A Q-band (40–45 GHz) 16-element phased-array transmitter in 0.18-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology

A 16-element phased-array transmitter based on 4-bit RF phase shifters is designed in 0.18-mum SiGe BiCMOS technology for Q-band applications. The phased-array shows 12.5plusmn1.5 dB of power gain per channel at 42.5 GHz for all phase states and the 3-dB gain bandwidth is 40-45.6 GHz. The input and output return loss is less than -10 dB at 37.5-50 GHz. The transmitter also results in les8.8deg of RMS phase error and les1.2 dB of RMS gain error for all phase states at 30-50 GHz. The maximum saturated output power is -2.5plusmn1.5 dBm per channel at 42.5 GHz. The RMS gain variation and RMS phase mismatch between all 16 channels is les0.5 dB and les4.5deg, respectively. The chip consumes 720 mA from a 5 V supply voltage and overall chip size is 2.6times3.2 mm2. To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of a 16-element phased array on a silicon chip with the RF phase shifting architecture at any frequency.

[1]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  0.13-$\mu$m CMOS Phase Shifters for X-, Ku-, and K-Band Phased Arrays , 2007, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[2]  E. L. Holzman,et al.  Beamformer architectures for active phased-array radar antennas , 1999 .

[3]  Xiang Guan,et al.  A fully integrated 24-GHz eight-element phased-array receiver in silicon , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  An X- and Ku-Band 8-Element Linear Phased Array Receiver , 2007, 2007 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference.

[5]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A W-band dielectric-lens-based integrated monopulse radar receiver , 1998, 1998 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (Cat. No.98CH36192).