A wideband high-efficiency 79–97 GHz SiGe linear power amplifier with ≫ 90 mW output

Abstract

A fully-integrated W-band power amplifier in a commercially-available 0.13 µm silicon germanium technology (max f t = 200 GHz) is presented. The wideband, linear design achieves a maximum small-signal gain of 14.5 dB at 86 GHz with a fractional 3dB-bandwidth of 20% (79 to 97 GHz). The wideband performance extends to the largesignal characteristics: at 90 GHz, the balanced PA achieves an output P 1dB of 18.8 dBm (76 mW) and a saturated output power P sat of 19.6 dBm (91 mW) with a peak PAE of 15.4%. The chip is 2.4 mm 2 and consumes a maximum quiescent current of 244 mA from a 1.7 to 2.3 V supply. All matching networks, bias circuits, and wideband capacitor bypass arrays are fully integrated on chip. To our knowledge, this is the highest power, most efficient silicon W-band amplifier todate.Index Terms -Power amplifier (PA), linear power amplifier, millimeter-wave (mmW) integrated circuits, silicon germanium (SiGe) HBT, W-band.

A 91 to 110-GHz tapered constructive wave power amplifier in a 0.12µm SiGe BiCMOS process

“…While [4] demonstrate the highest P sat at W-band at 17.6 dBm, this design occupies an area of 2.4mm 2 . The proposed amplifier suggests comparable efficiency at a lower output power and a much smaller circuit area.…”

“…While [4] & [2] use a total area of 80 µm and 72 µm transistor size, respectively, Figure 9. Measured PAE and OP 1dB of the W-band TCWPA the emitter width is only 2.5µm.…”

“…Recent work in SiGe has demonstrated the capability of high-speed HBT devices to generate significant millimeter wave power for automotive radar and communications applications [1], [2], [3], [4]. W-band applications for imaging and point-to-point communication could offer new platforms for SiGe transceivers where the fully integrated solutions offer advantages over III-V technologies [4].…”

A 112–134 GHz SiGe amplifier with peak output power of 120 mW

“…The Vdd stubs connected at the collector nodes of power transistors are followed by dual 320 fF MIM capacitors which are operating close to self resonance and providing a very low impedance (∼1 Ω) at 120 GHz. 50 Ω quarter-wavelength microstrip lines at the collector nodes of Q3 and Q4 are used as RF chock [7], which present an open circuit (> 500 Ω) to the low impedance collector nodes (∼10 Ω) and ease the implementation of matching network between Q3 and Q4 and output matching. The input and output ports of the power amplifier are matched to 50 Ω for the further integration in the 8-way power combining PA. Fig.…”

A SiGe Multiplier Array With Output Power of 5–8 dBm at 200–230 GHz

“…The stubs are followed by dual 200-fF MIM capacitors, which are operating close to self-resonance and providing a very low impedance (∼1 ) at 230-270 GHz. The stubs + MIM capacitors present an open circuit (>200 ) to the low-impedance collector node (2 − j 2.7 ), and are used as RF chocks, which eases the implementation of the output matching network [42]. Fig.…”