Abstract
A 6-bit Ku band digital step attenuator with low phase variation is presented in this paper. The attenuator is designed with 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS process technology using triple well isolation N-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (TWNMOS) and through-silicon-via (TSV). TWNMOS is mainly used to improve the performance of switches and reduce the insertion loss (IL). TSV is utilized to provide approximately ideal global current ground plane with low impedance for the attenuator. In addition, substrate floating technique and new capacitance compensation technique are adopted in the attenuator to improve the linearity and decrease the phase variation. The measured results show that the attenuator IL is 6.99–9.33 dB; the maximum relative attenuation is 31.87–30.31 dB with 0.5-dB step (64 states), the root mean square (RMS) for the amplitude error is 0.58–0.36 dB and the phase error RMS is 2.06–3.46° in the 12–17 GHz frequency range. The total chip area is 1 × 0.9 mm2.
Highlights
The attenuator is one of the key components of modern communications. It is widely used in the transmitter/receiver (T/R) module of phased array radar system [1,2], and its main function is to achieve amplitude control
Compared with the X-type attenuator [3] and variable gain amplifier (VGA) [4,5], the passive digital step attenuator has the advantages of low power consumption, high linearity, wide frequency band and low temperature drift
Due to the relative attenuation signal paths across the transmission lines have no series switches, this topology has the advantage of low insertion loss (IL)
Summary
The attenuator is one of the key components of modern communications. It is widely used in the transmitter/receiver (T/R) module of phased array radar system [1,2], and its main function is to achieve amplitude control. Switched path attenuators topology use single-pole-double-throw (SPDT) switches to control the signal between reference thru line path and the resistive attenuation network path. This topology exhibits low phase variation, but has high insertion loss and large chip area, so it is not suitable for multi-bit CMOS digital step attenuator. Due to the relative attenuation signal paths across the transmission lines have no series switches, this topology has the advantage of low IL. Switched T/Pi attenuators topology is composed by the resistor attenuation network and series shunt single-pole-single-throw (SPST) switches. 6-bit CMOS resolution, large and lowlow phase change, this paperpaper proposed a 6-bitaCMOS digital digital step attenuator using switched.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
