SiGe BiCMOS Low-noise Amplifier Research Articles

7.2 mW CMOS low-noise amplifier with 17.3 dB gain and 7.7 dB NF for 76–77 GHz long-range and 77–81 GHz short-range automotive radars

A low-power and wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) for 76---77 GHz long-range and 77---81 GHz short-range automotive radars using 90 nm CMOS technology is reported. T-match technique is utilized to achieve simultaneously wideband input and output impedance matching, wideband power gain (S21) and wideband noise figure (NF). The LNA consumes 7.2 mW and achieves S11 better than ?10 dB for frequencies of 74.3---104.4 GHz. That is, the corresponding input matching bandwidth is 30.1 GHz. Additionally, high and flat S21 of 17.3 ± 1.5 dB is achieved for frequencies of 74.1---82.4 GHz, which means the corresponding 3-dB bandwidth is 8.3 GHz. Furthermore, the LNA achieves minimum NF of 7.4 dB at 81 GHz and excellent FOM (figure-of-merit) of 1.88 GHz/mW. To the authors' knowledge, the achieved FOM is one of the best results ever reported for a CMOS or SiGe BiCMOS LNA with operation frequency around 77 GHz.

9.99 mW 4.8 dB NF 57-81 GHz CMOS low-noise amplifier for 60 GHz WPAN system and 77 GHz automobile radar system

A low-power and wideband two-stage millimeter-wave low-noise amplifier (LNA) for 60 GHz wireless personal area network system and 77 GHz automotive radar system using standard 90 nm CMOS technology is reported. T-match technique is used to achieve simultaneously wideband input and output impedance matching, wideband power gain (S21), and wideband noise figure (NF). The LNA consumes 9.99 mW, achieving S11 better than −−10 dB for frequencies of 57.6–81.8 GHz, and S12 better than −−29.1 dB for frequencies of 10–110 GHz. Additionally, high and flat S21 of 11.2 ± 1.5 dB is achieved for frequencies of 57.9–80.4 GHz, which means the corresponding 3-dB bandwidth is 22.5 GHz. Furthermore, the LNA achieves minimum NF of 4.8 dB at 76 GHz and NF of 6.2 ± 1.4 dB for frequencies of 76–84 GHz, one of the best NF results ever reported for a CMOS or SiGe BiCMOS LNA with operation frequency around 77 GHz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:594–600, 2015

Packaging a $W$-Band Integrated Module With an Optimized Flip-Chip Interconnect on an Organic Substrate

This paper, for the first time, presents successful integration of a W-band antenna with an organically flip-chip packaged silicon-germanium (SiGe) low-noise amplifier (LNA). The successful integration requires an optimized flip-chip interconnect. The interconnect performance was optimized by modeling and characterizing the flip-chip transition on a low-loss liquid crystal polymer organic substrate. When the loss of coplanar waveguide (CPW) lines is included, an insertion loss of 0.6 dB per flip-chip-interconnect is measured. If the loss of CPW lines is de-embedded, 0.25 dB of insertion loss is observed. This kind of low-loss flip-chip interconnect is essential for good performance of W-band modules. The module, which we present in this paper, consists of an end-fire Yagi-Uda antenna integrated with an SiGe BiCMOS LNA. The module is 3 mm × 1.9 mm and consumes only 19.2 mW of dc power. We present passive and active E- and H-plane radiation pattern measurements at 87, 90, and 94 GHz. Passive and active antennas both showed a 10-dB bandwidth of 10 GHz. The peak gain of passive and active antennas was 5.2 dBi at 90 GHz and 21.2 dBi at 93 GHz, respectively. The measurements match well with the simulated results.

A novel low power UWB cascode SiGe BiCMOS LNA with current reuse and zero-pole cancellation

A low power cascode SiGe BiCMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) with current reuse and zero-pole cancellation is presented for ultra-wideband (UWB) application. The LNA is composed of cascode input stage and common emitter (CE) output stage with dual loop feedbacks. The novel cascode-CE current reuse topology replaces the traditional two stages topology so as to obtain low power consumption. The emitter degenerative inductor in input stage is adopted to achieve good input impedance matching and noise performance. The two poles are introduced by the emitter inductor, which will degrade the gain performance, are cancelled by the dual loop feedbacks of the resistance-inductor (RL) shunt–shunt feedback and resistance-capacitor (RC) series–series feedback in the output stage. Meanwhile, output impedance matching is also achieved. Based on TSMC 0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS process, the topology and chip layout of the proposed LNA are designed and post-simulated. The LNA achieves the noise figure of 2.3–4.1dB, gain of 18.9–20.2dB, gain flatness of ±0.65dB, input third order intercept point (IIP3) of −7dBm at 6GHz, exhibits less than 16ps of group delay variation, good input and output impedances matching, and unconditionally stable over the whole band. The power consumption is only 18mW.

Interconnection loss from substrate effects on LNA performance and design accuracy

AbstractA 5.2 GHz 0.18‐μm SiGe BiCMOS low noise amplifier is implemented with guided‐wave interconnections in this letter. These interconnections reduce the substrate skin and proximity effects and hence are suitable for high frequency circuits. The guided interconnections bring 1.7‐dB gain and 0.55‐dB noise figure enhancement for the low noise amplifier. In addition, accurate and simple design methodology relies on the complete models of components and interconnections when the postsimulation from the rc extraction is not enough for the high frequency circuit design. The measurement results give excellent agreements with the schematic simulation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 144–146, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23968