A 6-bit vector-sum phase shifter with a decoder based control circuit for x-band phased-arrays

This letter presents a 6-bit vector-sum phase shifter with a novel control circuitry for X-band phased-arrays using a 0.25-m SiGe BiCMOS technology. A balanced active balun and highly accurate I/Q network are employed to generate the reference in-phase and quadrature vectors. The desired phase is synthesized by modulating and summing the generated reference vectors using current steering VGAs that are controlled by a decoder based control circuit. The phase shifter resulted in a measured RMS phase error <2.8 between 9.6-11.7 GHz and <5.6 between 8.2-12 GHz, achieving 6-bit phase resolution. The chip size is 1.870.88 mm2, excluding pads. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a digitally controlled 6-bit vector-sum phase shifter for X-band

High responsivity power detectors for W/D-bands passive imaging systems in 0.13 mu m SiGe BiCMOS technology

This paper presents the design, implementation and measurement results of power detectors (PDs) operating at W-band and D-band. Two detectors are designed and fabricated in 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The measured minimum NEPs are 0.43 and 4.2 pW/Hz 1/2 , and the peak responsivities are 772 and 132 kV/W for the W-band and D-band power detectors, respectively. Both the PDs have wideband input matching to improve the performance over the entire bandwidth and occupy less than 0.37 mm 2 of area. The fabricated chips demonstrate the state-of-the-art responsivity performance to be utilized in W/Dbands radiometer systems

Low-noise amplifiers for w-band and d-band passive imaging systems in SiGe BiCMOS technology

In this paper, two wideband and low power mmwave LNAs implemented in a 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology are presented. The W-band LNA has 22.3 dB peak gain, 17 GHz 3-dB bandwidth (BW) and 8 mW of power consumption whereas the D-Band LNA achieves 25.3 dB peak gain, 44 GHz 3-dB BW while consuming 30 mW of power. Input and output of the LNAs are wideband matched to 50 Ω in their respective frequency bands. Using the measured gains, the effective noise bandwidths are calculated to be 33.8 GHz for the W-band and 58.9 GHz for the Dband LNAs. Measurement results indicate that the LNAs are suitable for low power and wideband radiometer systems

Front-end blocks of a w-band Dicke radiometer in SiGe BiCMOS technology

In this paper, design methodology and measurement results of W-Band Dicke radiometer blocks are presented. The Dicke radiometer blocks are implemented in IHPs 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. All the implemented blocks, namely the SPDT switch, LNA and the power detector demonstrate the state of the art performance at W-Band. The SPDT has a measured IL of 1.8 dB and 20 dB isolation. The LNA achieves a peak gain of 22.3 dB and 4.2 dB NF and the PD has a NEP better than 0.5 pW/Hz. To achieve the minimum NETD, all the blocks are designed to be as wideband as possible. Using the measurement and simulation results, the achievable NETD of the radiometer is calculated to be better than 0.5 K