A Simplified Vector-Sum Phase Shifter Topology With Low Noise Figure and High Voltage Gain

Abstract

An simplified vector-sum phase shifter (VSPS) topology is proposed in this article. The proposed VSPS topology employs only one 90° coupler to perform as both an I/Q generator and a vector summer. Compared with the literaturally reported VSPS, the proposed VSPS features a simpler topology and improved noise figure (NF) performance. Moreover, active baluns based on the self-calibration technique are employed to provide antiphase signals and improve the gain performance of the VSPS. For demonstration, a 24–30-GHz VSPS based on the proposed topology is implemented in the 65-nm CMOS process, exhibiting 3.5° rms phase error and 0.9-dB rms gain error. The average gain of the implemented VSPS is as high as 9 dB at the central frequency of 27 GHz. The NF ranges from 4.8 to 9 dB from 24 to 30 GHz, and the core chip size is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.36\times0.59$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .