhibited from the 3D EM model. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstrated THz integrated microstrip stack antenna for TMIC (THz Monolithic Integrated Circuits) technology; the developed technology is suitable for high performance III-V material on low resistivity/high dielectric substrates

An active wearable dual-band antenna for GPS and Iridium satellite phone deployed in a rescue worker garment

An active wearable dual-band circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna for Global Positioning System and Iridium satellite phone applications is presented. It is constructed using flexible foam and fabric substrates, combined with copper-on-polyimide film conductors. A low-noise amplifier chip is integrated directly underneath the antenna patch. The antenna's performance is examined under bending and on-body conditions. The active antenna gain is higher than 25 dBi and the 3dB axial ratio bandwidth exceeds 183 MHz in free-space conditions. The antenna performance is robust to bending and on-body placement

Channel Characterization for Chip-scale Wireless Communications within Computing Packages

Wireless Network-on-Chip (WNoC) appears as a promising alternative to conventional interconnect fabrics for chip-scale communications. WNoC takes advantage of an overlaid network composed by a set of millimeter-wave antennas to reduce latency and increase throughput in the communication between cores. Similarly, wireless inter-chip communication has been also proposed to improve the information transfer between processors, memory, and accelerators in multi-chip settings. However, the wireless channel remains largely unknown in both scenarios, especially in the presence of realistic chip packages. This work addresses the issue by accurately modeling flip-chip packages and investigating the propagation both its interior and its surroundings. Through parametric studies, package configurations that minimize path loss are obtained and the trade-offs observed when applying such optimizations are discussed. Single-chip and multi-chip architectures are compared in terms of the path loss exponent, confirming that the amount of bulk silicon found in the pathway between transmitter and receiver is the main determinant of losses.Comment: To be presented 12th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Networks-on-Chip (NOCS 2018); Torino, Italy; October 201

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