A Compact, Active SiGe Power Divider With Multi-Octave Bandwidth

Abstract

This letter proposes a wideband active power divider, which realizes multi-octave bandwidth with positive, flat gain, and good isolation. By combining a single stage amplifier with artificial transmission lines and emitter-follower (EF) output stages, a broadband operational bandwidth (2.5-23.0 GHz) and flat gain response (8.8-11.8 dB) with a small chip size are achieved while maintaining good isolation ( $>$ 25 dB) between the output ports. The measured noise figures (NFs) of the two forward paths are lower than 9 dB, the output P1dB (OP1dB) is greater than −9 dBm and the output IP3 (OIP3) is greater than 0 dBm over the 3 dB bandwidth. The maximum amplitude and phase imbalances of the two output ports are 0.2 dB and 1.6 degrees, respectively. The core area of the active power divider is $0.62 \times 0.50$ mm $^{{\mathbf {2}}}$ . The active power divider consumes 20 mA from a 3.3 V DC supply.