A low-power mm-wave reduced-noise active balun with low-phase and low-gain error using common-gate shorting and DeQ inductor technique

Abstract

This paper presents a low-power low-phase (gain) error (PE/GE) mm-wave active balun, using a common-source common-source (CS-CS) pair and cascode transistors with common-gate-shorting and deQ inductor (CGS-deQ) technique for error compensation. An inductor-capacitance-inductor T-network reduces (increases) the noise figure (gain) by about 3-dB (1.5-dB). Using a 180-nm CMOS technology with 1.8-V supply voltage, the balun achieves an area of 0.348 mm2, including the pads. The electromagnetic (EM) post-layout simulations show a maximum single-ended voltage gain of 18.23-dB, an IIP3 (IIP2) of −3.53-dBm (88.66-dBm) at the center frequency of 35-GHz, a PE (GE) under 1° (0.16-dB), and a noise figure between 5.9–6.9-dB over a 3-dB bandwidth from 33 to 37-GHz, with 6.9-mW power consumption. The proposed balun is compared to conventional common-gate common-source and CS-CS structure with/without CGS-deQ inductor technique for phase/gain error correction. Additionally, it is shown that this technique is insensitive to process-voltage-temperature (PVT) variations. The balun can also provide accurate differential signals for low RF frequencies.